Standards for Employers of Social Workers - Find a freedom of information request

The Standards for employers of social workers in England set out core expectations for employers and applies to all settings social workers are employed in.

They are published by the Local Government Association on behalf of 16 sector stakeholders, including UNISON. Signing up to the Standards is voluntary and there is not a published list.

Here is a link to the Standards: https://www.local.gov.uk/standards-employers-social-workers-england-0

Please can you answer the following questions:

1. Is your organisation signed up to the Standards for Employers of Social Workers? * Yes/No As part of meeting the Standards Principal Social Workers are committed to completing an annual Health Check to assess practice conditions and working environments for their social workers. In 2020 the Health Check became a standardised online survey and was offered free to all councils.

2. Did your organisation carry out the 2020 Standards Health Check? a. Yes - we surveyed all social workers and extended the survey to social work assistants/support workers b. Yes - we surveyed social workers only c. No - go to question 4

3. If you answered yes to question 2 did you: a. Publish the Health Check findings for your organisation * Yes/No b. Agree a joint action plan with UNISON on how to take forward the Health Check findings * Yes/No

4. If your organisation is not currently signed up to the Standards are you considering doing so for 2021? * Yes/No

5. Will your organisation be completing the 2021 Health Check when it is issued this autumn? * Yes/No

1. Yes

2. a. Yes However we did not use the free LGA one as LCC have a contract with Community Care to run their Risk and Retention Tool which addresses the same issues. LCC have only just run this in October/November when we became aware of the LGA one. LCC surveyed all qualified Social Workers but this year has agreements to extend to all frontline teams including unqualified staff.

b. Yes - we surveyed social workers only

3. a. Yes internal through staff briefings

b. No, we have an action plan but Unison haven't been consulted about it

4. LCC are signed up but will be using the Community Care Tool again as the contract doesn’t expire until next year.

5. As explained above LCC will be running the health check through Community Care and this will be in January 22 as there is an internal staff survey running in Oct/November and don't want two surveys running at the same time