New coaching and mentoring service seeks to address isolation

and skills gaps for directors of children's services

3 out of 5 Councils are experiencing difficulty in recruiting children's social workers

2 out of 5 Councils have difficulty in retaining staff

57% work in teams with 1 in 5 posts vacant

71% of individuals say the average caseload has increased since 2003

(Unison as quoted in Municipal Journal, 07/05/09, p2 and Local Government Chronicle, 29/01/09)

Is it any wonder that, according to Comprehensive Performance Assessment, the overall performance of Children and Young People's Services deteriorated between 2005 and 2008?

Unfortunately the pressure to perform is likely to be exacerbated by the current level of public sector borrowing which will demand an additional 12% in efficiency savings. Questions therefore arise over whether the ring fenced funding under the second Laming Report will simply result in the re-allocation of existing funds or indeed whether sufficient resources will be forthcoming to implement the findings.

But where did it all go wrong? It has been argued that the rationalisation under Every Child Matters and the implementation of the Children Act 2004, which brought education and social services under the leadership of one director, led to a loss in organisational knowledge.

Professor Jones, former Director of Social Services at Wiltshire County Council and lecturer at Kingston University, believes that the skills gap can be bridged through the secondment of staff from well-performing Councils. But, with the shortage of staff, who would fill the gap?  Such a need for training and mentoring has been reinforced by the Head of Local Government at PricewaterhouseCoopers who has suggested it is better to learn from mistakes and look to expert partners in getting things right. Partners like SOLACE Enterprises, for instance.

Kate Pinder, Head of Coaching and Mentoring at SOLACE Enterprises says "our Associates who have a variety of experience in education and social services feel passionately about supporting those responsible for child protection during this challenging time and see it as a natural extension to our already wide portfolio of coaching and mentoring services."

"Directors can be supported on either a face-to-face or telephone basis to help them feel confident enough to:

1. instil energy, drive and motivation in a highly pressurised workforce to achieve the high standards of delivery expected;

2. make sense of the complexities of multi-agency working and the challenges of knowledge sharing and communicating across different organisational cultures."

If you would like to find out more, please contact mentoring@solaceenterprises.com or telephone 0845 601 0649 and ask for Kate Pinder.