Walsall Children’s Partnership Integrated Children’s Workforce Bookshelf Strategy December 2009 to March 2013 Name Email Children's Partnership Champion Denise Faulconbridge Denise.faulconbridge@walsallcs.serco.com 01922 686200 Core Lead Darrell Harman harmand@walsall.gov.uk 01922 652701 Lead Officer Andy Stewart stewarta@walsall.gov.uk 01922 658365 Date Strategy approved by Senior Leadership Team November 2009 February 2012 Version 1 Review Date Phone March 2013 Page 1 Scope of the Strategy This strategy demonstrates that Walsall Children’s Partnership is committed to developing and promoting people working better to provide better services across the workforce. The partnership will operate in such a way as to promote the safety and welfare of children and young people. It will implement sound safeguarding practices and procedures as appropriate and always adhere to the Walsall Safeguarding Children’s Board Child Protection Procedures. This will lead to improved service delivery to Children, Young People and their families / carers and improved outcomes. Relationship to other plans or strategies This strategy relates to the following internal plans and strategies: Walsall Council Working Smarter Programme The council has embarked on an ambitious programme of change called ‘Working Smarter’. The purpose of working smarter is to refocus on customer need and change the way we deliver services. The main objectives of this programme are to take out waste and spend less, improve customer service and change the way we do business. Walsall Children & Young People’s Plan (CYPP)1 The Children & Young People’s Plan (CYPP) shows how we plan to build on our successes so far and secure further improvements in outcomes for Children & Young People. Walsall is home to a diverse set of communities which have particular needs that we need to reflect in the way we provide services. We know that some communities experience much poorer quality of life; therefore we will ensure that services respond to diverse community needs. Change for Children: Workforce Reform Programme In June 2009 Walsall Children’s Partnership completed its inaugural Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC)2 self assessment using the Local Area Self Assessment tool. The outcomes from this helped to identify the early work which needed to take place in order to set and work towards a vision of people working better to provide better services. To deliver this programme 5 key projects were commenced. These being: 1. Workforce Reform (Children's Area Partnership development) 2. Social Worker Recruitment and Retention 3. Workforce Mapping 4. Integrated Young People’s Support Service 5. Integrated Training Programme In addition to these internal drivers, there are a number of significant external drivers which relate to this strategy. These being: 1. Help children achieve more ( previously Every Child Matters) 2. The 2020 Children and Young People’s Workforce Strategy 1 2 Source: Walsall Children & Young People’s Plan 2009/10 – 2011/12 (www.childrenspartnership.walsall.org.uk) http://www.cwdcouncil.org.uk Page 2 3. Government Office West Midlands Regional Social Worker Retention Project 4. Aiming High for Disabled Children 5. "The Protection of Children in England: A Progress Report" 6. “Youth Matters” and “Aiming High for Young People” What Children and Young People, their parents/carers experience now One Children's Workforce self assessment June 2009 In order to measure the levels of integration across the children's workforce the CWDC designed and launched the Local Area Self Assessment tool3 which has been rolled out across all Children’s Partnerships within England. This tool measures integration across 8 key areas, these being: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 3 Shared Identity, purpose and vision Common values and language Behaviours focused on positive outcomes for children and young people Integrated working practices High quality, appropriately trained workforce Complementary roles focused around children and young people Capacity to deliver and keep children safe Outcome focus Source: http://www.cwdcouncil.org.uk/ocwf Page 3 Integrated Working Drill Down Summary from 2009 to 2011 In September 2011 Walsall Children and Young People's Partnership gathered data using a questionnaire format. In 2009 and 2010 we gathered this same evidence and as such this report enables us to establish whether there has been a shift in integrated working over the 2 year period. A programme of activity (Change For Children: Workforce Reform) was created following the initial results in 2009 and became the delivery mechanism for the Children's Workforce Strategy 2009/12. This final report aims to articulate any successes found as a result of the programme of activity and by association the successes of the Workforce Strategy and indeed whether there are still areas for us to focus on jointly. The table below summarises the progress made against all 8 elements of the one children's workforce tool since June 2009. Element 2009 actual results 2012 Workforce Strategy target 2011 actual results Overall comparison vs 2009 Progress against 2012 target Shared identity 37% 50% 59% 22% 9% Common Values 25% 50% 42% 17% 8% Behaviours 37% 50% 55% 18% 5% Integrated Working 37% 60% 66% 29% 6% Trained workforce 25% 50% 60% 35% 10% Complementary roles 12% 50% 55% 43% 5% Capacity to deliver 25% 50% 71% 46% 21% Outcomes focus 0% 50% 78% 78% 28% The diagrams below show the individual elements of the framework broken down to cover whether the element is defined, owned, developed, working across all areas of the workforce, making a difference, user friendly, part of the day job and continually improved. The diagrams on the left show the position at June 2009 whilst the diagrams on the right show the position as at December 2011. 2009 2011 Page 4 Shared identity shows a great deal more uniformity across the sub-categories with a significant increase in ‘part of the day job’. There is still room for development in ownership which hasn’t improved since 2009. 2009 2011 Again, more uniformity is found with more consistent results than in 2009. Values and language have shifted significantly against the ‘being user friendly’ element and ‘developed’ which indicates that the consultation work on the CYPP four priorities has been of benefit. Less movement has been seen against ‘owned’ and ‘making a difference’. 