Principal Social Worker’s annual review

Principal Social Work Annual Report

The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) describes the social worker role as aiming to improve people’s lives by helping with interpersonal difficulties, promoting human rights and wellbeing. From helping keep a family under pressure together to supporting someone with mental health problems, to safeguarding adults with care and support needs from abuse, social work is a varied, demanding, often emotional and very rewarding career.

Social workers must be registered with Social Work England (SWE) and apply a set of professional standards which describe what they must know, understand and be able to do.

The principal social worker role is enshrined in the Care Act to ensure there is professional practice oversight in place to lead, oversee, support and develop excellent social work practice and in turn lead the development of excellent social workers and social care practitioners.

Local Government Association’s Peer Challenge Review statement.

LGA Corporate Peer Challenge (Torbay) Report

In June 2024 Torbay’s adult social care service took part in the Local Government Association’s (LGA) Peer Challenge Review. The review was an opportunity for the LGA to provide feedback as a critical friend to support improvement across the service. It was not an inspection and nor did it award a rating or score.

People working across our services in the council and NHS, carers and other partners took part in the review, including giving interviews to inform the LGA’s feedback report.

The feedback identified our strong culture of “grow your own” in the local workforce, with good evidence from staff about opportunities for development and promotion, and low sickness, vacancies, and turnover rates.

Staff who met with the team were very positive about the support they received from their colleagues and described good support from visible professional leadership and line management, including through supervision and appraisal, and more informally.

Learning processes are in place to support improvements in practice, and more widely to assure it: this includes through safeguarding adult reviews, the mandatory Oliver McGowan training, working with people who draw on care and support, and working with the voluntary sector. Training was described as good, and there was positive engagement with social work practice weeks, where a focus on sharing good practice has engaged staff and senior managers.

My story: Abbie, a newly qualified social worker

“I absolutely loved my first year of practice within an Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) programme and feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to transition from completing the degree into an ASYE role.

“It goes without saying that the level in which I enjoyed my ASYE and first year of practice, is because of the fantastic team I worked within, alongside very supportive managers and the well-mapped ASYE programme. I always felt heard, understood, and part of a team where we all root for one another.

“I benefited from the ASYE a lot, as it enabled me to integrate what I learnt through the degree and placements into practice, while also being protected with a reduced caseload to continue to learn, reflect, and find my feet putting everything into real practice while developing my social work identity. I enjoyed the timescales of the ASYE programme as the level of demand was significantly less than completing the degree, and I also had a good level of study time which could be used flexibly in a way that best suited my learning style. This study time was very important for my ASYE journey, as the day-to-day role in social work is so busy, it would be challenging to factor in real time for reflection and research.

“I am grateful to my manager, practice educator and the complex care team for all the support and consistency they gave me. Honestly, I could not have asked for a better start to my social work career.”

My story: Naomi, an ASYE assessor

“I have worked for Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust since 2008, joining as a health and social care coordinator. Throughout my employment I have progressed to become a social worker, practice educator and now, in the past 12 months, as an AYSE assessor.

“It is both a privilege and pleasure to be in this role and be part of the journey as the social worker embarks on their new career path. The role supports the social worker to implement learning from their social work training and apply this into a practice setting, providing provision for support to ensure rich learning and development, with a real focus on the AYSE critical reflective skills.

“As an assessor, I feel the organisation provides good levels of support to both the AYSE, the assessor and supervisor. The organisation also provides access to the Research in Practice for Adults (RIPFA) website. This provides me with excellent practice teaching tools and the AYSE an evidence-based resource to enable the continuation and embedding of learning into practice.

“I feel my role as AYSE assessor has developed directly because of the ongoing support of the principal social worker and senior leadership team as they are demonstrably keen to support continuing professional development.

“I thoroughly enjoy my role of AYSE Assessor and look forward to working with many more social workers undertaking their AYSE in the future.”

Pete – Student social worker

“Since I started working for the trust in 2006, I had recognised an evolving passion for working with those accessing our services, becoming increasingly aware of the struggles people face in life, whether it be inequality, social injustice, mental health challenges, the impacts of poverty or simply the weight of feeling unheard. With this developing desire to empower individuals, families, or communities I was encouraged and supported by my line manager, and the trust’s Principal Social Worker, to apply to study social work via the Open University. This represented a significant opportunity, but one that came with huge feelings of trepidation and anticipation, would I be good enough, could I return to academic study after twenty years? All these thoughts were tempered with the desire to effect positive change and a knowledge that I had a lot to give to the profession. Since starting the course, I have been afforded so many positive opportunities, initially in the transitions team and subsequently with the adult mental health social care team. During my time within these teams, I have developed a keen awareness of the skills and capabilities of the organisation’s social workers, as well as being afforded the opportunity to apply my developing knowledge of social work legislation and theories into practice. For example, exploring how theories such as the social model of disability or the ecological perspective can help empower people, promoting the wellbeing principle and person-centred ethos of the Care Act 2014. I am so pleased that I chose to study to be a social worker. For although the material is challenging, taking a significant amount of time and a considerable amount of self-reflection, it is so rewarding and laced with the opportunity for creating positive change.”

My Story: Alex, a practice educator

“I have been a qualified practice educator for more than three years. Despite now being in a more senior role within the organisation, I still very much enjoy providing the practice educator role; not only is it thoroughly rewarding being part of a student social worker’s journey into their new career, it also offers timely reminders to ensure fundamental aspects of the profession are applied as a practitioner myself. This could include, for example, time to reflect on values or to look at new pieces of research. The practice educator role is crucial in ring-fencing time to ensure the theory and concepts that underpin our work are understood and applied by students; on that basis, its positive impact on our student social workers and workforce in general cannot be understated.”

Professional practice

During 2024/25, we reviewed our practice quality standards which provide the fundamental practice benchmarks for all staff to embrace and use in their day-to-day practice They are designed to help people who draw on care and support to understand our practices. They also help staff measure their work and use these standards for quality assurance and supervision in adult social care." The standards describe everything from our approach to strengths-based practice to equity, diversity and inclusion.

We have also provided workforce training opportunities ranging from a leadership training programme, trauma-informed practice to cultural humility and anti-racist practice.

We are looking forward to embedding our Practice Quality Standard framework as well as focusing on a number of workstreams in our transformation programme.

Findings from audits

We continue to undertake a monthly audit system focusing on the quality of adult social care intervention. We continue to undertake a monthly audit system focusing on the quality of adult social care intervention. The findings from these audits are analysed and thematically reported to the Service Improvement Board, where they inform decision-making, identify areas for development, and shape improvement plans. This process ensures a clear line of sight to the Council by providing a structured mechanism for governance, accountability, and assurance on the quality and impact of adult social care practice.

Last year we recruited a quality assurance social work lead, who now runs the monthly audits, capturing any themes that require improvements and working closely with colleagues and their line managers to improve standards. One of the main audit outcomes has been the need to better identify and support carers. The quality assurance lead has been meeting with teams and undertaking one to one training sessions with staff to demonstrate where we can improve performance.

The audits have evidenced that our standards of social care assessments, case recordings and multi-disciplinary working are of a good standard overall. Positive feedback is also shared with colleagues, which has been received well with one stating, ‘it is nice to have my hard work recognised, as we only usually receive feedback when something has gone wrong’.

The monthly audits support the findings of the LGA Peer Challenge Review which summarised: ‘The case file audit undertaken as part of the challenge review found good practice, including around legal decision making, and least restrictive practice’ (LGA Peer Challenge Review 2024).

Back to homepage