To ask what you expect from your school Social Worker?

[NCtonotgetroasted]

Hello,

Just a question for parents who have children at school.

What do you expect/what would you like from your school social worker? I have recently (last 2 days!) started in this role and based on some recent threads re schools/SWs/safeguarding I am torn as to what parents might want and what they might find intrusive?

I'm planning to make contact but wanted to see what families might like from me?

Our London Borough is involved in the Social Workers in School as well and 7 local secondary schools have them including ours. It is very much a pilot scheme I think

Ours very much has an office and wants it to be open so that pupils can talk about

School refusal
Health issues
Housing
Emotional / behavioural difficulties
Parenting / boundary setting
Family relationship issues
Peer relationship issues
Child sexual exploitation or concerns around grooming

and potentially offer informal support.

Anxiety is rife I think and they offer a resource that for children is separate to the school and teaching staff - somewhere to go that is confidential and does not flow back into the school.

Ours also has a children well being practionner as well that DD access and the fact that what she said etc was kept out of her educational record made her far more relaxed

We have this role in school. They are, without doubt, the most valuable member of staff in the building. They do all sorts-directly working with kids. parents and staff in a pastoral/counselling role, applying for funding for specific services, food bank referrals, sourcing clothing, items of furniture etc for families in need, they handle the social services side of things, home visits for persistent absences (sometimes collecting children and bringing to school). The list is endless. Our school would collapse without them.

I had no idea schools had a social worker. I knew they usually have a teacher with responsibility for children on the At Risk register, but a SW is new to me.

A family support worker is not really similar

If the school qualifies for a social worker it would typically already have a lot of families accessing SW support. They become your caseload. Then any CP issues involving them , attendance, Merlin reports for whole school etc

Nothing different than a community social worker if I had one TBH. Maybe you could look at running a nurture group and lunch time groups. Is it primary or secondary?

Thank you everyone.
I've not been very clear so apologies. I was a Child Protection Social Worker previously and CLA also. So I'm aware of a lot of the various operations such as Encompass etc.
I've also worked in many schools as well.

Thank you for these suggestions re support for the children and their families.

The age range is through school so right from Year R to secondary.

It's not part of the Social Workers in Schools pilot but I do think that looks wonderful

@MintJulia not many schools do, this school has funding for it (academy) although I have seen a lot of DSL roles lately where a requirement is social care experience

@TheJollyPocketPostman That is so reassuring to hear. The area I'll be working in is quite deprived and high crime levels.

AAh

If you are not an LA employed social worker then I imagine you will be a glorified pastoral worker which is a bit of a shame.

Taking social workers out of the public sector isnt really on.

A general understanding of adoption trauma and issues adoptive children face would be good. Our school claim to have a good understanding but didn't know what FASD was and are slow at progressing with tests for help including dyslexia. Talks with classes on different family set ups and that there is no right or wrong in there being single mums, heterosexual couples, marriages, divorces, LGBTQ, adoption and fostering. Including correct language to use.

We have social workers in schools in my country (not called social workers, called Curators but they are social work trained) and their job is essentially preventative child protection work, so dealing with issues before they become a proper problem so if a child has problems attending school (school refusal I guess?), friendship problems, or life changes that affect school then the curator helps with that. My only actual experience is when there was some friendship trouble with the girls in DD's class, the curator had a few sessions with them working on relationship and communication skills. Felt a bit overkill tbh because they had already resolved their issues before the meetings started but it was probably helpful stuff and good to know that the school notices and tries to work on issues like this.

What was in your job description. Surely, you should be doing that.

Having said that my ds's school had what they called was a "child advocate" officer who might have some overlap with the role you are doing.
She did a lunchtime club for children who had social or other difficulties, did 1:1 support with pupils during the school day as needed for whatever pupil was having problems that day / lesson and acted as an intermediary between school and parent for communication. When my ds's were having big problems she helped me keep my sanity. It was a good role because my ds's went almost overnight from needing no support to needing lots of support so the flexibility of her role meant she could step in quickly whilst we got more formal support in place.