2009 2011 Behaviours appear to be ‘making a difference’ across ‘all of the workforce’ as ‘part of the day job’ which is encouraging. There is still work to undertake on defining behaviours and ownership across the Partnership. 2009 2011 Page 5 Integrated Working Practices, including CAF, Information Sharing and Multi-Agency Working has seen a significant increase in terms of being ‘continually improved’ ‘user friendly’, ‘part of the day job’ and ‘making a difference’ which reflects the findings in the CAF effectiveness report. Less movement has been noted against ‘defined’ and ‘owned’. 2009 2011 There has been a levelling out of responses against the high quality, appropriately trained workforce element. All areas seem to be consistent with the biggest improvements in ‘continually improved’ ‘developed’ ‘user friendly’ and ‘making a difference’. 2009 2011 Complementary roles has seen significant movement in all areas which reflects the work that has been put in place around Working Smarter and the ‘New Operating Model’ development. 2009 2011 Page 6 Again the Capacity to Deliver element has seen dramatic improvements across all areas which indicates that the work undertaken around caseload management, working smarter and the New Operating Model development is having a positive impact. 2011 There are no results available for comparison from 2009 around the Outcomes Focus element. This area has increased dramatically over 2 years with all areas reporting above average responses. Areas for further development From the detailed breakdown found above, there are a number of areas recommended for development which should form part of the Workforce Strategy for 2012/15. These being: • • • • • Work should be carried out to define the ownership of the overall workforce identity, purpose and vision alongside an agreed strategy on common values and language. It is noted however, that the implementation of the New Operating Model will have a positive impact against these indicators. Ownership of an agreed set of workforce behaviours should be incorporated within the Workforce Strategy. These should be designed in conjunction with children and young people and then implemented across the children’s workforce. Integrated Working practices need to be defined and owned by all areas of the workforce to continually look to improve the usage of key models. Investment needs to be maintained in learning and development to ensure that the good work already evident is built upon. Workforce development activity needs to be at the heart of the implementation of the New Operating Model to ensure that complementary roles, capacity to deliver and outcomes focus continue to perform well from the perspective of the workforce. What Children and Young People, their parents/carers will experience in three years “The Walsall Children's Workforce will be fully integrated and working to a common set of objectives and goals. People working better to provide better services will improve service delivery to children, young people and their families and result in increased prevention, early intervention where necessary and ultimately lead to a reduction in numbers of looked after children across the borough.” (Change for Children: Workforce Reform programme vision) Shared Identity, purpose and vision In the future there will be a shared strategy for workforce reform and delivery in response to local needs and priorities, people will identify themselves as part of one children's workforce and share a common vision of Page 7 success and purpose. Young people will feel confident that everyone they deal with will understand enough about them to be able to see what’s best for them. Common values and language We aspire to have a set of shared values which are expressed in a common language. We will build on our information sharing protocols and ensure that they are adhered to. Young people will understand what people are talking about and how people are working for them. Behaviours focused on positive outcomes for children and young people We will have agreed priorities and shared accountability for all outcomes for children, young people and their families / carers. Positive outcomes drive collaborative behaviours of organisations, and these will be clearly described as part of everyone’s role. Young people and their families / carers will be reassured that they will get the best help to make their lives better. Integrated working practices Effective arrangements for early identification, intervention and prevention will be in place via a range of integrated multi-agency teams called Area Family Support Teams (AFST, pilots 1 and 2 are already established with pilots 3,4,5 and 6 by September 2012), with all services contributing appropriate skills and resources. Professional expertise will be valued and the appropriate team with the right combination of people and skills will be well led to meet the needs of the child and young people. Service design and delivery will where possible be informed by the opinions of children, young people and their families / carers and will work within the boundaries of the Working Smarter Programme. There will be clear understanding of how organisations complement one another and that there is a clear expectation for the role of the lead professional. High quality, appropriately trained workforce with focus on integrated family support In the future staff with the right skills at each appropriate level will be deployed to meet the needs of children and young people. Skills gaps will be identified and commissioned across all partners. Everyone will share a common core of skills and knowledge and feel competent and confident that their skills and knowledge enable them to operate at their peak. The Child and Family Support Training Plan has now been approved by the Children and Young People’s Partnership Board from February 2012. Complementary roles focused around children and young people The workforce will be deployed in response to local need with protocols in place to enable this. Jobs will be done by the person with the most appropriate skills, whilst having an understanding of other people’s roles and skills. This will lead to positive, appropriate engagement and ensure that children, young people and their families only have to tell their story once. Capacity to