Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Social Work Briefings

The PSW arranges three children’s social work briefings and three adult’s social work briefings a year. This provides critical space for social workers to share their views with senior leaders and ensure important information is shared face to face with frontline social workers. The sessions also have a learning and development focus often chosen by social workers themselves. These have proved to be highly successful with social workers reporting that they are able to apply their learning to practice and generally state in feedback that everything presented is of use to their practice.

Annual Social Work Conference

The fifth annual Children and Adult’s Social Work Conference took place in October 2020 on the theme of Safeguarding. Adults and Children’s social workers came together to increase their knowledge and improve their practice, hearing from people with lived experiences of social care and coercive control. Social workers shared stories from their practice and also attended workshops covering topics such as transitional safeguarding and trauma informed practice.

Feedback from social workers was that this was the best conference they had attended, they felt their knowledge around these issues had risen significantly and felt inspired to continue their work in what can be a challenging profession.

In addition to the above, we also have a substantial training and development offer which is varied and responsive to practice challenges. This includes:

• Specialist training such as:
  
  
  • Practice Educator Stages 1 and 2
  • AMHP
  • Decision Making in a legal Context
  • Leadership and Management programmes plus a programme for aspiring leaders
• Access to coaching and mentoring
• E-Learning and face to face training (when safe to do so)
• Access to Research in Practice / Research in Practice for Adults
• Access to multi-agency training via the Wolverhampton Safeguarding Together Partnership

Social Work Career Development:

• In Wolverhampton there is a commitment to the development of its staff and recognition that Social Workers have a responsibility to maintain their CPD.
• A Social Work CPD and Progression Pathway has been developed that maps the opportunities for career development from a Newly Qualified Social Worker through to Director. This is discussed in supervision and during Professional Conversations (appraisals)
• The pathway forms part of the Workforce Development Strategy and will make a positive contribution to the recruitment and retention of its staff.
• It helps the Local Authority to demonstrate Local Government objectives in ensuring that social workers are appropriately skilled, trained and qualified, and to promote the uptake of training at all levels.
• The Line Manager’s role is central to enabling the practitioner to develop their career using the pathway and identifying learning and develop opportunities specific to their job role and to demonstrate development against the PCF