Medway Council’s Children’s Services delivers on its improvement promises and continues heading in the right direction as the Government’s national roadmap for easing restrictions progresses.
Despite the considerable challenges presented by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic since March 2020, Medway Council has delivered on its key promises to swiftly improve its Children’s Services resulting in great success.
The raft of improvement measures has been steadily rolled out since 2019 and includes the relaunch of a career progression scheme for social workers, embedding the Ofsted-recognised Signs of Safety model, and a relentless drive on recruitment as well as growing and strengthening leadership and establishing a permanent management team.
Focusing on better outcomes
Even though staff have faced challenges over the course of the pandemic, the improvement journey has been hailed an outstanding success, accomplishing improved staff morale and confidence, recognition from government with oversight being stepped down and, ultimately, better outcomes for families and children in Medway.
COVID-19 secure guidelines for staff to follow during the pandemic were introduced, which included social distancing, the provision of equipment to work remotely, along with advice on appropriate protective equipment for specific job roles. This means that the local authority is well-placed for an Ofsted Covid Assurance inspection, which is due to be conducted in the close future.
Lori Goosen, Principal Social Worker at Medway Council, said: “We were given clear guidelines and relevant IT equipment to make sure we could access colleagues, supervisors, and managers remotely while still helping families, children, and young people, and it’s worked really well. The support that we can access has also been a big help. In particular, the career scheme has been superb and has helped me develop my specialist knowledge and skills to make a real positive difference for the children and families in Medway.”
A return to office
In line with government guidelines announced on 5 July, Medway Children’s Services staff have been preparing across July for life after further lockdown easing, which happened on 19 July, including a return to the office with face-to-face contact and ramping up the number of meetings with families, children, and young people.
Lori continued: “We’re all really looking forward to getting out and about a bit more over the coming months as restrictions are eased. The connections we have built and maintained with the families, children and young people in our care over this last difficult year have been tremendous and will only get stronger and better as we move forward.”
Exceptionally hard work under added pressure
Leader of Medway Council, Cllr Alan Jarrett, attributed the exceptional performance of the local authority to the teamwork of the staff and the support from directors and the management teams. He said: “Medway Council Children’s Services staff should be proud of their achievements and hard work especially given the challenging circumstances we have all faced over the past year. We appreciate every colleague has been working exceptionally hard during the pandemic, many with the added pressures of balancing childcare and work, and their resilience, strength and determination has shone through and has been the driver in Medway moving from strength to strength and implementing our improvement journey, which has been recognised by the Government.”
“However, we won’t stand still and will continue to strengthen the support provided for our social workers to ensure that families in Medway get the best possible outcomes and that children and young people in our care get a stable home life to help them thrive, remain healthy, and learn well.”
Find details of the COVID-19 roadmap out of lockdown.