Our Vision, Our Strategy
Children and Young People’s Plan 2023 - 2027
Our vision
In Barnet, we believe that every child has the right to a healthy, happy childhood. We are committed to ensuring all children living in the borough have equal opportunities to learn, have fun, participate, and thrive. It is our mission to create systems of support that are designed with and for children, young people, and families in our borough; a system that understands and responds to local needs, builds on the strengths of our excellent schools, diverse communities, and high-quality services and, protects those that are vulnerable.
The Barnet Corporate Plan 2023-26.pdf sets out our ambition for creating a Family Friendly borough in which resilient children are thriving in resilient families living in resilient communities. To achieve our ambitions, our resilience-based practice approach aims to create opportunities for positive change by building on existing strengths and aspirations, keeping children at the centre of all we do, tackling inequalities and involving children, young people, families, and local communities in the development of our services. We will do this by working in collaboration with key stakeholders, co-production with children, young people and families and ensuring our services are providing the right support at the right time and in the right places.
Our Practice Framework
Our practice model is grounded in a strengths-based approach that recognises and focuses on positive attributes, abilities, and protective factors in individuals, families, and communities. We believe that individuals, families, and communities are capable of growth, learning, and positive change, and that they are experts on their own lives. Our approach fosters empowerment and self-determination, building resilience in families and communities by highlighting their strengths and placing them at the heart of our purpose. We further utilise this approach with each other and our professional networks so we can proactively build positive and supportive relationships.
Our Priorities
Our new Children and Young People’s Plan is presently out for consultation. It was developed closely in partnership with our children and young people in Barnet and as they said themselves “Wow they really listened”. We want all children to benefit from the opportunities available in the borough and we have a clear focus on tackling the gap and fighting inequalities.
These are our priorities:
Working in partnership
Learning in Context is our workforce training and development approach. It has been uniquely developed to meet the needs of the children’s workforce and provides:
- learning that is accessible, relatable and applicable
- learning that is well timed, tailored and targeted
- live and action learning opportunities through workshops, coaching, mentoring and group (and peer) supervision
Our Learning in Context approach moved traditional classroom and course-based training from a focus on ‘knowing what’ to a focus on ‘knowing how’; our practice development managers and workforce development team can deliver tailored 1:1, live learning workshops, coproduced practice seminars and service days to support transfer of learning to practice.
We want to recruit a diverse, committed and professional workforce. Reflective of the diverse communities we work with and who can deliver services that meet the needs of our children. We provide a supportive practice-focused environment where the management of risk is shared with practice leaders and the children’s workforce are valued, listened to, and developed.
We provide opportunities to grow in skill, experience and seniority, we want our children’s workforce to follow a development path that is tailored and fulfilling for them as individuals. Our clear progression pathways Career Progression Pathways (PDF 394KB) facilitate development and movement in multiple directions within Family Services and Barnet Council.
We have developed excellent partnership working arrangements with partner agencies and the voluntary sector and have an impressive range of resources available to children and families. We believe that social workers need to have the right conditions to intervene effectively with children and families so we work to ensure systems enable time spent with children and families, by ensuring caseloads are manageable, equipment is functional and administrative tasks are supported. We recognise the importance of a good work-life balance and offer flexible working arrangements and genuine care for our workforce’s well-being.