Council Spotlight.

Council Spotlight

Slough Children’s Services Trust was established in October 2015. Over the past three years, the team has worked hard to evolve the services which were recently praised by Ofsted for “making significant progress” and “delivering improved results.”

We speak exclusively with Lisa Humphreys, Chief Executive from Slough Children’s Services Trust, to find out more about how they have changed their approach and what this means for children living in the Borough.

The concept of a Trust is still a relatively new concept for many social workers. Can you explain what this means, and how the working approach differs from traditional children’s services?

A Trust is an alternative delivery model for providing improved services for children’s statutory services. It means a close partnership with the Local Authority working together on key objectives. The key benefit of the Trust model is that every single person within our organisation is here for the same reason – to improve the lives of local vulnerable children and help make them safe, secure and successful.

We’re an independent company but we still work very closely with Slough Borough Council; this partnership is vital to our continuing progress but the fact we are more self-contained means we are more agile as an organisation, with quicker decision making and we’re also able to try different ways of working more easily.

Part of the move towards the Trust meant developing a new company culture. Unlike traditional children’s services, you do not have as much of a management ‘hierarchy’ within your leadership team. Has this improved efficiency, and how have your practitioners responded to this?

Developing our culture has been essential to our improvement journey and it’s something that’s continually evolving.

I want our staff to be confident that they can raise concerns at any time, and they’ll be supported. I hold regular staff surgeries, there are comment boxes at our offices and there’s also an anonymous online comments form. I feel it is important to be visible and available to staff. I remain close to frontline practice and take an avid interest in day-today events for our children, families and workforce.

Our children and care leavers are exactly that - our children. We aim to show them how proud we are, just like any parent."

We run several innovative programmes, such as Pause for vulnerable mothers, who repeatedly have children taken into care and Inspiring Families which takes a holistic approach to domestic abuse. Our overall strategic aim is to offer a range of services which provide active support and help to children and their families.

Your vision is to ensure that all children within the care system feel “safe, secure and successful” – can you explain how this vision is being communicated to employees and what support is available to enable social workers to meet these expectations?

The vision underlies everything we do and is based upon a strengths-based systemic model which works positively with both families and staff. This is communicated to staff from day one through their induction and our various internal channels.

Support comes in many forms, including training, regular supervision, improved partnership work and an online knowledge hub where staff can access direct work tools. We are also developing an archive of social work practice to help staff learn from each other and get a clear idea of what 'good' looks like.

We’ve made an incredible amount of progress since we were created, something that has been acknowledged in all the inspections and audits we’ve had, but we’re well-aware that our improvement journey continues, and we have more to do to get where we want to be.

You believe in aspiration, and you’re continually working hard to help children and young people believe in themselves. Can you tell us about the recent awards ceremony you held for those children and young people that are in your care?

We hold an annual celebration for our Looked-After Children and care leavers, but everyday celebrating their achievements and showing our support for them in all that they do is part of our everyday work.

Our children and care leavers are exactly that - our children. We aim to show them how proud we are, just like any parent.

A celebration is always a lovely event and this year was no different. Children were recognised for academic and practical achievements and heard from guest speaker, BBC journalist Ashley John Baptiste who was himself a child in care and went on to Cambridge University.

What our children achieve, despite their challenges, is incredible. As their corporate parent, it’s so important we recognise that, nurture their talents, inspire them and help them to fill their potential.

In Slough, you’re continually working with local businesses to build strong working partnerships. This is helping young people realise what opportunities are available to them. Can you tell us more about this exciting initiative?

We do some good work with businesses such as Heathrow Airport and Brunel University, which have given positive experiences to our young people.

We recognise that education and aspiration is one of the biggest factors in developing resilience and achievement. Our Virtual school is excellent at promoting opportunities for all our children. Our carers understand that a nurturing and supportive home life which promotes interests and talents is key to children’s development and wellbeing. We are working to develop this further with more businesses and are currently in the process of looking at some opportunities with Lego and O2.

I really am so proud to say that morale is good, and more than two-thirds of our staff would recommend the Trust to their friends as a place to work."

A big part of this is helping businesses to understand some of the challenges our children face and how they can help to support them. They have the ability to go on to great things and sometimes they just need more tailored support and understanding.

How do you recognise the impact of your practitioners? Do you have any specific initiatives which support and improve individual staff performance?

Everyone says it, but our staff really are our most important asset. They have been central to our recently improved Ofsted rating.

I really am so proud to say that morale is good, and more than two-thirds of our staff would recommend the Trust to their friends as a place to work.

We have a strong focus on development and have worked hard to improve management oversight of cases, as well as personal supervision. We are currently establishing a social work academy which will enable us to build on the success of our ASYE programme and further grow our own talent.

How do you support your staff, to help them work to the best of their ability?

Our ethos is centred entirely on a belief that we are here to support children’s and families’ rights and to provide the right kind of support to meet needs.

We are working together to secure the best outcomes for our children, including being aspirational for them.

The work environment here is welcoming and friendly. I believe firmly in having an open and supportive working atmosphere where staff are encouraged to contribute to making everything, we do more effective.

We do lots of things, including the annual staff health check, staff development days, staff surgeries and we have a staff engagement group who voice concerns and give open feedback, we get involved in various fundraising days, such as Comic Relief and, crucially, we have cake at the end of every month!

Everyone wants to feel valued. How do you recognise great social work practice?

We share examples of good practice, we share feedback across the Trust, we give a small number of honorariums and we recognise talent through career development. Senior leaders want to know about the good work and everyday successes for staff and children and we let the whole Trust know just how great their colleagues are.

We also run a scheme called ‘Thanking You’ where staff write messages to their colleagues which are displayed for everyone to read. All of those thanked go into a draw to win a £50 voucher at the end of each month. It’s a great way for people to feel appreciated and for staff to see each others’ excellent work.

Here's what people are saying about Slough Children’s Services Trust…

“SCST has been amazing and the reason why I term my placement as’ like a glove' is that they absolutely know me and my family and are able to get that 'matching' a child to a family down to a tee! There are continuous support and a sense of 'togetherness from a wonderful team made up of lots of professional, friendly and caring individuals.” Sofia Sittar, Foster carer

“The Trust feels like ‘home’ - support, supervision, access to training and carer progression are second to none. It’s a great place to work.” Taz Makoni, Consultant Social Work Manager

Apply today

To find out more about the vacancies available at Slough Children’s Services Trust, simply visit sanctuarysocialcare.com/jobs or call 0333 7000 026