By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter
Social workers in Nottingham’s failing children’s services will be given training in becoming more resilient to help them manage work-related trauma and better retain staff in the department.
A July 2022 Ofsted visit led inspectors to conclude the city council’s children’s services were failing and young people were being put at risk of harm.
After the ‘inadequate’ rating the Government’s Department for Education appointed an improvement board to oversee urgent change.
One of the main problems identified was keeping hold of staff across the services.
The Department for Education has now given the council £421,611 to help achieve this, among other improvements.
More than £50,000 will be spent on workforce training, alongside £26,762 to “create resilience” in the workforce to help social workers recognise the impacts of work-related trauma.
As part of the work a ‘trauma-informed lead manager’ role will be created to help better support staff.
In total six areas to help the services improve have been identified, according to council delegated decision documents.
Just over £13,000 will also be spent on a ‘practice educator’ role to create and help manage student social worker placements in the city.
It will be a six-month, part-time post to “build its pool of practice educators to enable a dedicated provision to student placements to encourage them to choose and remain with Nottingham city as a career,” the documents say.
More than £42,000 will be spent on a children’s improvement specialist to support the leadership team on the improvement plan ready for when Ofsted visits to check things are in order.
A further £45,000 will go towards creating more leadership roles for a six month period.
The most significant portion of the funding, £243,880, will go towards agency resources for a period of six months to support audit work to free up management capacity.
“The areas identified have been identified as areas of work that will reach the maximum number of the workforce as possible to support wider, continuous improvement,” documents add.
“The activities will support the whole workforce to deliver quality services for children and families through training and development, supporting the continuous improvement of practice and the capacity to learn from other local authorities and identifying good practice.”
