Stephen Rice

🎉 It's official: Ofsted says our Children's Services are now 'Good' 👍 They've praised major improvements that have led to better outcomes for children and young people. Cllr Chris Barnham, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, explains why this is great news.⬇️

@Tonywstanley Nga mihi Tony, really interesting - there is a lot to like about this - concise and very clear. We are going to keep writing on the UK system here: linkedin.com/company/cultur… Would be great to hear your thoughts on our future articles as we publish them!

Kia ora Stephen, agree totally re practice models, here in New Zealand we have designed a new practice framework that supports the delivery of practice models practice.orangatamariki.govt.nz/practice-appro…

"if practice is important and measurable, then creating the conditions for good practice is also important and measurable. Then a great measure of the strength of our practice model is conversations between senior managers - do they "model the model?" medium.com/culture-conver…

"Being able to describe an appealing social work practice is essential, especially given the national recruitment and retention challenges. A compelling and persuasive practice model can be an invaluable tool for forward-thinking local authorities." medium.com/culture-conver…

...practice models are not actively grown organically very often, maybe because we over-complicate what they do and don't understand what their purpose is. The point of this conversation, is to try to unpack that purpose and methodology. medium.com/culture-conver…

"Many orgs create a vacuum around their story by asking external agencies to define it for them before they've deeply understood it themselves. What comes back is often a story the public wants to hear, rather than the authentic story." -Owen Eastwood medium.com/culture-conver…

The first in a series of conversations with @familygroupmeet about organisational cultures in children's social work... medium.com/culture-conver…

"Instead of a problem to be solved, we imagine the Care System through the Appreciative Inquiry lens - as a mystery to be embraced and unpacked, with enormous knowledge and strength, and with the potential to reshape our whole society." medium.com/culture-conver…

"Social work has a long, proud tradition of community engagement, but in statutory services at least, this skill set has been all but lost. We must rediscover it, and there's a lot that we can learn from the thousands of small neighbourhood charities..." medium.com/culture-conver…

"If we want to build a practice system that is better at working constructively with families, we need to talk about our fear of mistakes, and we need to talk about power." medium.com/culture-conver…

"To have contact with children’s services carries a stigma which is impossible to shake. Requests for support lead only to cycles of assessment and monitoring which often exacerbate family stress. Professionals come and go from their lives.." medium.com/culture-conver…

"The word ‘Love’ appears 43 times in the Care Review, zero times in Ofsted’s ILACS framework, and zero times in the 3 hour performance meetings that take place in hundreds of local authority children’s services departments across the country each week." medium.com/culture-conver…

Conversations with @familygroupmeet about organisational culture medium.com/culture-conver…

🚨New policy report🚨 Today we are launching our latest report, Never More Than Once, which sets out how the government can better support birth families, so that the removal of a child into care never happens more than once. Read more➡️tinyurl.com/bde9hj6b #NeverMoreThanOnce

The SWIS study seems designed on the premise that good social work is 'being' the safe relationship. I'd love to see a study premised on social work 'building' the safe relationships around the child & family within the school community. @FoundationsWW whatworks-csc.org.uk/wp-content/upl…

Every social worker should read this report! childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/wp-content/upl…

The Christmas Dinners are my greatest achievement.

How to Create Mattering at Work by @ZachMercurio link.medium.com/Rcm5K0CEfvb

@Te_Nug Twickers is a bit pricey for this Kiwi - was cheaper to take the kids to Cardiff for the weekend and watch that game

Any kiwi fans coming to the big game ? 👐🏽 #ABvENG