New Types of Worker

In response to Every Child Matters and the Children Act 2004, services for children and young people are changing and we need to ensure that the workforce is equipped to actively engage with, and develop new ways of working.

The New Types of Worker Programme (NToW), funded by the Department of Health, and initially managed by Skills for Care, began in 2003. It aims to encourage workforce development initiatives in social care that are firmly located within the user led, integrated provision of services agenda.

We are now in the second phase of the programme and the Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC) has responsibility for managing this in relation to the children's part of the social care workforce.

Initially CWDC agreed to support five projects designed to extend our understanding of the different roles that need to be developed in order to achieve better outcomes for some of our most vulnerable children and young people.

The five projects will help our understanding in terms of the workforce development issues relating to:

• Different ways of identifying and working with children and young people who experience domestic abuse;
• The needs of volunteer workers and how they can move into the qualified workforce;
• How an integrated approach, based around a school setting, can meet the needs of disadvantaged young people and their families;
• A regional approach to addressing the implementation of the Lead Professional role; and
• Joint working across adult and children's services to address the needs of families where there are mental health difficulties.

Two of the projects are based in Tower Hamlets, one in Thameside and one in West Sussex. The fifth is a national initiative.

CWDC have recently awarded a second round of funding as part of Phase 2. Four projects were successful and will continue to look at innovative ways to develop new job roles and new ways of working within Children's Social Care.

Cornwall County Council: What can we do differently to keep placements together in a child focussed way?

Cornwall County Council are looking at the development of a new job role aimed at reducing placement breakdown for children and yong people in care. The Specialist Placement Worker will focus on the child or young person who is at risk of a placement breaking down and identify key elements that need to be changed to support the team around the child. The role also inolves working closely with others to develop the skills and understanding of children and young people, their families, foster carers, social workers and other professionals.

Ealing Council: How do we ensure we have good leadership with multi agency experience that is essential to begin delivering integrated frontline services for vulnerable families?

Ealing Council is developing an Integrated Services Manager role. their 0-19 Supportive Action for Families in Ealing (SAFE) project is developing integrated teams of skills mix professionals delivering early intervention, community-based family support for targeted, vulnerable families, based around the needs of the families rather than those of individual services. The Integrated Services Manager will be responsible for managing the day-to-day work of professionals from mental health, education, social care and the Primary Care Trust, link with partner agencies and ensure jointly owned family centred targets are met.

Gateway Family Services CIC: Why doesn't someone train local people to get to the top?

Gateway Family Services Community Interest Company is a social enterprise based in Birmingham that aims toreduce inequalities in learning, employment and health. They are recruiting and training loacl people to an accredited Level 3 Community Family Worker programme, leading to enrolment on a Foundation Degree in Professional Studies in Community & Family Support Work. Their aim is to achieve a family support workforce that represents local and changing communities, with the specific skills and experience to support families and to improve outcomes for them and their children.

Individual Learning Company & Kent County Council: Why can't social care workers be self-employed as well as have security and collegaues?

The Individual Learning Company & Kent County Council are working together to establish a group of self-employed wotrkers within the Children's Workforce, as opposed to traditional self-contained freelance workers, who are able to provide a range of services to different agencies. The idea behind this is that some of the energy going into integration can be re-allocated by having a group of independent self-employed workers who are able to provide specialist expertise without the need for complex inter-organisational arrangements.