Provide a safe space to discuss what worked and what didn`t. Help your teammates understand the best way to work with you. The working arrangements are designed to clarify how the local authority and parents/carers/family members will work together. They can be used in conjunction with child safety plans, interim protections and child protection plans to ensure an effective and transparent working relationship. However, working arrangements alone should not be considered as a measure/plan or instrument for the protection of children. If an agreement cannot be reached, discuss what might stand in the way. To be effective, safety plans and work arrangements must be carefully developed, appropriately shared, monitored and reviewed. The following practice guide explains the purpose of working arrangements and aims to support social workers in safety practices. Before the working arrangements session, collect the issues the team is currently facing, either from an obstacle committee (see example), a retrospective, or just familiar challenges. Bring them and share them during the session to support work arrangements. There will be occasions when it will be appropriate to include measures relating to other agencies in a working arrangement, e.B, participation in health appointments or training, or cooperation with other professionals. Publish your working conditions in an area visible to the entire team, such as Confluence. If you used sticky notes, translate the final work arrangements into a document and share it.
For remote teams, you first create a collaboration document, such as . B a Trello board or Confluence page. You can use a deployed template if you want or create your own. The employment agreement should not replace the waiting agreement/contract required in the PLO process, as it is a legal document. Standby arrangements or contracts are used in Salford as a standard part of the PLO process. A letter of expectation is written by the child`s social worker in consultation with their supervisor and legal team. This is then sent to the parents and their legal representative and, if necessary, amended before being agreed and signed at the PLO meeting. Open the meeting by explaining to the team that you, as a group, create a set of behavioral agreements to facilitate collaboration. Ask the team: If you get “no” votes, ask the team member what would turn their vote into a “yes.” Discuss what you can do together as a team and maybe adjust the deal. A remote campaign team reflects and votes on the working modalities they will commit to and gather feedback in Confluence. The following types of written agreements are the most commonly used in Salford: Here are some of the answers you can expect in the “brainstorming” category. Note that some are too specific or process-oriented to make work arrangements.
Working arrangements are often used by social workers in their work with children and families. Serious Case Reviews/Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews, Local Government Association Peer Reviews, Joint Targeted Area Inspections and Judicial Decisions have all criticized overuse and reliance on work arrangements as safety for a child`s safety. In many cases, it is more appropriate to use a safety plan with a family, and this should always be taken into account before discussing a work arrangement. However, if used appropriately in partnership with parents, caregivers and other key people as part of inter-agency planning, working arrangements can be an effective tool for improving working relationships and reducing the risk of harm. All reviews of the safety plan or work arrangement should be documented in the child`s file, taking into account progress, effectiveness and compliance. Deficiencies in the security plan and violations of the agreement, as well as the measures taken accordingly, must be recorded. It is the responsibility of both the social worker and the Early Help Service to ensure that all expectations contained in the transfer plan are consistent with the principles of the working agreement policy. It is the social worker`s responsibility to ensure that the family signs the TAF agreement and Early Help will then review it as part of the TAF process. These software developers discuss their working arrangements on Zoom and use Trello to capture the inputs. As a team, make a list of expectations of each other so that you can work together successfully and avoid misunderstandings. The working arrangements between the parents and the municipality end when the matter is closed. In some circumstances, there may be expectations on the part of parents or other interested parties that will continue when there is no longer any involvement of social work in the family.
In these circumstances, parents should receive a final letter outlining these expectations. This must be shared with partners with several agencies and uploaded to the child`s file. The final protocol should clearly indicate how these expectations are controlled by progressive/universal services. .