DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
News Release issued by COI News Distribution Service. 17 March 2009
£1,000 each for
newly qualified adult social workers and their supervisors for
extra support in the first year of practice
Newly qualified adult social workers will soon be offered more
support throughout their first year of practice, with a £4 million
injection of funding announced by Care Services Minister Phil Hope
today, World Social Work Day.
Care Services Minister Phil Hope said:
"Newly qualified social workers, like newly qualified
drivers, can need extra support at the beginning of their careers.
The £4 million I'm announcing today will help make sure they
have the help, supervision and training opportunities they need to
make the transition from student to fully fledged, skilled and
confident practitioner."
The £4 million will pay for a framework of support for newly
qualified social workers for one year. The scheme includes:
* Opportunity for councils to apply for £1,000 to support each
newly qualified social worker they employ in their first year,
plus £1,000 for their supervisor for that year.
* Development of a toolkit of resources for social workers and
their employers to use to support newly qualified social workers.
* A personal development planning tool, outcome statements, a
toolkit to support induction, a good practice checklist, tools to
record and evaluate continuous professional development and
post-registration training as well as completed examples of these.
Adult social work departments are invited to apply to Skills For
Care for their share of the funding, by completing a
'statement of intent' setting out how they will use the
money by 31st March 2009.
Notes to Editors
1. The Framework for Newly Qualified Adult Social Workers has
been developed in partnership with adult social workers, based on
research into what works. It has been developed in conjunction
with key delivery partners who include Skills for Care, GSCC,
SCIE, ADASS, BASW and LGA.
2. Funding forms are available by emailing NQSWproject@skillsforcare.org.uk