Speaker key
IV Interviewer
JB Jane Bailey
IV What have been the key achievements in Southwark Children’s Services in recent years?
JB Last year we had a joint annual review, an inspection of our services, and we were judged as good across all our areas that include health, education and social care. I think education, we have seen the greatest rise in performance. In 2006 we were 143rd out of 150 local authorities. Last year we were judged as 88th. This is in terms of key stage two results, and this year we are hoping to see an even greater improvement. So, lots of change there. Our key stage four results are doing well. Last year we had 42% of our young people achieved 5 ATCs, including English and maths across our 15 secondary schools.
We have got a large number of academies in Southwark, and we are very proud of the relationship that we have developed with our academies, and in fact we are developing a strong traded services offer for those schools. We’ve got a well-embedded autism strategy, especially in our primary settings, and that’s developing into our secondary schools, and we’ve got a strong BSF, or Building Schools for the Future programme, which means that all our schools will be either rebuilt or refurbished over the next few years.
IV What role have frontline staff played in those achievements?
JB The have been pivotal. They are the people who work directly with our children and our families to ensure that our young people get the best service that’s possible. Obviously we talk about teachers in schools as frontline staff. We’ve got staff who work centrally who deal with such things as admissions. We’ve got educational welfare officers who in fact have been judged as outstanding through the latest audit commission report where schools are assessing the service that they are receiving. And indeed, frontline staff have really embraced the development of Children’s Services and the integration across health and social care and education, and are working together collegiately in locality groups to give the best support they can to our schools and our families.
In terms of social care, we have developed a new programme. We have brought in a number of trainee social workers to work directly with our schools in terms of prevention and early intervention.
IV Are there specific examples of innovation at Southwark?
JB Definitely, yes. What we as a Council recognise is that the expertise in terms of developing outstanding schools exists within the borough, exists within our current head teacher group, and one particular innovation is that we have got 12 primary head teachers who are working part time during their week to go out and advise other head teachers on how their schools might grow and develop.
IV What is different about working Southwark compared to other London boroughs?
JB Southwark is a very vibrant borough. It has got a very diverse community. I think there are 170 different languages spoken within the borough. We’ve got great differences across the borough. We’ve got the relatively leafy, wealthy south of the borough, and then at the north we have a lot of development, and here we are in Tooley Street, our brand new offices that the Council has just moved into.
IV Why do you think people should join Southwark?
JB I think Children’s Services in Southwark is very much on the cusp of change and development. We have just begun to move into locality teams, and there’s a lot of exciting things happening there. I think it’s an opportunity for people to develop their professional skills while working alongside other professions and getting a real view of the different expertise that exists within the service, and how we can come together to support young people and ensure that they have the best future opportunities that we can possibly give them.
IV What is Southwark’s position on flexible working and family policies?
JB We do offer a great deal of flexibility to all our employees. For example people can do compacted weeks, or compressed weeks, four day weeks, nine day fortnights. There’s lots of opportunity for home working, job shares, part time working, all those are possible. Obviously it depends on the needs of the service, but managers are very enthusiastic about ensuring that we have people represented within the service who have families, who live locally, and want to become part of Southwark.
IV What are the training and development opportunities like within your department/service area?
JB We do have a dedicated training and development team within Children’s Services and they take a very systematic approach to training and development. On appointment, all staff would have a thorough induction across Children’s Services issues such as safeguarding, the CAF, Common Assessment Framework, communicating with children, etcetera, etcetera. All staff have a work plan and a learning and development plan, and that’s got to be reviewed regularly with your manager, and that’s a point where you can discuss opportunities and areas for you to, where you want to individually develop. We would offer all staff the opportunity to do an MVQ in an area appropriate to their specialism.
We also would support people with degree level training, but obviously that would mean some commitment from them in terms of working outside in their own time. In terms of managers, there is a comprehensive management training programme that exists within the Council, and indeed, if anybody feels that either a coach or a mentor would aid them and support their work, then that’s available as well.
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