The National Centre

for Post-Qualifying
Social Work and
Professional Practice

Findings

Service
Improvement
Projects
Supporting social work and health practitioners to improve
services one setting and one service provider at a time.
The improvement of services, for the people we
serve, is at the heart of professional practice. This
is why we have designed a Masters degree to
include a focus on service improvement.

The Service Improvement journey at BU is

split into two Masters degree level units:
PSIP and SIP.

PSIP stands for Preparing for your Service

Improvement Project. Successful completion of
PSIP is a pre-requisite for moving on to the SIP
unit. It allows practitioners to develop a service
improvement proposal over a period of about 5
months and is primarily about THINKING.

SIP stands for Service Improvement Project

and is primarily about DOING or implementing

the proposal in practice. This project is based on a
SIP completed in 2015.

The National Centre for

Post-Qualifying Social Work
and Professional Practice
(NCPQSWPP)
Professional education at the National Centre
for Post-Qualifying Social Work and Professional
Practice is centred on a commitment, passion
and dedication to develop healthcare and social
work practice.
We believe that by improving the quality of
services through partnering with practitioners
and employers across the health and social care
arena we make a vital contribution to society in
general and vulnerable people in particular.
Over 10,000 practitioners have successfully
undertaken our programmes since the year
2000 and we have won a total of 9 prestigious
teaching awards during this time.
Visit us at: www.ncpqsw.com

Practitioners identified problems in the

following areas:
1. Lack of confidence in identifying agencies
that could offer appropriate support and
signposting.
2. Limited knowledge in detailed safety
planning work.
3. Process and procedures constrain personcentred work.
However, the key finding is that care
coordinators emotional needs are not being
met this was the major driver behind the
choice of intervention.

Service Improvement/
Changes

Meeting the learning

needs of care
coordinators
Author: Tom Groves
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust

Context and rationale

Method

I work as a social worker, Approved

Mental Health Professional and care
coordinator someone who oversees
and brings together services that a
patient needs.
High patient turnover and complex
caseloads are a necessary part of my
role.
Front-line mental health workers face
increasing caseloads, demands to
meet targets and little organisational
support to prevent burnout (SWAN
2014).
Recently there has been a high
turnover of staff in my team. Vacancies
remain unfilled.
Based on my review of the literature
(e.g. see Petrie 2012), I made an
assumption that reducing knowledge
deficits would reduce staff burnout and
stress.

Here are the questions I wanted the

brief learning needs survey and
subsequent focus group to answer:
1. what do you struggle with most in
your care coordinator role?;
2. what are the main knowledge
deficits impacting on your ability
to perform your role?;
3. and what would you find helpful in
terms of seeking solutions to the
above?
I presented the findings from my
literature and survey at the focus
group and used an approach called
brainswarming (McCaffrey 2014)
to allow participants to consider the
answers to the above questions.
I analysed the resultant data by taking
a thematic approach to the transcript
(King and Horrocks 2010).

For more information, please visit us at www.ncpqsw.com or phone 01202 964765

From the themes that emerged from

the analysis, I concluded that the most
appropriate intervention for the SIP was
the creation of a group reflective space that
could better address the complex and holistic
professional development needs of the team.
To date, I have facilitated 3 reflective sessions
the most recent had the largest number of
attendees (n=7) the majority of the team.
Feedback so far has been positive. One
participant comments this will help us take
ownership of solutions for things within our
power to change i.e. team organisation.

Critical reflection / Future

Plans
Undertaking this SIP has been very
beneficial for my personal and professional
development, promoting a shift towards a
solution focus whilst ensuring a thorough
understanding of the nature of the problem
preceeds any intervention.
My assumptions about a learning need have
been greatly challenged.
This project has caused us to consider
integrating psychologists into our team,
advanced IT training needs and the
appointment of specialist roles around the
implementation and renewal of Social Care
packages.

References
SWAN (Social Work Action Network). 2014. A charter for mental
health. Available at www.socialworkfuture.org [Accessed 8.7.15].
King, N. and Horrocks, C. 2010. Interviews in qualitative research.
London: Sage.
Petrie E (2012). Reducing Stress in Mental Health Practitioners.
Available from: www.intechopen.com [Accessed 14.11.14].
McCaffrey, T. 2014. Brainswarming because brainstorming doesnt
work. Available from www.hbr.org [Accessed 15.5.15].