Helping People change their lives Management for …

1 supervision and Workload Management for social WorkA negotiating resourceScotlandHelpingPeople changetheirlivesHelping People change TheirLives- the social WorkManifesto for frontline staff inScotland issued in 2009 byUNISON and BASW - hasbeen universally has already resulted insome fruitful discussions atlocal level within Branchesand with Manifesto threw thespotlight on the importantissues of workloadmanagement paper bysocial work practitioners inUNISON Scotland's SocialWork Issues Group isdesigned as a tool foractivists,negotiators andmembers to promotediscussion on these brings together some newguidance on WorkloadManagement and updates toUNISON Scotland s previouspaper on supervision inSocial and Workload Management for social WorkA negotiating resourceThispamphletis the first in a series of individual and jointpublications building on Helping People change their lives - theSocial work Manifesto for frontline staff in Scotland - issued jointly in2009 by UNISON and has been produced by practitioners who are activists inUNISONS cotland s social work Issues Group (see page 11) and is alsoavailable on line is intended as a resource for branches,activists,negotiators andmembers to promote discussion on the issues and to develop andenhance workload Management and supervision policies withemployers and other decision-makers.

2 "Working with People where meeting need, assessing riskand ensuring human rights are respected is a skilled task. Whilstworkers are responsible for their own level of decision making andrecommendations they need access to good quality supports andsupervision to do the job.".UNISON and BASW Joint Manifesto June Scotland's submission on Professional supervision in social work to the 21stCentury Review described four functions of supervision - quality assurance, learningand development,support and shared concluded that these "must take into account individual capacity and istherefore essential that agencies develop transparent and workable workloadmanagement systems that realistically match capacity to expected agency expected standards need to be clearly articulated and professionally valid".This pamphlet builds on this work by:-tLaying out a template for a simple time based Workload Management Scheme thatcan be applied universally in all is drawn from the experience ofmembers in social work in ScotlandtTaking forward UNISON Scotland's position on Management GuidelinesThere is no universal blueprint for formal workload managementschemes and experience suggests devising and implementingsystems is often left to frontline the result isthat social workers rarely experience them and if they do, theirapplication is are hearing that those interested inmodels,experience difficulty accessing paper outlines a simple time based scheme that we think can beapplied universally in all is drawn from the experience of members insocial work in is not meant to be prescriptive and local variation on itsgeneral theme can be applied without difficulty.

3 We do however favour time basedschemes to other believe that the general principles of time basedworkload Management schemes can be applied in other settings to prevent overloadand its the Scene for a Time Based ModelThe work of social workers can be broken down into a series of activities that willdiffer from setting to setting, and locality to locality. The first task is to list these forthe setting sample lists below are not intended to be exhaustive :tTypical Children & Family Activities:assessment/report writing, child protection investigations,recording (computerand manual),planned client contact,children's hearings,contact supervision ,escorts,case conferences,LAC review meetings,travel,telephone calls,officeduty, training, supervision ,workload Management tasks,personal developmentactivities,other unspecified tasks (including support for colleagues).tTypical Criminal Justice Activities:assessment/report writing, prison visits,home visits,other planned client contact,recording (computer and manual) case conferences,office duty, travel,telephonecalls,training, supervision ,workload Management tasks,personal developmentactivities,other unspecified tasks (including support for colleagues).

4 TTypical Community Care Activities:assessment/report writing, r ecording (computer and manual),adult protectioninvestigations,planned client contact,case conferences,case discussions,re viewmeetings,trav el,office duty, training, supervision ,workload Management tasks,personal development activities,other unspecified tasks(including support forcolleagues)."We believe that stepsshould be taken by allemployers to introduce effectiveworkload Management employers have effectivesystems in place to ensure thatwhat staff are asked to undertakeis manageable and allows forsufficient time for staff to applytheir skills appropriately."UNISON BASW Joint Manifesto June Assessment/Reception/Initial Response TeamActivities:assessment/report writing, r ecording, office duty, child protection investigations,adult protection investigations,planned client contact,travel,training, supervision ,workload Management tasks,personal development activities,other unspecifiedtasks(including support for colleagues).

5 First ConsiderationsIt can be seen from all the above that tasks are essentially similar across vary enormously is the work involved under each work with human beings whose situations are always unique. We owe it to them andto ourselves not to be prescriptive about the time we can give is clearly also the case that a report might involve a simple process taking no morethan a few hours;on the other hand a child's assessment based onthe GIRFEC model might take 15 hours of preparation involvingconsultations with an arra y of agencies and allocation of time is essential for effectiveworkload rule also applies to theindividuality of the worker - a newly qualified worker isbound to take longer over most tasks than an experiencedworker;some workers take more time to write things than theircolleagues - this should not mean they should feel under morepressure - we should all be valued for our differentcontributions and tasks should not be forced into particulartime of time is clearly required if we are not becomeoverloaded with tasks that we simply do not have the time to also have to recognise that unexpected emergencies are daily occurrences in socialwork so we have to express that somehow - workload Management has to lookbackwards as well as this stage though,it is contended that the calculation of time allocation to anindividual worker will be based on an agreed list of headings similar to those ust and the Supervisory RelationshipThe importance of effective supervision is emphasised in the accompanying section ofthis pamphlet,and this too was re-stated clearly inthe Joint Manifesto.

