Agenda item

To present the following –

·        A progress report by the Head of Children and Families’ Services on implementing the Children’s Services Improvement Plan.

·        A progress report from the Children’s Services Improvement Panel.

•           The report of the Head of Children and Families’ Services on progress in implementing the Service Improvement Plan was presented for the Committee’s consideration.

The Leader and Portfolio Member for Social Services highlighted some of the comments made in the final report of the Independent Support Team (IST) which were reproduced in the Officer’s report. The IST at the request of the Director of Social Services, has been working with the Service to support improvement following the inspection of Children’s Services in November, 2016. The IST refers to the number of encouraging and positive features that have become apparent during its work which include but are not limited to a clear leadership and management structure; efficient recruitment to vacant posts and staff training and development programmes; improved management and mentoring support for Children’s Social Workers as well as a high level of political understanding of the issues being tackled by Children’s Social Services.  The Portfolio Member also reported on the marked improvement in Performance Indicators as shown in the table at Section 3 of the report which compares the performance in Quarter 1, 2018/19 against the cumulative performance for 2017/18. A like for like comparison with Quarter 1 2017/18 performance evidences the improvement even more noticeably. Similarly, there has been considerable improvement in relation to the performance of the Service in achieving corporate performance standards.

The Portfolio Member highlighted that the Service recently organised a Celebration Event for Foster Carers which was held in recognition of the invaluable work which the Authority’s foster carers and family and friends (connected persons) foster carers do in providing care for children and young people in a safe environment  when they are not able to live at home.

The Assistant Chief Executive and Statutory Director of Social Services said that significant progress has been made since the inspection by the former CSSIW (now CIW) in November, 2016 and the submission of the resulting report to the Corporate Scrutiny Committee in March, 2017 which contained 14 recommendations for improvement. The Officer said that CIW has now confirmed that the Service will be re-inspected in October, 2018.

The Head of Children and Families’ Services said that the Service Improvement Plan has been reviewed and added to regularly since it was formulated post-inspection. In terms of the recruitment and retention of staff which was a key area for improvement and has been one of the areas on which work has been focused since the last report to the Committee, the re-structuring of the Service is now nearing completion. The Service has successfully recruited 5 newly qualified Children’s Social Workers and has had some success in appointing experienced Social Workers and continues to advertise for the latter. A recent advertisement for the post of Practice Leader drew interest from outside the Authority which is a reflection of the improving reputation of the Council’s Children’s Services. The Service has also made progress in other ways as evidenced in improved performance against key indicators and fewer complaints against the Service. The Officer referred to the report of the Independent Support Team and welcomed it as encouraging and constructive.

•           The report of the Scrutiny Manager providing an update on the work of the Children’s Services Improvement Panel was presented for the Committee’s consideration.

Councillor Richard Griffiths, the Corporate Scrutiny Committee’s representative on the Children’s Services  Improvement Panel reported that the Panel has met on 13 occasions since the summer of 2017 and in that period its members have developed a better appreciation and understanding  of the complexities of Children’s Services and the risks involved and are consequently better able to scrutinise effectively, hold to account, identify priorities and ensure that the work streams pertaining to the Service Improvement Plan are progressing appropriately. As part of its work programme the Panel has undertaken a self-evaluation exercise which has enabled Members to critically assess the contribution the Panel is making on the journey towards improving Children’s Services.

Councillor Griffiths said that the Panel finds that good progress is being made on implementing the Service Improvement Plan. Notwithstanding, the dependency on agency staff has been reduced, the Panel again notes and brings to the Committee’s attention the fact that some social worker posts continue to be filled by agency staff and that these need to be filled on a permanent basis. It is noted however that this is being addressed by appointing social workers both experienced and newly qualified and supporting experienced support workers to qualify.

The Committee considered the information presented in the two reports and raised points as follows –

•           The Committee noted that the Service has implemented a restructuring programme and is making progress in relation to recruiting to vacant Social Worker posts. The Committee sought clarification of the success in recruiting bilingual Children’s Social Care Workers and whether this is a challenge for the Service.

The Head of Children and Families’ Services said that there is a shortage nationally of experienced Children’s Social Care Workers and that this is especially true of experienced bilingual Children’s Social Care Workers. Despite this the Service has been able to meet the linguistic preferences of the families for whom it provides services and it advertises on a bilingual basis in accordance with the Council’s Welsh Language Policy. The University of Bangor’s Social Works degree is provided via both a Welsh and English medium course and from this year there is a requirement that students are bilingual. Therefore, although there is currently a shortage of experienced bilingual Social Workers it is likely that this situation will change in future. The Officer confirmed also that the Service has been actively marketing Social Work as a profession in schools and colleges and has established Social Care Ambassadors to promote this function. The Service also supports a Social Work traineeship scheme.

The Assistant Chief Executive/Statutory Director of Social Services said that some of the Service’s agency Social Workers are professionals returning to work in the area who need encouragement to re-engage with the Welsh language – they are being provided with the support to do so. In relation to recruitment in general the Service has working for it support workers and engagement officers who are keen to undertake support work before deciding on embarking on formal Social Work training;  this is good way of helping them to decide whether they wish to pursue this avenue and to prepare them for the commitment.

