Introduction
The West London Social Work Project is committed to continuing the work across the eight West London boroughs: Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Kensington & Chelsea, and Westminster.

The project has piloted a range of activities to promote the education and career pathways of social workers in order to build in much needed permanent staffing arrangements in front line assessment and child protection services.

For key working documents about the social work pilot project, please click here, otherwise keep reading below for more information

Project Vision

The vision for the project continues to be the promotion of a framework where well trained social work graduates are effectively recruited into childcare organisations, and supported through structured career frameworks to further develop their social work practice skills in demanding areas of children’s services.

In this vision, the responsibility for education and training is shared between local authority employers and Higher Education Institutions (HEI), and professional development is actively supported and encouraged, as promoted through the Social Work Reform Board and the Munro Review.

The West London Social Work Recruitment and Retention Pilot, which ended April 2011 laid the foundations for a more competent and confident workforce, and for better systems of workforce development to improve children’s social work. Here’s how we achieved this, and what informs the work of the project beyond April 2011;

Social Work Education

The Placement Guarantee
In recognition of the importance of social work practice placements, the Directors of Children’s Services in all eight boroughs have made a firm commitment that each front-line team will provide at least one final placement in each academic year.

As the final placement before qualification, it is intended that it will be both demanding and rewarding so that students are thoroughly prepared for the role of a newly qualified social worker within Children’s Services.

In addition, each non-frontline team will offer at least one placement in each academic year.

All team managers have been made aware of this commitment and of their responsibility to support the process. Each has been has been provided with a  copy of the Placement Guarantee leaflet by the practice learning coordinator in their authority.

Placement provision will be reviewed annually and the figures confirmed for the coming academic year.

Step Up to Social Work
Step-up to Social Work is a new qualification route into social work, piloted by the Children’s Workforce Development Council. Step-up to Social Work is a tailored, employer-led training programme which has been specifically designed as a new way to train as social workers. The development of the Programme has drawn heavily upon the experience of the West London Social Work Project. The key themes identified in the project, and in particular those developed by the higher education institution workstream around shared ownership and responsibility for social work education, have informed the thinking behind the Programme. For more information on Step Up to Social Work, please contact;
Anthea Anthony, Step Up Practice Manager, West London Social Work Project: Anthea.Anthony@lbhf.gov.uk

Development of Leadership and Skills in First Line Managers
We have developed a bespoke range of skills-based Leadership Programmes which include a variety of teaching methods, with expert speakers, seminars, mentoring and tailored action learning sets, in order to increase the competence of existing managers, and prepare those who wish to become team managers in the future.

Newly Qualified Social Workers (NQSWs)
We built on the CWDC framework by the development of standards which outlined what NQSW’s could expect to receive in terms of support, guidance and professional development during their first year. We provided a structured programme of induction across the eight boroughs, thus benefiting from economies of scale and cross borough opportunities for staff.

A Social Work Career Pathway
We developed a programme of sustained learning in response to local need. 3 Programmes were commissioned (advanced child protection, specialist domestic violence and specialist parental mental health) pitched at social work practitioners with a broad working and practical knowledge of complex child protection  issues. Learning and Development Programmes in West London will reflect this move towards sustained and modular learning for newly qualified social workers right through to front line managers.

Enabling the Social Work Role
We are continuing to find mechanisms to reduce the constraints on the social work role, promote professional autonomy and minimise the bureaucratic processes which take social workers away from direct contact with families. We have analysed  work flows, accountability structures, and devolved some decision making processes to make better use of social workers time. Work continues across the partnership around reducing bureaucratic processes.

Data Group
Each borough in West London has agreed to nominate a staff member to help with the task of collating workforce data and information that can be used comparatively across the 8 boroughs. This data helps inform workforce planning, with boroughs knowing more about their staff and therefore what they are doing and what qualifications they hold in order to progress towards becoming a more confident and competent social work practitioner.

More information
The Project is overseen by a Project Board chaired by James Thomas, Westminster, and attended by Assistant Directors across the 8 boroughs. The Project Officer is Udo Helwig:Udo.Helwig@lbhf.gov.uk.

For more information about the West London Social work Project and key working documents please click here