Communicating with children and young people in social work education 26/9/08

1. Communicating with children and young people in social work education 26/9/08 Caroline Leeson University of Plymouth

2. Communicating with children and young people in social work education • Where it came from • What we created • Issues and problems • Next steps

3. Communicating with children and young people in social work education Where it came from • PhD into looked after children’s involvement in local authority decision making • Creative partnership work with local children’s services team

4. Communicating with children and young people in social work education Partners in the project • Caroline Leeson, University of Plymouth • Kate Reed, RiO (Creative Partnerships • Ellie Malone, effervescent theatre company

5. Communicating with children and young people in social work education Aims To enable broader ways of working to support the team around the child/ young person. • - Reflective and collaborative practice • - Building strategies and tool boxes for communication • - Professional interdependency • - Deeper and more theoretical approaches to children and young people and the practical application of these To support, grow and develop individuals professional identity • - Encouraging dialogue and debate around values • - Working in partnership with others leading to an effective multi agency approach. • - Understanding principles of community • - Understanding roles and responsibilities To support risk, creativity, innovation and change • - Positive support and encouragement • - Empowerment of individuals • - Exposure to other approaches outside of field • - Being challenged to work outside of comfort zone

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7. Communicating with children and young people in social work education Outcomes • Measurable change to practise around communication with looked after children/ young people and care leavers: • Improved care planning through development of meaningful relationships with children and young people and a theoretical understanding of their cognitive development • Effective co-construction of care plans with children and young people through varied approaches to working • Developed ways of responding to a needs-led child/young person-centred approach • Rounded understanding and methodologies of how to deliver to ECM agenda in individual settings • Improved relationships between social care professionals towards better outcomes for children and young people: • More confident workforce able to take decisions in the best interest of children and young people, and comfortable with their professional identities • A more cohesive professional workforce around the child who have a common understanding, shared values and enhanced understanding of people’s professional identities • Developed methods for continuing reflective practise and positive reinforcement for social care employees

8. Communicating with children and young people in social work education Pilot programme • To work with 16 employees from across Children’s Services who work with looked after children and care leavers. • Action-led learning approach including group working for 8 days over the course of a year, smaller group learning sets and individual coaching. • Each participant would need to commit to a maximum of 14 days over an 18 month period.

9. Communicating with children and young people in social work education What we created 3 Residential /sessions • All using group journaling to capture process and progress. Coaching • Each individual will have access to 3 coaching sessions with one of the facilitators each consisting of 1 hour. Action learning groups • These will be small groups that will meet 4 times in the first 12 months and 4 in the following 6 months to encourage and support problem solving, develop partnership working between colleagues and grow a culture of reflective learning.

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11. Communicating with children and young people in social work education First session • 4-day residential building group skills; • A creative challenge • beginning to build tool kits for communication and explore risk taking. • Taken through ‘Tuckman’s Theory’ as a practical exercise, encouraged to reconnect with and rediscover the personal value systems that inform their work Outcomes for session 1 • A learning community will have been established and developed, • Participants will have begun to develop confidence in taking personal risk within the learning community • Participants will have been able to experience for themselves the impact of power and powerlessness, personal agency and dependency

12. Communicating with children and young people in social work education Session 2 • will look more in depth with the group over 2 days around theoretical approaches and how to deliver those aspirations with looked after children and care leavers and will include communicating with children, cognitive and group processes, motivation, learning organisation theory and reflective learning. Outcomes • Debate key concepts of working with children and young people, looking at theory, policy and practice. • Examine the nature of risk and concomitant decision – making in a variety of situations involving young children.

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14. Communicating with children and young people in social work education Session 3 • Residential, • Co-construction between participants and facilitators, drawing together all the work creating group action plans and celebrating achievements throughout the programme Outcomes • Identification of clear and achievable action plans for work with children and young people • Demonstration, through experience in the learning community, of the importance of endings as well as beginnings in work with children and young people • Identification of improved skills and abilities in direct work with children and young people

15. Communicating with children and young people in social work education Issues and problems • Funding • Commitment • Adult concepts of childhood • The changing face of social work

16. Communicating with children and young people in social work education Next steps • Lobbying locally • Seeking external funding – CWDC; GSCC • Joining voices