info
It is a tough time for social workers in the UK, particularly those responsible for statutory children and families work such as safeguarding and casework to achieve better outcomes for children in care. There is a stressful combination of unfair media portrayal, additional regulation and oversight, practical problems with the ICS, inadequate time for direct contact with clients – and now low pay rises and council budget restrictions as a result of the wider economy.
So what is there in place to offer extra support to these social workers? More 1:1 supervision? More detailed induction and safe practice standards? However important these are, do they build or maintain social workers’ resilience? What is there to promote the good mental health of this valuable workforce? In many parts of the country it is hard and expensive to recruit new social workers or difficult to retain them in practice. What we want to do is to offer operational managers an extra opportunity for their staff to gain some external support and coaching, in a group and individually – actually for them as people, rather than for client case management:
* To take focussed time out be able to put it all in perspective
* To be able to share solutions – to focus on what works for them
* To learn about some new ways to strengthen personal resilience
* To reconnect with personal values and career choice reasons
content
The session takes place over one extended morning, where the facilitator uses a variety of approaches to make the group session highly participative, energetic and outcome focussed. The best self-care learning content that is presented is limited but essential and is followed up by individual research by participants after the session. It is based on doing a few things well to take care of yourself. The session is complemented a week or two later with individual telephone sessions to support personal integration and completion of the experience and to assist social workers to look forward with clarity.
Our offer comprises:
- An expertly-facilitated morning group session with manager-protected time (no calls or internet use) from 9am to 1.30pm
- The group session ending with a healthy relaxing lunch and participants going away motivated to do a personal research task
- The experience and learning are completed individually with an 45-50 minutes of telephone coaching with the facilitator
who
Sessions for 12-18 staff are purchased on a bespoke basis by social care agencies in particular by local authority children’s service departments, and independent sector social work agencies working in the same field.
KSL’s induction course is invaluable either for organisations that want to overcome social worker retention problems or ones that just want to take best care of their professional staff and realise that there are a few things they can’t always do best through internal training or supervision.
Our facilitator for these sessions is Resli Costabell. She is not a social worker and won’t get into practice supervision. She is a highly experienced trainer and stress coach, She readily engages and energises staff from any background and pitches the sessions and coaching at the optimum level for those participating. These are examples of the kind of feedback that participants give on her stress management work:
“Good, well presented, not too heavy going. It will help me to de-stress and also see stress in others.” – Jeremy Murton
“Resli’s entertaining style ideally suits the way I learn & remember new ideas.” – Jan Organ
We would be pleased to adapt our programme to meet your particular needs or those of your staff group: Contact us to discuss.
costs
You pay from £256 to £345 plus VAT per person for support for between 12 and 18 social workers.*
- One 4hr expertly facilitated group session standard
- Course and research documentation standard
- 45-50 minutes telephone coaching each standard
- Suitable local external venue/refreshments/lunch optional
All participants are encouraged to take up the opportunity of pre-booking an individual follow-up telephone coaching session, within a few weeks of the end of the group session, and this is included in our standard price.
To commission a package tailored for your organisation or service, please contact us to discuss your options.
*e.g. standard course price for 15-18 social workers in your own venue is £4,625 + VAT
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