Better Social Work for Mental Health In Kirklees
Kirklees Council with the support of South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is about to begin a Social Work development programme called Better Social Work for Mental Health. They believe this demonstrates the council’s commitment to local people, its staff and partners such as South West Yorkshire NHS Foundation Trust (SWYPFT), charities and voluntary sector organisations.
One of the reasons for Kirklees to run this programme is to make sure Social Workers, service users, their families and carers understand better what special skills and knowledge Social Workers have and how they can put these to good use for people with mental health problems. The main way Social Workers can use their skills for instance is by working alongside people to help them decide what their aims are and how to achieve them.
The council really values its Social Work staff and wants to be sure they have the right support to work effectively for service users, families and carers.
A group of staff from across the council and SWYPFT including managers, Social Workers and Social Care Officers will be meeting once a month until January to look at ways to improve and develop Social Work in our area. They will be supported by independent experts – Dr Karen Linde and Ruth Allen (Chief Executive Officer of British Association of Social Workers) – who will write a report at the end with suggestions for what to do next. The group will also be asking service users, carers and independent or volunteer organisations about their experiences of working with Social Workers. This is an important part of finding out how our work affects you and helping with planning to improve our service.
The questions we would like to ask service users, carers and independent organisations are here:
You can read more about Better Social Work for Mental Health here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/social-work-improving-adult-mental-health