deliver and keep children safe We will ensure that there are sufficient numbers of staff in place at each level appropriately deployed to meet children's needs. Career and succession planning will be in place and we will have a diverse workforce which reflects the children and young people that it serves. Outcome focus There will be a clear line of sight from the workforce strategy and activities to better outcomes and positive impact for children and young people. We will ensure that children and young people are involved as part of the team in service planning, design and delivery. Page 8 How we will get there To monitor this ambitious strategy and the activities contained below we will be using Walsall Children's Services Performance Management Framework which requires analysis of performance to be reported at specific Performance Review Boards. It is the intention to review this strategy on a 3 yearly basis In order to deliver the future workforce vision as detailed in the previous section, we will work with our colleagues across the Children’s Partnership to build a multi-agency Integrated Workforce Development Team. Together this team will design, implement, lead and evaluate the changes needed to ensure that the workforce are competent, capable and confident to deliver multi-agency outcomes for Children, young people and their families / carers in an integrated way. Shared Identity, purpose and vision We will work across the Children’s Partnership to refresh the Integrated Workforce Strategy based on local needs. This strategy will be informed by service users and will contribute towards the Service Quality element of the Children and Young People’s Plan and will be explicit in communicating the common vision, success and purpose of the Children’s Partnership. We will work to strengthen the sense of one children's workforce, through our induction processes, multi-agency events and in our communication with the wider workforce http://www.mywalsall.org/professional/ Common values and language We will work with children and young people to develop a set of shared values across the Children’s Partnership; these will be embedded in practice. We will review our information sharing protocols across the Children’s Partnership and roll these out to all partners. We will develop a glossary of common terms in conjunction with all partner agencies so that we are all clear on the meaning of the language we each use. Behaviours focused on positive outcomes for children and young people We will work across the Children’s Partnership to develop a set of agreed core competencies and behaviours. These will be written into job descriptions and person specifications and will be measured and evaluated through agency specific appraisal processes to ensure that we have high levels of individual and team performance. Integrated working practices We will review and develop our full range of protocols to enable people to work better to provide better services with our partners and children and young people. We will also work with partners to evaluate the systems and processes in place which contribute to people working better to provide better services, and where necessary will redesign these systems and processes with a clear focus being on improving the work flow to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery. Over the next three years we will continue to provide multiagency networking events to ensure that all partners understand the complex nature of the organisations within which we work. High quality, appropriately trained workforce We will work with services to formulate specific workforce plans based on the NHS and Local Authority New Operating Model (NOM). This will enable clear identification of needs based demand for skills and knowledge across the workforce. We will develop an integrated approach to workforce development and training whereby programmes such as induction and core skills are delivered across the Children’s Partnership on a multi-agency basis. Page 9 We will develop career pathways within services and leadership programmes to ensure that we are planning for the future, whilst ensuring that front line staff have the required skills, knowledge and experience to deliver excellent services to children, young people and their families / carers. Complementary roles focused around children and young people In order to deploy staff at the appropriate level we will clearly understand our systems and processes and work to develop a more intuitive method for resource allocation across the Children’s Partnership. Capacity to deliver and keep children safe Work will be undertaken to build the diversity of the workforce to ensure that it is representative of children and young people in Walsall. This will be driven through the Children's Equality and Diversity strategy. Outcome focus We will implement the Charter for Active Involvement to ensure that children and young people contribute to the development of our strategies and plans. In order to do this, we will ensure that appropriate staff have a clear understanding of their role and responsibilities within the Charter. We will clearly articulate the benefits and outcomes for all activity proposed within the workforce strategy before commencing work. This will enable a full business case to be developed and scrutinised prior to the delivery of activity to ensure that value can be clearly evidenced. Page 10 Our Strategic Direction or ‘road map’ What we will improve How much will we improve Our Strategic approach Who is responsible What delivery plans support this work Outcome 1 Shared identity, purpose and vision We will improve the sense of shared identity, and increase the awareness of the Children’s Partnership purpose and vision. We will improve performance against this criteria using the Local Area Self Assessment tool from 37% to more than 50% • • • • We will develop our Common Induction to incorporate a high emphasis on the Children’s Partnership We will design and implement an integrated leadership programme focusing on delivering improved outcomes through a multi-agency approach We will engage children and young people in the review of the Integrated Workforce Strategy We will build an integrated Workforce Development team who will focus on delivering multi-agency solutions across the Children’s Partnership Andy Stewart / Children’s