00:00
We loved the training, we just embraced it and thought this is exactly why we went into
00:04
social work in the first place.
00:08
When we went back into the team, the important thing really was,
00:12
what are we going to do next?
00:15
What are we going to do now?
00:19
What we did was set up regular meetings on a fortnightly basis, to meet and talk about cases.
00:26
So we started talking about how we would work different cases in more of an outcome focused way.
00:35
Then we started looking at paperwork and how we would score.
00:40
We met up with business support and looked at how we could work with the system, and
00:46
they came up with scoring sheets.
00:50
So little by little we started implementing it in the team, we had the system set up so
00:57
that we could score on the system.
00:59
So we could go into case recordings and say how people were feeling, to score their outcomes.
01:06
And it was working within the team, but what we quickly realised was we're working in isolation
01:11
here, it was really difficult for us because we felt that actually cases were coming up
01:17
to us and then we were working with them in a different kind of approach really.
01:23
We all felt it was more or less going back to old fashioned social work, all those values.
01:30
It was, I think at first, we found it a little bit difficult because we were used to rushing
01:40
in and putting plasters on everything and wanting to fix everything.
01:45
So we really needed to, we quickly realised we needed to do some exercises together, to
01:51
sit back and just say to people 'Tell me how you're feeling'.
01:57
And even when there are risky situations, rather than going in and saying 'Oh we're
02:02
scared about this...', just to sit back and say 'Okay what's been going on for you?'.
02:07
Having different conversations actually lowered barriers quite quickly.
02:11
So instead of going in and saying look we've had this referral, we're really worried, what
02:15
have you done, we said look we have had this referral, tell me about your life, what's
02:21
going on for you, what's happening for you.
02:25
And people didn't have their backs up.
02:29
It prevented them from being so scared, and they were able to just talk to us.
02:34
And what we found then was that hidden harm went down quite quickly really.
02:40
So we embraced it, and then just at a time when Neath Port Talbot was in a really good
02:46
place, we'd come out of a difficult period, I went to a management meeting, and the then
02:55
head of service Andrew Jarrett started talking about how we can implement any models, signs
03:01
of safety, motivational interviewing.
03:05
And then I jumped up and down and said hang on a minute what about outcomes focused work?
03:11
What about the work that we've been doing.
03:13
So we had a long discussion then about what we were doing, and he absolutely embraced
03:20
that, loved it, and then wanted all the managers to have the training.
03:25
And they all had the training, everybody straight away said yes this is what we want, it's very
03:33
similar to signs of safety, your motivational interviewing, but we felt that it was a bit
03:41
more fluid, we could work with it.
03:44
It wasn't so rigid, so we could work with it in our own way.