6 Workload Management andsupervision are complementary processes butshould not be would suggest that they should bemaintained as separate processes,but this may besubject to local workload Management and supervision haveto involve trust between worker and supervisor:theworker has to be able to trust that the supervisorwill take responsibility from them for work that isbeyond the reach of the time available - whether or not that involves an allocated supervisor has to trust that the worker will be honest about her or his capacity, andwill seek further advice if events seriously overtake planned involve skills and mutual understanding that might take time to develop within asupervisory relationship, but are important premises to a successful workloadmanagement worker has to be ableto trust that the supervisor will takeresponsibility from them for work thatis beyond the reach of the timeavailable - whether or not that involvesan allocated supervisor has to trust that theworker will be honest about her or We are in no doubt that toomany social workers are carryingcaseloads which can be too high andmake it hard for them to do their jobwell.

7 There is very strong evidence thatthe absence of effective managementof workload makes practitioners feelde-skilled, lowers their morale and canlead to poor health social work Task Force (England): FinalReport November 2009. Working Out Time Allocation:A Children & Family ExampleIt should be possible to apply this example to any setting using the lists provided above,and individualising the time allocations according to the task and its priority for a is Jack's team leader and sits down with him once every six weeks for a workloadmanagement key to success is keeping the system as simple and flexible to the meeting Jack will have completed simple forms with brief details of theservice user and listing the tasks he considers he will require to do over the next will draw from the list of activities described above for the setting he the Smith family who have two children on the child protection register at home, helists the following and estimates time the tasks will take:The first task in the WLM session is to establish a date for the next one - six weeks and Jack then discuss briefly the times he has estimated foreach case and reach might includeat this stage priorities for hours for each case will be then be added together whichwill give a total for caseload time.

8 It might be useful here toseparate out client contact time from other tasks so that this canbe quickly determined - this might be useful for informationpurposes on what proportion of time is actually spent withservice say that in Jack's case his total time for cases totals 105 will then list time hehas to spend on other tasks (from the lists provided earlier):Note that this includes two items involving generalised average Travel: this will obviously vary between settings according to geography and anaverage for a team might be established through a diary exercise. In this case Jill's teamadd an average of 1 hour per worked day for local a worker requires additionaltravel outwith the local area ( to visit a placement) this can be added to case time:Jill adds 1 hour per worked day to each workers time for time "lost"through normal day to day activity impromptu case discussion,support to is considered a very important component of an effective and balanced home visits of one hour each - - - - - - - - - -12 hourstReports on each child for a Panel - - - - - - - - - - -6 hourstPanel Attendance - - - - - - - - - - - -1 hourtCore Group Meetings (3) - - - - - - - -3 hourstMeeting with nursery staff - - - - - - - - -1 hourtRecording - - - - - - - - -6 hoursTOTAL - - - - - - - - -29 hours tOffice duty.

9 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -7 hourst2 Days Training - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -14 hourstGeneral Local Travel (average) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -28 hourstSupervision - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - hourstWorkload Management Preparation & Meeting - - - - - - - - -2 hours tHolidays & TOIL :(2 days) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -14 hourstUnspecified time (1 hour per worked day) - - - - - - - - - - - -28 hours TOTAL - - - - - - - - - -94 hoursADD CASE TIME - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -105 hoursTOTAL TIME REQUIRED - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - HOURS5 Our evidence suggests thatit is the lack of a whole systemapproach to managing all of thepressures on workload - rather than thelack of a single caseload limit - that ishaving a detrimental effect on socialwork practice social work Task Force (England):Final Report November 2009.

10 Jack's calculated time requirement of hours must now be compared with hisactual available hours - he works a 35 hour week:As a general rule a surplus or deficit of 5% is not bigger surplus indicatesspace to take on more work ;conversely (and more often the issue) a deficit of more thanthis means that Jack and Jill will have to agree what might be prioritised,what might becarried over until the next session,or whether Jack's workload is excessive and Best Laid course Jack and Jill's plans for his work are likely to be thrown off course byunexpected it might be possible to build in the expectation of crisis,it will not always some places it will always seem as if the workload only ever increases,but there may besome where a reduction takes place a service user moving into ahospital or other institutional Jack's children and family setting interruption to plans is verylikely:if and when this happens he has to take some responsibilityfor working out what might be left undone or may bedetermined by priority previously agreed with Jill or he may haveto pass on tasks to a colleague,or defer may have to seek Jill's assistance in reducing his workload totake on new she wants him to undertake new work totake on a new high priority piece of work such as a child protection,this will certainly be reductions in planned work for unexpected reasons might create space formore allocation:the essence of an effective workload Management scheme is that work isallocated on the basis of space being available and might be considered useful to simply record tasks not achieved and new onesundertaken over the set period at the next WLM might,though,beconsidered finallyThis scheme is offered by UNISON as a template.