Partnership Board Workforce Development sub-group Integrated Children's Workforce Strategy 2009/12 Workforce Reform Programme Integrated Training Programme Project Outcome 2 Common values and language We will improve our use of common language and our understanding of the roles and responsibilities of our partners. We will improve performance against this criteria using the Local Area Self Assessment tool from 25% to more than 50% • • • We will develop and implement a set of shared values across the Children’s Partnership We will review our information sharing protocols We will develop a glossary of terms across the Children’s Partnership Andy Stewart / Children’s Partnership Board Workforce Development sub-group Integrated Children's Workforce Strategy 2009/12 Andy Stewart / Children’s Partnership Board Integrated Children's Workforce Reform Programme Outcome 3 Behaviours focused on positive outcomes for children and young people We will improve our core competencies We will improve performance against this • We will develop a set of core competencies and behaviours across the Children’s Partnership Page 11 across the Children’s Partnership, and as a result our behaviours will increase positive outcomes criteria using the Local Area Self Assessment tool from 37% to more than 50% • • We will review job descriptions and person specifications to reflect the new core competencies We will ensure that ‘appraisal’ systems are in place across the Children’s Partnership to manage performance against the core competencies Workforce Development sub-group Workforce Strategy 2009/12 Workforce Reform Programme Outcome 4 Integrated working practices We will improve the systems and processes that encourage people to work better to provide better services across the Children’s Partnership We will improve performance against this criteria using the Local Area Self Assessment tool from 50% to more than 60% • • • • • We will review the Lead Professional model and Think Family philosophy across the 8 sectors of the children's workforce We will involve employees and children and young people in any refresh of the Lead Professional model We will lead specific sessions on the Lead Professional model for sport and leisure management Improve accessibility or knowledge of access to Multi Agency Working guidance, policies and procedures We will coordinate multi-agency events to encourage inter-agency networking Andy Stewart / Children’s Partnership Board Workforce Development sub-group Integrated Children's Workforce Strategy 2009/12 Andy Stewart / Children’s Partnership Board Workforce Development sub-group Integrated Children's Workforce Strategy 2009/12 Workforce Reform Programme Outcome 5 High quality, appropriately trained workforce We will improve the competence, capability and confidence of staff across the Children’s Partnership. We will improve performance against this criteria using the Local Area Self Assessment tool from 25% to more than 50% • • • • We will actively participate in current organisational apprenticeship schemes to ensure that placements are offered to young people We will investigate opportunities to develop a Children’s Partnership apprenticeship scheme We will continue to develop the ‘Care Leaver’ programme which assists care leavers in securing work placements within the workforce We will develop a succession plan and career pathway for all specialist services including family Workforce Reform Programme Integrated Training Programme Project Page 12 • • • • • • • centred and residential service staff We will create a children's specific Organisational Development Strategy and implement it We will support the Aiming High for Disabled Children workforce development programme across all 4 levels We will develop a modular Integrated Training Programme across the Children’s Partnership We will design and implement workforce wide training sessions on information sharing We will ensure that the Lead Professional model and Think Family philosophy are referred to in the common training programme We will design and deliver training session on Think Family working We will work with partners (such as CAMHS) to develop service specific workforce plans Outcome 6 Complementary roles focused around children and young people We will improve the systems and processes across the Children’s Partnership to enable the workforce to deliver excellent services unhindered by organisational boundaries We will improve performance against this criteria using the Local Area Self Assessment tool from 12% to 50% • • • We will Identify opportunities for targeted remodelling activity We will work as part of a project team to review systems and processes to ensure that we are working in a ‘Lean’ way using the Vanguard method of delivery to establish integrated Area Family Support Teams Teams We will look to embed workforce mapping activities to ensure that we are kept aware of the workforce size and shape Working Smarter Programme Working Smarter Programme Resource Allocation Project Outcome 7 Capacity to deliver and keep children safe We will improve the availability and deployment of staff to We will improve performance against this criteria using the Local • We will deliver the Children's Equality and Diversity Strategy Michelle Whiting / Specialist Services Management team Children's Equality and Diversity Strategy 2010/13 Working Smarter Working Smarter Page 13 appropriate areas based on demand. We will also ensure that our workforce is representative of the children and young people in Walsall Area Self Assessment tool from 25% to more than 50% • We will support the Working Smarter programme Programme Programme • We will implement the Charter for Active Involvement and undertake appropriate training Charter for Active Involvement • We will follow Prince2 and MSP methodology when undertaking projects and programmes We will coordinate the CWDC One Children’s Workforce Framework to provide evidence of improvement across the full range of outcomes Andy Stewart / Children’s Partnership Board Workforce Development sub-group Outcome 8 Outcome focus We will improve the collection of evidence to enable clear articulation of outcomes for children and young people. We will improve performance against this criteria using the Local Area Self Assessment tool from 0% to 50% • Walsall Project Approach CWDC One Children's Workforce Framework Page 14