Team of the Year, Adult Services

           RECOGNISE INSPIRING SOCIAL WORK

End of Life Social Work Team

ORGANISATION: Calderdale Council

AWARD(S): Team of the Year, Adult Services

 

“Innovative, fantastic and inspiring” is how the judges described Calderdale’s End of Life Social Work Team. The team of four was set up in 2012 to coordinate social work led, rather than clinically led, interventions for people in their last year of life.

 

Central to the team’s success is their person-centred approach, championing the wishes of service users and their families. They are keen to develop innovative approaches and lobbied the Directorate for a grant which they use for creative support planning, for example, hiring a removal van to help a young man in his last few weeks of life move back to his parents’ house.

 

The panel also commended their ability to work in partnership with clinicians and other health and social care professionals. When working with a terminally-ill single mother, the End of Life Team liaised closely with children’s services and housing to secure nursery placements, counselling and a new family home.

 

The team has gone above and beyond their KPIs, with 92% of service users saying their support improved their quality of life. Referrals have increased by 71% in the past year and the team has developed into a beacon of adult social work in Calderdale.

WHAT THEY SAID:

I am extremely proud to work with the End of Life Social Work Team; their commitment has had a profound effect on how we deliver adult care across the authority. They are the team that other social workers want to join.

Rob Mitchell, Principal Social Worker, Calderdale Council

Thank you so much for supporting me and my mum during her last two weeks of her life. You did an excellent job in making sure that mum was seen as more than just a ‘patient’.

Daughter of a service user

The entry for the End of Life Social Work Team was absolutely outstanding and I loved reading it. What’s most telling is that everyone wants to work there – it’s obviously a very happy team and a great place to be.

Cait Vulliamy, Director of Adult Services, Skylakes Social Work

This was a fabulous entry. You rarely see a team like this – extremely innovative, fantastic and inspiring, with real values that came across in abundance.

Jo Cleary, Chair, The College of Social Work

THE FINALISTS

SILVER AWARD WINNER

Young Adults Team, Worcestershire County Council

North East Derbyshire Community Social Work Team, Derbyshire County Council

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