Developing Professional Practice in Out of Home Care Michael Traynor Principal Social Worker Anglicare-SA

Key areas Developing Staff Skills Audit  What we found out? Develop Coaching/Mentoring for Senior Workers  Regular meetings  Individual coaching and support Create learning opportunities for New Staff  New graduate forums  Individual consultancy

Key benefits Increased staff retention Increasing knowledge base of staff Consistency in practice Mentoring for Senior Workers

Background In 2009 Anglicare SA developed a position of PSW: To develop professional practice within our programs. To assist staff with critical and complex cases To assist in developing consistent practice This was at a time when we had a number of new programs, and also a large influx of new staff. We had a large number of staff who were either:  new graduates,  had not worked in Alt Care previously, or  had experience but minimum qualifications

Family Services Home Based Care - North Home Based Care - South Carer Training & Assessment Family Preservation Therapeutic & Transitional Care Review Implementation

Skills Audit Task one: Staff Skills Audit While we knew that not all our staff had the same qualifications or knowledge we didn’t have an overall picture of who our staff were. Could we develop a Social Work framework, if we find out we have a number of staff from other professional disciplines. All staff where asked to fill in a questionnaire about their qualifications and experience

Staff Skills audit Alternative Care Staff Audit 1. University/ TAFE studies completed: 2. Postgraduate Studies: 3. Any Current studies being undertaken 4. Length of time in current role: 5. Length of time at Anglicare: 6. Previous work in community services field: 7. Any other relevant work experience of studies.

Results

27% of staff had Social Work Qualifications 4% of staff had Masters in Social Work 28% of staff had completed Bachelors qualifications 23% had Certificate or Diploma Qualifications 4% had experience, but no relevant qualifications 7% had other Post graduate qualifications

So where to next Acknowledging different levels of qualifications Develop a training plan Review position descriptions Staff training plan Establishing a Seniors group

Seniors group Seniors group bring together the Senior Caseworkers/Program Coordinators in the teams across our range of services. With the aim of :  mentoring, supporting, developing practice through Senior workers  develop a supportive team Seniors also have the task of developing the staff training calendar

Seniors Group Meetings between the PSW and the Seniors happen on a monthly basis Mentoring of the Seniors is run on a needs basis, a couple of examples are:  Co-facilitating group supervision for direct care staff  Working with a new senior around skill development – therapeutic interventions

Comments: “The Seniors Forum has provided an excellent opportunity to come together as a group and discuss relevant practice issues. Michael’s role as Principal Social Worker facilitated the forums and provided a safe environment to have these discussions.” Kim- Senior Worker in Transitional Care

New staff forums Initial concept was to give staff the opportunity to reflect on previous study, and use their practice experience to understand theoretical frameworks in context However the forums have now expanded to include not only new graduates. This has enabled staff groups to come together to learn, but also share knowledge gained through previous study/experience, and think/discuss about how this relates to the day to day work you are involved in.

New Graduate Forums Forums have been established across three sites. They occur on a monthly basis for an hour and a half. Groups have a maximum number of 10 participants Theories covered so far:  Systems  Trauma Theories  Loss and Grief  Ethical Decision Making Have also looked at their role as a supervisee – including their planning for supervision

Feedback A number of experienced staff have asked if they are able to attend the new grad forums. Discussions are a safe place to discuss practice issues Great opportunity to link theory to practice Building on existing knowledge, and ability to share knowledge

Other Significant Achievements Training all staff around consistent practice in case noting Development of a competency based tool for performance management – still in draft form Development of competency based interview questions

Learning Have the role embedded as a part of the management team Clear role definition – to assist staff When to consult guide.  As this was a new role it was important to give staff and managers a guide as to the practicalities of when to consult.  Guidelines were developed that were agreed to by the Management team, and then distributed to all staff

Benefits of the PSW Increase learning opportunities for staff Development of a consistent model of working across the department Increase in staff retention  In July % of staff had worked in the organisation for less than 12 months  In July % of staff had worked in the organisation for less than 12 months Overview of all the Family Service portfolio – needs, strengths, issues, potential risks

Where to next.. Developing a Graduate Program Further work on developing the competency framework

Contact details Michael Traynor Principal Social Worker Anglicare SA