Every Child Matters: Change for Children Building a world-class workforce for children and young people David N Jones Childrens Services Improvement Adviser.

Every Child Matters: Change for Children

Building a world-class workforce for children and young people

David N Jones

Children’s Services Improvement Adviser [Policy]

I

Green Paper and Next Steps proposed whole system reform of children’s services with the child at the centre.

Vision:

Every Child Matters:Change for Children Programme

• Improved outcomes for children and young people • Focus on opportunities for all and narrowing gaps• Support for parents, carers and families• Shift to prevention, early identification and intervention • Integrated and personalised services

Children’s workforce strategy

A world-class children’s workforce that:

• is competent and confident;

• people aspire to be part of and want to remain in – where they can develop their skills and build satisfying and rewarding careers; and

• parents, carers, children and young people trust and respect.

The Challenges

• Recruiting more people into the children’s workforce

• Developing and retaining more people within the children’s workforce

• Strengthening inter-agency and multi-disciplinary working and workforce re-modelling

• Promoting stronger leadership, management and supervision

Responses• Widespread support for the vision and ambition, with some

suggestion the we need to enhance the focus on safeguarding;

• Endorsement of the overall policy direction and the need for mutually supportive national and local actions, with a clear call for on-going Government leadership and drive;

• Stress on the importance of improving front-line practice and call for better identification and sharing of emerging child-focussed multi-agency practice;

• Some fairly significant anxieties about the impact differences in pay, terms and conditions are having on recruitment, retention and the creation of multi-agency solutions.

Partnership Principles• Vision shared• Value grounded• Task focused• Self confident – own role and contribution• Receptive – ask, listen, learn• Respectful – re-evaluate & change• User centred – consult and reflect

Joint Reviews ofLocal AuthoritySocial Services

People need PeopleReleasing the potential of

people working in

social services

David N Jones

Good Relationships

• Consistency and Fairness

• Acceptance and Respect

• Integrity and Honesty

• Reliability and Trustworthiness

• Empathy and Understanding

E

R

C

A

Source: Joint Reviews

Next steps: two principles

• Service reform first

• Help the rest up to the standard of the best

Core propositions• An integrated qualifications framework

• Early Years: professionals; graduate leadership of full day-care settings; and develop wider early years workforce

• Options for Excellence: improve quality of social work practice; increase supply of qualified social workers; and develop wider social care workforce

• Championing Children: shared set of skills, knowledge and behaviours for those leading multi-agency settings

Core propositions 2• Strengthening multi-agency working: Lead Professional

role; and improved common processes like IS and CAF

• Local workforce strategies to support delivery of CYYPs

• Children’s Workforce Development Council and Children’s Workforce Network

• Partnership to explore big workforce issues that could inhibit service reform, such as pay and conditions

CollaborationWithin and between children’s trusts on:

• Service reform: sharing and learning from best practice; joint development / commissioning of new roles and services; protocols to maintain standards for children and families moving between services.

• Workforce reform: planning and recruitment; training, development and relationship with LSC, FE and HE; exchanges, secondments and career development; pay and conditions?

• Involvement of children and young people.

• Strategic partnerships with private and voluntary sectors.

One thought…How might it work – or not work – in the future?

School nurses

• With children’s trusts and commissioning a patient-led NHS and schools as independent institutions

• Who plans?

• Who pays?

• Who employs?

• Who supervises?