Managers Practice Standards

1. What are Management Practice Standards?

The standards and practice matters contained in this document should be viewed as part of an approach to ensure that services are delivered to an agreed quality. They do not stand alone, but are an integral part of achieving service strategies and policies and meeting procedural and operational requirements.

There are three key drivers in any organisation for determining the way a service is delivered. These are having agreed standards, procedures and policies.

The following definitions help show how these drivers are related and dependent on each other:

• Standards: these are the rules that describe the (minimum) service or practice that can be expected by the service user. Most of them are legally set through government guidance and legislation, or are based on evidence based research. They are mandatory;

• Procedures: These are the steps that describe the actions needed to deliver that service or practice – the what, how, when, where and who. They are mandatory;

• Policies: These provide the strategic context for shaping the standards and procedures, and answer the question of why the service is delivered in particular way and why the service is important. The delivery of the policy requirements, as set out by Wirral Council is the responsibility of all staff.

The management standards in this document are designed to improve consistency in practice across the service and to drive up the quality of the service provided to the vulnerable children and young people of Wirral and their families.

It is important that the management standards document is read in conjunction with the children's procedures manual and the safeguarding procedures relevant to the service.

2. Management of Practice

Why this is important?

'Effective leadership sets the direction of an organisation, its culture and value system, and ultimately drives the quality and effectiveness of the services provided'. (Laming 2009: 2:1)

The decisions and actions made by managers and practitioners will have a profound impact on the lives of those children and their families for whom they have a responsibility, whatever happens. They therefore have to be undertaken with the greatest care and diligence to ensure the best possible outcomes for those children and their families.

Managers across the service, including senior managers, group managers and team managers, have overall responsibility for ensuring that a good quality service is provided which includes the following:

• Ensuring a professional response from the initial referral to the closure of the case;
• Overseeing good quality decisions about the type of response or investigation to be undertaken, and ensuring the skills, competences and capacities are in place for a quality service;
• Providing clear direction and setting priorities in the service;
• Ensuring the young person's voice is heard and fully considered when implementing the plan;
• Scrutinising to ensure good quality recording, analysis of need and report writing;
• Providing good quality supervision, annual appraisals and well organised staff and team meetings;
• Making sure staff work within a supportive team culture, with good communications, and routine commitment to rigorous professional practice; and
• Demonstrating effective multi-agency collaboration and working.

In order to provide a quality service, practitioners need to know what their managers expect of them; and managers need to be assured that work has been carried out to an acceptable standard. In a practitioner's absence, colleagues need to be able to access the records and know quickly what has been happening in the child's life and how best to respond to any need arising. Information needed should be available from the contact summary screen, Chronology, recent reports, and the latest records, plan, reviews and summaries.

Managers are responsible for ensuring that there are systems in place to monitor and review the performance of staff and provide protection, support and professional development for practitioners, so they can deliver the best possible service, as well as comply with service procedures and legal requirements.

Consistent scrutiny of practice makes explicit the service's expectations of each practitioner and enables the manager to provide evidenced feedback about good or acceptable practice, or to address unacceptable performance where it is identified.

These management practice standards are intended to assist managers in providing and evidencing consistent scrutiny, support and supervision, and ensuring defensible decision-making. It will also help practitioners understand better what the manager can reasonably expect from them when evidencing their child care practice through accurate and up to date records.

3. Standards: General Management

All managers will ensure that all managerial responsibilities for children and young people for whom the local authority has a responsibility, will be carried out in line with the standards set out in this document.

'Senior Managers should be confident that decision making, communication and information sharing within and between each of the local services is effective in keeping children safe even when those services are under pressure. In turn they should support and value first line managers, ensuring that management oversight of decision making is rigorous and that the lines of communication between senior managers and frontline child protection staff are as short and effective as possible.' (Laming, 2009: 2.12)

'Managers must lead by example by taking a personal and visible interest in frontline delivery.' (Laming, 2009: 2.12)

Standards: Management Oversight

All children and young people for whom the local authority has a responsibility will have evidence in their records of managers scrutinising practice to make sure that decisions are made in the interests of the child or young person, and are properly recorded.

Managers will ensure all recording and reports are of good quality and are completed in a timely manner.

Managers will ensure that thorough enquiries are undertaken that produce good quality assessments and analysis of needs, leading to well argued and evidenced recommendations for actions to be taken.

