Children's Social Care Consultant

Bracknell Forest - CSC Consultant JD Children's social care consultant 10 week contract Background info On 2 February 2023, the government published a new vision to transform children's social care: Stable Homes, Built on Love - Children's social care: stable homes, built on love - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).. The proposals are backed by £200 million of additional investment to existing spending over the next 2 years, and organised under 6 'pillars' of reform. These pillars seek to address urgent issues facing children and families now, laying the foundations for whole system reform and setting national direction for change. The 5 Pillars of reform are: 1. Family help provides the right support at the right time so that children can thrive with their families 2. A decisive multi-agency child protection system 3. Unlocking the potential of family networks 4. Putting love, relationships and a stable home at the heart of being a child in care 5. A valued, supported and highly skilled social worker for every child who needs one 6. A system that continuously learns and improves, and makes better use of evidence and data Local authorities have a 12-month period to begin the work to embed the national framework and make plans for how they align practice systems to the expectations for children's social care. Part of the vision for Stable Homes is a commitment to establish a new Early Career Framework (ECF) for social workers. The programme will be underpinned by a new framework document, setting out the knowledge and skills social workers need to support and protect children and families. The ECF will ensure that wherever they are in the country new social workers will have a strong entry to the profession, helping to improve services and improve retention. The Department for Education want to work with local authorities and social workers to design an effective and deliverable programme. However, this is a work in progress and will take some time to develop and deliver. Job Overview We require an expert in children's social care to: a) evaluate what is working well currently and what we would need to change in respect of Pillars 1 and 2. b) create a Children's Social Care Workforce Development Plan to meet the needs of our workforce and which will include our children's social care career development pathways and our learning and development offer. 2a - Operational structure and practice review An exercise needs to be undertaken to assess, evaluate and recommend the work required to implement the right changes for Bracknell Forest from those set out in the social care reform. Ø Pillar 1- Family Help provides the right support at the right time so that children can thrive with their families. The ambition is to provide more support and help to families early, preventing crisis. Aspects we require to be considered in this exercise to evaluate our current position and recommend steps to meet requirements include - o Vision of family help, considering the Family Help Model. o Providing the joined-up approach for families, bringing Children's Social Care and Early Help together. o Local protocols for assessment and support. o The new arrangements as to who can be the lead practitioner for children in need (under section 17 of the Children Act) as set out in the new Working Together o The work required to embed the Children's Social Care National Framework. This brings together the purpose, principles enablers and outcomes that children's social care should achieve so children, young people and families can thrive. o How we can use the framework to design and deliver services and to underpin interactions between practitioners and children and young people. Ø Pillar 2- A decisive multi-agency child protection system. Deeper integration and partnerships in child protection and family help. This exercise is to include a review of our operational structure in terms of Early Help, MASH and Duty and Assessment Team and to make recommendations on potential changes which would streamline our processes, including the potential cost implications of such a change. 2b - Workforce Development Plan detailed scope To achieve delivery of our statutory responsibilities for children, young people and families, and to continually improve the quality of services delivered we must innovate and adapt. Our aim is to retain, recruit and develop talented, skilled and experienced staff able to deliver excellent services to meet the existing and future needs of children, young people and their families. This means we need clear progression and development pathways that are attractive and competitive and we also need to have a clear and compressive learning and development offer which will all enable us to deliver an academy for all model and offer for all of our children's social care workforce. The successful partner is required to evaluate our current offer and to formulate and produce a clear and comprehensive all children's social care staff Workforce Development Plan including: · Children's social care career development and progression pathways and framework. · Learning and development offer, giving all Children's Social Care practitioners the opportunity to grow, develop, and progress, whatever stage of their career they are at. · Building on the existing work and offer of our Academy training for newly qualified social workers and growing our own to enable an Academy for all framework and offer. All of the above will support workforce stability, retention and recruitment and demonstrate our strong commitment to investing in our workforce. In terms of output, we require a written report outlining recommendations and an action plan for:

• How we can align practice systems to the expectations for children's social care.
• How we can continually improve practice to achieve the outcomes of the Children's Social Care National Framework - Children's social care: national framework - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
• Recommendations for an operational structure to support this aligned practice, including the current and future costs of the proposed structure.
• a written Workforce Development Plan and an action plan for implementing.
  
  · Qualified and experienced in Children's Social Care
· Up to date knowledge and experience of social care best practice and of the Stable Homes vision for reform · Experienced in reviewing children's social care practice in local authorities and making recommendations for improvement · Experience of reviewing operational structures and recommending changes to streamline processes and introduce efficiencies · Knowledge of career development and progression pathways for children's social care · Ability to create action plans for implementing recommendations · Proven verbal and written communication skills and the ability to present findings and recommendations to senior social care staff · Ability to document, design and model solutions and explain and discuss the same with the team · Multitasking and interpersonal skills · Have an analytical and problem-solving mindset and approach, Consultant with experience in children's social care, able to evaluate and recommend the work required to develop our practice to align with social care reform. Also to evaluate our current learning and development offer and to formulate and produce a clear and comprehensive all children's social care staff Workforce Development Plan.