Attend PEPs
complete the paperwork
engage and involve a child’s virtual school in and decisions- especially school moved, leaving care, exclusions
ensure care experienced young people have access to high quality, targeted and informed careers support

Ffs in bed Sick today! Any and moves!

@MouldyCheeseandBiscuits They have a full team of pastoral staff so it definitely isn't pastoral only.

I won't be doing lunch time stuff as such, or nurture clubs.

I'm a member of the SLT.

I do have a job description so of course I will be doing all of the early help/welfare/mental health based work. But I wanted to check with parents what they may want as an extra

@ghostyslovesheets absolutely will be doing parts of this but there is a CLA team also.
However I'm well versed in this aspect, having worked in a couple of virtual schools,

I'd want the DSL to have a firm eye on the school's LGBT+ policies and make sure that girls aren't being asked to use mixed sex facilities, and that parents aren't being cut out of decisions regarding gender questioning children as per latest reports and recommendations.

@MouldyCheeseandBiscuits Do you think it's a bad idea to have SWs out of the public sector? What about NSPCC social workers? (Their Child Protection Practitioners all have to be SWs)

I think school social work is a wonderful idea, especially in my areas case. I have links with the virtual school, youth offending team , social work teams and other sectors due to my experience. There is a lot of social work instability and a lot of the LA Social Workers have spoken about how invaluable it is to know there is a trained SW at the school who they can discuss concerns with in terms of CP and CLA and who understands the processes properly to support families

So you’re not actually going to be practicing as a social worker? I have a couple of friends in DSL roles and their workload is determined by their job description which is the oversight of safeguarding issues - they wouldn’t usually be involved with families unless there was a safeguarding concern, where their role and remit is clear. You may find your workload prohibits you doing much more than active safeguarding.

@Jellycatspyjamas not in the way that most people understand, although social work is a wide and varied role with so many sectors. Education social workers are starting to make an appearance in a lot of schools/colleges. And education counsellors are a new addition that I think will be seen more in the next 5/10 years.

To clarify, I'm a qualified social worker, and a newly qualified psychotherapist.

Imo, it would be useful for parents of disabled children to get advice from a social worker, as to what the law really says the children, and parent/carers are entitled to; as opposed SS spouting the LA’s unlawful local policies to them.

I’m a DSL.

It depends on how much time you have, how much need there is in your school, what your JD says and what the local safeguarding picture is.

If you have time/resources/the remit in your JD, I think parents appreciate preventative and educational resources. I do a pre-recorded parent information session on a different safeguarding topic which goes up on our website half termly. I also do termly in-person parent workshops (often get external people in like CAMHS, Prevent officer etc to support). I have a lot of meetings with parents and call multiple parents every day to support with low level safeguarding issues. I create resources for parents and do a lot of signposting and referrals.

However, there are times when I only have capacity to deal with serious safeguarding issues or work associated with children with statutory social care intervention. Then all the creative, preventative stuff goes out the window.

And remember - although parents are our most important partners in schools, your main remit is to keep children safe, not to keep parents happy.

I’d also make sure you are really clear on your role.

DSLs are not social workers, even if they are qualified as such. It’s a very different role.

It sounds like they have also lined you up as the Designated Teacher and a mental health lead of sorts? You’re going to be very busy!

I worked in a school with a school social worker. This was a very deprived area, many of the children attending the school were known to social services and their families required a lot of support. They were a safe trusted adult that children could disclose to, staff passed all disclosures to them, ran "nurture" groups, did a lot of family outreach courses ( budget management, cooking on a budget, how to cook, signposting to services etc).

Thank you everyone who has posted.

Yes @Peoplewatcheswithcoffee I imagine I will be busy!!!!

@Quisquam really interesting point that I need to take on board as a fairly high percentage of the children may be eligible for DLA and other local support