Freeing up time for social workers

Unmanageable caseloads can frequently be cited as among the most challenging issues social workers have to deal with. With the latest figures from Cafcass revealing a reported 7 per cent increase in care applications compared with 12 months ago, this is something that seems set to continue.

But how much time do social workers get to spend with children and families?

A number of leaders of children’s services I recently spoke to seemed to agree that social workers can devote up to 70 per cent of their time to meetings and juggling paperwork. This leaves just 30 per cent of their working day available for face-to-face contact with the people who need their help.

There is little doubt that record keeping and information gathering are vitally important to ensuring children and families get the right support. But are there more efficient ways of managing this that would help shift the 70/30 time split away from administration and more towards families?

Cutting down the paperwork

Some of today’s emerging technologies offer exciting possibilities for reducing the paperwork mountain that many care practitioners experience.

Take the important task of recording an assessment or updating case notes during a meeting with a family. Some social workers rely on taking paper notes, but one of the drawbacks to working in this way is that the notes then have to be entered manually into the authority’s main IT system back at the office.

One option for reducing workload might be to offer social workers handwriting recognition software loaded onto a tablet. They would then be able to take notes in the usual way, using a pen-like stylus to record information. The family’s central record could then be updated automatically using mobile working technologies or the information could be synchronised the next time the social worker is logged into the system.

This would eliminate the need to re-key notes into the system, freeing up time that could be channelled into delivering vital support to more children and families.

There are other ways to capture essential information more efficiently too.

Instant information capture

I was interested to read media reports about the trialling of voice recognition software in some parts of the NHS recently. This type of technology has been used to record conversations with hospital patients that are then loaded onto the central IT system electronically.

Voice recognition could lend itself well to social care settings too, enabling social workers to gather information on a case without the need to take notes. Using software that transforms voice into text could not only save time, but might also reduce the chances of any detail being left out of the record.

This could be a useful tool as the requirement to capture the thoughts of a child increases – such as in the Education, Health and Care plan for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

Planning a better future

Authorities are better equipped to support children and young people when they have accurate and timely information about them to hand. Changes in circumstances, such as a welfare concern flagged up by a teacher or the unexplained absence of a child from school, can be acted upon quickly to get the right help to where it is needed.

But analytical tools are also being developed that help authorities to understand what type of support has had the greatest impact on families with similar difficulties in the past – much like the software many of us have seen in action when we are shopping online.

Technology could have much to offer authorities in saving valuable time for children’s services practitioners. Staff such as social workers are a precious resource whose time, wherever possible, should be released from administration and channelled into helping children and their families.

Phil Neal is managing director at Capita One