When your job is all about making a difference to people’s lives, you need to make sure that your skills and knowledge are the best they can possibly be. That’s the philosophy behind the award-winning British Association of Social Workers-accredited Essex Social Care Academy (ESCA), which was founded seven years ago to make sure Essex county council’s social care staff have all the tools they need to deliver the best possible solutions and outcomes for the people they work with.
“ESCA is so much more than providing training and development opportunities. We work holistically in our engagement with supporting the workforce. Using a relationship-based approach is key to this,” says Paul McGee, head of ESCA and principal child and family social worker.
ESCA oversees all continuing professional development (CPD) opportunities for people who work within social care, across adult social care, and children and families services within Essex county council. This includes occupational therapists, social workers, team managers, alternatively qualified staff and foster carers. Staff are from a range of different professional backgrounds, including teaching and HR. “This allows us to help people develop specialisms in particular areas of practice,” says McGee. “One of the main things that drives us within ESCA is to provide the best CPD possible, that will support and develop practice. In this context, even the best training can always be improved.”
New employees in Essex county council are offered a comprehensive training package from day one right through their entire career. Training is constantly being updated as the needs of Essex’s people change. “For example, it’s well documented that people are living longer,” says Will Chaney, workforce capability manager at Essex county council.
“It means that they may encounter situations that they might not have necessarily lived through years ago. A social worker, occupational therapist or community support worker with the right skillset can help ensure that interventions and decisions are person-centred and proportionate,” says Chaney.
The academy ensures knowledge can be accessed in ways that go far beyond the old one-size-fits-all model, enabling social care professionals to not just stay up to date with their essential knowledge, but also enhance areas of special interest. It delivers CPD that fits the demands of the role, not the other way around.
“Social care is not a nine-to-five vocation, we have to make sure that the CPD that we offer is in a multitude of different areas that meet different people’s learning needs, and is also potentially accessible to people who might not be around during the traditional office hours,” says Chaney.
ESCA’s blended learning programme comprises facilitated classroom sessions, lectures, e-learning, webinars, podcasts, research library discussions and even experiential learning. It’s an approach that’s won numerous accreditations and awards: the Children and Families arm of the academy, for example, received an outstanding Ofsted rating this year.
The Virtual Dementia Tour, which won ESCA the creative and innovative social work practice award at 2017’s National Social Worker of the Year Awards, allows workers to get a sense of what the world looks and feels like for people with dementia. “It’s a great way of helping people develop a deeper empathy and understanding,” says Chaney.
“There are also numerous studies that suggest that you get a better understanding of something academically once you have experienced it. And the value in that kind of training is absolutely critical: it helps workers to realise that the person with dementia doesn’t have challenging behaviour – it’s the environment around them that is challenging,” he says.
ECSA’s holistic approach has had a positive impact on the service in all sorts of ways. Offering a clear training pathway and plenty of investment in CPD means that social care workers are more likely to come to Essex – and stay, grow and thrive.
“It’s fundamental that we grow and develop our own staff,” says McGee. “That’s where having wide-ranging CPD programmes is really important.”
The success of the academy has had a halo effect, too, embodied in its participation in the Partner in Practice programme, which enables good or outstanding local authorities to use the expertise they’ve developed to support other authorities that have particular needs.
And ESCA is just one reason why Essex county council is a great place to work. It also offers flexible and mobile working: social care workers are encouraged to be out in the community as much as possible, rather than stuck in the office. A relocation package of up to £8k is on offer, in addition to the chance to move internally within Essex to work with different communities. Plus, Essex has much to offer to those looking for a better quality of life, whether it’s in the county’s cities or its countryside.
“ESCA is the ‘engine’ that powers the service and provides the fuel for our staff across all levels to practice and apply relationship- based work,” say Helen Lincoln, executive director Children and Families and Education, and Nick Presmeg, executive director, Adult Social Care.
“If you want a nurturing and holistic learning and development experience with lots of opportunities in your career either in adult or children’s services, ESCA is what you need and Essex is the place to be.”
