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Building the capacity of the workforce
Introduction
We are not making the best use of social work skills. Developing personalised services revitalises and refocuses services on the core values of social work. Achieving that will mean making full and effective use of the whole workforce, building capacity, developing confidence and trust and shifting the balance of power and control.
For front line workers that will mean enabling some people to take greater control over their own care and using the therapeutic relationship to help those with the most complex needs gain control of their lives.
For leaders and managers it will mean trusting and supporting their staff to exercise professional autonomy within a framework of accountability.
For everyone in social work services it will mean far greater flexibility to develop new roles and new ways of working that cross traditional boundaries.
6 Services must develop a new organisational approach to managing risk, which ensures the delivery of safe, effective and innovative practice
Effectively managing risk, while encouraging innovative practice is one of social work's biggest challenges. It requires a new and proactive approach to developing accountable, but professionally autonomous practice, with organisations developing new approaches to learning from best practice and from failures. In order to address that we will need:
- clear accountability frameworks that make explicit the accountabilities of social workers and enable them to exercise professional autonomy;
- a new approach to the governance of social work services that emphasises continuous improvement, effective risk management and creates an environment in which excellence can flourish;
- strengthening of the professional leadership and governance roles of the chief social work officer;
- structured approaches to managing untoward incidents that enable learning from mistakes; and
- a research and development strategy that enables evidence of effectiveness to underpin practice, focusing particularly on evidence based approaches to risk assessment and management
7 Employers must make sure that social workers are enabled and supported to practice accountably and exercise their professional autonomy
We must use the distinctive knowledge and skills of social workers to best effect to develop personalised and integrated services in a context of increasingly complex need. To do that, we will need to:
- define those functions that should be carried out by a social worker;
- make sure that practitioners have the necessary knowledge and skills to allow them to practice autonomously within new frameworks of accountability;
- make sure that social work education responds to the new skills required to deliver personalised services;
- develop new career pathways in practice and professional leadership that allow skilled practitioners to continue working with people who need their skills; and
- CoSLA to continue to develop a national recognition and reward framework for social workers that reflects career pathways and competence.
8 Services must develop a learning culture that commits all individuals and organisations to lifelong learning and development
Everyone in the social service workforce needs the skills and knowledge to practice effectively in a challenging and sometimes dangerous environment with some very vulnerable people. To develop a strong learning culture we need:
- to fully implement the National Strategy for the Development of the Social Service Workforce in Scotland: A Plan for Action 2005-2010;
- national and local investment in lifelong learning across the workforce;
- all workers to maintain a personal portfolio as an up to date record of their skills and competence;
- all workers to have access to regular professional support, challenge and consultation;
- newly qualified professionals to have a period of more intensive initial support, promoting professional autonomy and accountability; and
- stronger links between employers and higher education ensuring high quality, well informed.
9 Services should be delivered by effective teams designed to incorporate the appropriate mix of skills and expertise and operating with delegated authority and responsibilities
Effective teams have common goals, shared values, shared knowledge about the needs of clients. They have the right mix of skills and expertise and learn together. Increasingly such teams will be multi-disciplinary. To develop effective teamwork, we need to:
- invest in building and sustaining effective teams;
- take a team based approach to planning and performance improvement;
- devolve budgetary and decision making as near to the front line as possible;
- ensure that teams have the right mix of skills including a new paraprofessional role that would work across agencies taking responsibility for delegated casework;
- recognise and equip workers as a mobile workforce, ensuring that they are able to work effectively with partners in varied locations and agencies;
- invest in growing the capacity of teams to respond to changing demand; and
- develop effective approaches to integrated workforce planning, ensuring that we have the right skills now and in the future.
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