Behind the Headlines – OIC Unison branch Social Work Survey and Interviews

What was the purpose of the report?

The OIC Unison branch commissioned an independent report in January 2022 to get feedback from staff on the Council’s Social Work service.

Who was surveyed?

According to the report 13 members of Social Work Practice Teams staff responded to the anonymous and confidential survey and 11 telephone interviews with Social Work staff were carried out.

What were the main concerns raised in the report?

Low morale among staff, lack of consultation or involvement, staff shortages, a divide between senior managers and staff, a lack of transparency over recruitment and promotion, very poor communication, staff assessments being overruled without explanation, staff being blamed for ineffective working.

Given the claims, did any staff make a formal complaint?

No.

Were staff encouraged and supported to do so?

Yes, Orkney Health and Social Care Chief Officer, Stephen Brown, pledged his support to staff if they wished to make a formal complaint. The union representing them also have a duty to support its members through any formal process.

Was the report shared with OIC?

The report was shared with Chief Officer of Orkney Health and Social Care Stephen Brown.

What was the Council’s response to the report?

Mr Brown met with a Union rep and six members of staff four or five times to discuss the report and listen to their concerns. He took on board many of their suggestions which have now been implemented with the establishment of workstreams to review ways of working.

Does the Council admits there have been failings?

Yes, significant failings were identified within our care and protection services for children and young people in the inspection conducted in 2019, but we have made, and continue to make, considerable improvements with the support and recognition of the Care Inspectorate.

What improvements has the Council made following on from the suggestions made in the January 2022 report?

We did listen and a number of the suggestions made were taken on board and implemented. These include

• stabilising and strengthening the workforce including developments relating to recruitment and retention;
• the approach to learning and development, including undertaking a Learning Needs Analysis and tailoring a training programme around the findings of this;
• early discussions with Orkney College about revisiting the links with social work practitioners and how to support and improve practice;
• the Integration Joint Board approved developments to address the Care at Home workforce and, again the work with Orkney College relating to the employment pipeline for social care careers;
• the development of a 3 year health and social care workforce plan.

More work has been done on:

• policies and procedures;
• strengthening the use and effectiveness of supervision;
• workload management;
• the mismatch between other agencies expectation of the social work role and the reality (including the area of hospital discharge);
• how to speed up the processes for resourcing assessed needs.
• a review of the way out of hours support is delivered and remunerated;
• and a review of the duty system.

How confident is the Council that improvements are now in place?

We are confident that we are on the right track now, but that does not mean there’s not a lot of work to do. We are also reassured by the recent findings of a Care Inspectorate, who are there to support us on our journey. Many current staff within the service have been spoken to and we are reassured by their comments.

What issues remain outstanding?

At the heart of this has been a chronic shortage of permanent staff locally and nationally and, again steps are being taken to address this. For example, we now have a full and increased Family Support Staff Team – we will be sharing an article on their vital community work soon.

We have recruited an interim service manager who is driving forward the improvement plan. A further social worker has joined the Fostering and Adoption team.

We are “growing our own” having developed a partnership with the Open University to provide Social Work traineeships. In promoting this scheme just across the wider council initially, we generated over 20 expressions of interest and three individuals are beginning their course next month.

Wider recruitment campaign planning is underway.

How will the Council move forward from this and make further improvements?

Mr Brown, has pledged to ensure that improvements continue to be made under his watch. He says he came here to make a difference and that is what he is doing, with the help of his staff team in place.

He is confident that they will build on progress already made as evidenced by an update by the Inspectorate, published in May 2022, which detailed that of the children and young people consulted by inspectors, every one of them said that their lives were better as a result of the input of the service they had received. Communications had also improved to ensure earlier intervention where required, with decisions and actions being taken quickly and appropriately to keep children safe.

Staff also were confident that children, young people and their families were being involved in decisions about their lives and achieving positive outcomes.

Are staff teams in a better place?

Staff engaged with the annual iMatter survey in 2022. This is an anonymised survey that was completed by 951 staff across Orkney Health and Care. The survey contains an array of questions about staff’s experience of the past 12 months and, among other things, asks if people feel they are being treated fairly and consistently and with dignity and respect. Not only did the response to these questions highlight no concerns, it was so overwhelmingly positive that it was identified as an area to be celebrated.

The results of the recent Investors in People survey across the Council as a whole, which will be reported to Members in February, will also be used as a further gauge of the current experience of staff and we will look at any areas flagged as requiring further investigation and improvement.