Managers will aim to observe and give constructive feedback to social workers minimally on an annual basis.

Management oversight and scrutiny of practice will be evidenced through case audit, supervision and observations. It is important that observation of practice is a constructive and learning activity for practitioners.

The service has identified a number of key requirements to assure ourselves that children and young people are kept safe and receive a quality service. These include the requirement for an allocated social worker; that children's needs are assessed and they each have a plan which meets those needs, among other things. In order to assure ourselves each social worker and every manager is responsible for their own performance and can check this through Infoview. Monthly safeguarding reports are collated by the Group managers and Senior Managers and presented to the Director of Children's Services at the monthly performance meeting so that team managers can show that they are achieving in their teams.

The supervision record is a key management tool for child care planning and case records. It must be used in every supervision session relating to that child and must include consideration of the following:

• The purpose of allocation, expectations of the practitioner's intervention – including the purpose of home visits; (Laming 2003 Rec 53);
• Guidance as to the course of action required if expectations cannot be met, and contingency plans in the event of no access visits; (Laming 2003 rec34); and
• A key management decision outside supervision, that will shape the actions and interventions of a practitioner, must be recorded by the manager responsible not the practitioner.

The discussion will also cover:

• Any potential risk to the practitioner; and
• Any training or support needs he / she may have in order to complete the agreed actions to an acceptable standard.

Information on these issues must be placed in the practitioner's personal supervision file and not on the child's record.

4. Key Practice Issues

Supervision Records

• There must be a record of the discussion completed for each child at every supervision session concerning this child. It must be located with the child's case records within two working days. (Where non case holders (e.g. senior managers) discuss individual cases and make decisions this must be recorded on the child's file);
• The team manager must retain a copy for the practitioner's supervision file;
• It is good practice to remember that the person being discussed may see the supervision record in the case recordings at some point in the future.

Auditing

Team Managers are responsible for the auditing of all of a child's records to ensure that:

• The details held on the child and family on the contact summary screen, and the paper file, are accurate and up to date;
• The chronology is up to date;
• Records are up to date and well written, with entries owned by the practitioner;
• Records must meet agreed standards of practice, e.g. in regard to statutory visits, seeing the child alone, recording the child's views;
• The record is maintained electronically and management oversight must be logged;
• There is a recent photograph of the child, with name and date on the back, correctly located on file for children looked after;
• There is a birth certificate correctly located on file for Children Looked After;
• There is a quarterly summary based on case records, case discussion, agreed actions and recent reports;
• The child's most recent plan and review minutes are on record;
• The most recent court order, where appropriate, is on record;
• Reports and quarterly summaries are owned and dated by the practitioner and, where appropriate, by the team manager;
• All documents are located in the correct sections and in the correct order;
• In accordance with the Data Protection Act, only documents that are relevant to the child in question are retained, and they are not kept longer than is necessary;
• Managers' supervision records for the child are filed with the case recording under the appropriate section;
• The confidential section of ICS is used only for essential third party; documents that it would not be appropriate to share with the child.

Any action needed to address poorly maintained records must be discussed with the practitioner and steps to address this noted on the audit tool. Managers will need to speak to the Independent Reviewing Officers or child protection chairs about late or missing planning and review documentation.

Regular case file checks will be conducted by social workers and their team managers. This will ensure that case files are well presented and maintained to the required standards should they be required for auditing by:

• Team Managers;
• Group Managers;
• Independent Reviewing Officers;
• Senior Managers of Children's Social Work Service.

5. Standards: Supervision

Annual Performance Appraisals

All staff must have an annual performance appraisal. This is an important opportunity to formally note achievements in the past twelve months and record any actions needed to address learning and development needs identified during ongoing supervision and case discussions. The performance appraisal will set goals for the coming year.  

As part of preparation for this appraisal the team manager will have directly observed the practice of the social worker, (on a home visit where appropriate), and will provide constructive feedback and record this on the appraisal documentation.

Managing Performance

Effective supervision and support, and holding practitioners to account, can substantially reduce the risk of poor or under-performance by practitioners. Where poor or under performance by the practitioner is identified, managers must seek support and guidance from their own line managers and their human resources service.

6. Standards: Service Culture and Support

Appendix 1: Management Standards, Acceptable / Unacceptable Practice