Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Social Work Briefings

The PSW arranges quarterly children’s social work briefings and bi-annual adult’s social work briefings that provide 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 fourth Annual Children and Adult’s Social Work Conference took place in March 2019 with a theme of Human Rights and Exploitation. Adults and Children’s social workers came together to increase their knowledge and improve their practice in relation to working with people affected by gang related activity, forced marriage, child sexual exploitation and people affected by drug and substance misuse.

Social workers heard a powerful keynote speech by Jasvinder Sanghera CBE, a survivor of forced marriage and the founder of Karma Nirvana, the award-winning charity that supports both men and women affected by honour-based abuse and forced marriage.

Chris Fox from West Midlands Police then spoke about County Lines and the crime of cuckooing, where drug dealers take over the home of a vulnerable person to use it as a base for drug dealing, before a series of workshops focused on child sexual exploitation, gangs and youth violence, substance misuse and modern slavery.

There was also the opportunity for social workers to share individual success stories about the work of the council’s Children and Young People’s (CYP) and Adult Social Care (ASC) services.

Many social workers stated in feedback that this was the best conference they had attended, they felt their knowledge around these issues had risen significantly, they found it helpful to hear more detail about the work undertaken by partner agencies in the City and felt inspired to continue their work in what can be a challenging profession.

In addition to the above, we also offer:

• Access to face to face learning - internally and externally and in partnership with HEI’s and providers.
• Access to courses 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
• Access to E-Learning
• Access to research tools such as Community Care Inform and a Social Work Theory App
• Access to multi-agency training via the local safeguarding board

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 pathway has been developed that maps the areas for development from a Newly Qualified Social Worker through to Senior Consultant Social Worker.
• 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
• It is the responsibility of the Line Manager to ensure that the practitioner fully understands their role and duties and undertakes them to the required standard. In supervision and professional conversations the Line Manager will begin to explore with the practitioner their individual learning needs and identify their relation to the PCF.