•           The Committee noted that a reduction in the complaints received is considered a corollary of the improvements being made in Children and Families’ Services. The Committee sought clarification of whether this reduction is quantifiable.

The Statutory Director of Social Services said that 5 Stage 1 complaints were recoded for Quarter 1 2018/19 with no Stage 2 complaints compared with 15 Stage 1 complaints for the same period last year which suggests that individuals are happier with the service they have received. Listening to children and their families and improving participation is an area which the Service has also been focusing on. However, the nature of the service and the vulnerability of the children, young people and families with whom the Service comes into contact and is involved with makes complaints more likely.

The Head of Children and Families Services said that learning from complaints is an essential part of improving services. Quarterly monitoring reports are presented to the Children and Family Services Management Team which evaluates the number of complaints and compliments received against each service under each stage of the procedure along with the lessons learnt from them.

•           The Committee noted that staff retention has been an issue in the past. The Committee sought clarification of the ways in which the Service is strengthening the support it provides for staff.

The Head of Children and Families’ Services said that newly recruited staff go through a corporate as well as a service induction programme to help them settle into their jobs. The Practice Leaders’ roles introduced as part of the Service restructure are responsible for a much smaller team of Social Workers thereby providing accessible and consistent support. Staff conferences are also held on a regular basis. One of the most important elements of staff support is supervision which is an aspect of practice the Service has been focusing on developing and which can now be evidenced as happening consistently.

The Statutory Director of Social Services said that the recruitment of Children’s Social Care Workers is a problem nationally. Nevertheless, the work which the Service has accomplished thus far as part of the Improvement Programme and the restructuring which has taken place has led to success in recruitment, particularly at manager level thereby enhancing the Service’s reputation as a desirable place to work. As this message spreads, it is likely to help recruitment efforts in future.

•           The Committee noted that the Service is reducing its dependency on agency staff and it sought clarification of the projected position in a year’s time in terms of the ratio of permanent staff to agency staff.

The Statutory Director of Social Services said that whilst the Service is actively seeking to reduce its reliance on agency staff, this does not mean that it will not employ agency social workers in future. Agency staff enable the Service to be flexible at times when it requires additional input e.g. for time limited projects such as addressing legacy cases when recruiting might otherwise be difficult or during periods of staff absences. Agency staff can also fulfil an important supporting role in sharing expertise and experience with newly qualified social workers.

•           The Committee noted that although the feedback provided by the Independent Support Team at the conclusion of its work with the Service is encouraging, the IST comments that despite there being some signs of improvement in the quality of practice there remain concerns about the extent to which this is consistently the case. The Committee sought assurance that the issue of the quality and standard of practice is continuing to be addressed.

The Statutory Director of Social Services acknowledged that the quality of practice is an important factor, hence the introduction since June, 2017 of Practice Standards across the Service. The Officer said that although there is room for further improvement as the IST recognises, the quality of practice within the Service has improved significantly in the past year.

The Head of Children and Families’ Services said that the establishment of a Quality Assurance Framework is also part of the process of improving practice across all areas of the Service.

The Portfolio Member for Social Services highlighted that at a meeting of the Corporate Parenting Panel earlier in the week, the Independent Reviewing Officer in a report by the Quality and Safeguarding Unit had noted that from a random review of 10 cases each one was found to have up to date records and that there was evidence of positive progress in this regard.

•           The Committee sought clarification of whether the 3 year timeframe for the completion of the Service Improvement Plan is realistic and allows the Service to fulfil all of its objectives.

The Statutory Director of Social Services said that the 14 recommendations made by CIW as a result of its inspection of the Authority’s Children’s Services were translated into 21 actions in the Service Improvement Plan. Approximately, half of those actions have now been completed and a further 8 are in progress and on track. Whilst three areas in the Improvement Plan are denoted Amber and relate to consistency issues no areas are denoted Red.  As with any programme of improvement, implementing changes and ensuring they become embedded in practice and are applied consistently take time; it is considered that the Service is three quarters of the way to achieving the changes that need to be made.

It was resolved –

•           To confirm that the Committee is satisfied with the steps taken to progress the implementation of the Service Improvement Plan and with the pace of progress and improvements made to date within the Children and Families’ Service, and that the Committee -

•           Notes the progress made to date with the work of the Children’s Services Improvement Plan in terms of achieving its work programme.

•           Notes that all work-streams pertaining to the Service Improvement Plan appear to be on target thus far.

•           Notes the outcome of the Children’s Services Improvement Panel’s recent self-evaluation work stream to measure the impact and added value of the Panel.

•           Notes the ongoing development programme for the Panel’s members much of which is delivered in-house.

•           Notes also that the Panel has escalated for the Committee’s attention the fact that although good progress has been made on implementing the revised staffing structure, some posts remain filled by agency workers. The Committee further notes that this is being addressed by appointing Social Workers (experienced and newly qualified) and supporting experienced Support Workers to qualify.

NO ADDITIONAL ACTION WAS PROPOSED.