‘There is no them and us culture here’: how a new model helped transform Coventry’s social work academy

Charlene Stapleton always thought she wanted to be a PE teacher, but changed her mind when she realised the sports science degree she had chosen was not for her. She decided to do forensic science instead, which led to a job in youth offending – a role that opened her eyes to the challenges and rewards of supporting young people. “It made me realise that I really liked working with young people but also with their families, which led me to decide to train as a social worker,” she says.

Stapleton has never looked back since qualifying as a children and family social worker seven years ago. After a variety of roles in children’s services across the midlands, she is now team manager at Coventry city council’s award-winning social work academy. “I really enjoy the work as I am able to develop people but also still keep a hand in frontline practice,” she says. The 39-year-old is not only responsible for the overall management of the newly-qualified social workers (NQSWs) who join the authority, but is also instrumental in their recruitment. She says the dual responsibility has influenced her relationship with the new graduates: “I feel I have a responsibility to nurture them and to ensure that what I said we are going to offer them is done. Social work is a tough and challenging job, but for me it’s about what you have wrapped around you professionally at the start that will make or break you and influence whether you stay with a local authority.”

Establishing the academy in 2018 was part of a wider transformation of how the authority managed its children’s services and supported its social workers. The changes it introduced were transformative – the number of agency social workers it employs has fallen by 50% and, according to Stapleton, the academy has been key in keeping and promoting a stable workforce. Of the 54 newly-qualified social workers who have come through the academy in the past two years, 48 have stayed with the authority. “Social workers now want to stay in Coventry and give a better service to families and their children,” she says.

Last year, the support the academy gives to developing its NQSWs was recognised when the council was named winner of the learning and development category in the Guardian’s annual Public Service Awards.

“Since then, we’ve had a lot of interest from other authorities keen to find out about our model,” says Stapleton. What sets Coventry’s academy apart from others is that the NQSWs are managed as a single team and spend their first six months in the academy. This supports and promotes the transition from student to newly-qualified social worker.

“In some other councils, the academy is managed more at arm’s length – it reaches out to NQSWs over the first 12 months rather than having them embedded in it. It means we are able to give them a baseline and a consistency so that they have a solid platform from which they can grow and develop their knowledge and skills and understand their practice,” says Stapleton.

The approach is appreciated by the newly-qualified social workers: “At the start, some of them say that they have their qualification and are ready to go. But at the end of six months those who wanted to run before they can walk admit that they are grateful to have had those six months. They are more consistent in their assessments, more understanding of their practice – we have given them time to think, to consider and recognise why they are doing what they are doing, why they have made the decisions they have made and how that impacts on the family.”

NQSWs in Coventry are given a limited caseload and are attached to a children’s team that focuses on families who are newly referred. They spend one day a week in the field shadowing a more experienced social worker while the remainder of their time is devoted to achieving their own personal professional development plan and an assessed and supported year in employment (ASYE) portfolio. Stapleton, who is supported by two senior social worker practitioners, is keen to get the most out of the NQSWs. “I want to push people out of their comfort zone,” she says. “If you are uncomfortable, it means that there is an opportunity for growth and that often means you will develop better. It also means you will get to know yourself better and have a real understanding of who you are and how you want to practice as a social worker.”

The academy has helped Coventry – whose children’s services were branded as “inadequate” six years ago by Ofsted inspectors – on its journey to becoming a “requires improvement to be good” authority, and continues to help the services in becoming “good” or better. Stapleton says the professional and political commitment the council is making to turn services around is tangible. “Our director of children’s services is personally involved in our induction of NQSWs. He regularly brings people to visit the academy. There is no them and us culture here – there is a feeling that we are strongly committed to ensuring that our children and family workforce is the best that it can possibly be.”