Agenda item

·        To present a progress report by the Head of Children’s Services.

·        To present an update report from the Children’s Services Improvement Panel.

•           The report of the Head of Children and Families’ Services setting out the progress to date on implementing the Children’ s Service Improvement Plan was presented for the Committee’s consideration. The report set out progress thus far with regard to the following areas of focus –

•           Service Re-structure

•           Recruitment and Retention

•           Policy and Guidance update including the Workforce Strategy

•           Quality Assurance

•           Working with Partners

The Leader and Portfolio Member for Social Services reported that a great deal of work has been done so far and is ongoing. Attached at Appendix 3 to the report is a detailed self-assessment summarising the strengths, achievements and areas remaining to be improved against each of the recommendations of CSSIW’s Inspection report from its inspection of the Council’s Children’s Services in November, 2016. A letter from CSSIW’s Head of Local Authority Inspection dated 11 January, 2018 notes that although the pace  of change has been slow there has been positive incremental improvement overall and that significant progress has been achieved in implementing the new service structure. The letter acknowledges that there is continuing corporate commitment to securing improvement in Children’s Services and that increased scrutiny and challenge from elected members has been a positive development. The Regulator states that it will continue to monitor progress ahead of a more formal review by way of re-inspection later in 2018.

The Head of Children and Families Services said that he was pleased with the Regulator’s letter which recognises the continuing progress made by the Council to implement the recommendations of the inspection and to improve its Children and Families Service. The Officer, in acknowledging that much work remains to be done said that reforming practice does not happen overnight. However, the service is aware of the areas it needs to focus on and is prioritising accordingly.

•           A report by the Scrutiny Manager incorporating a progress update on the work of the Children’s Services Improvement Panel was presented for the Committee’s consideration. The report provided a summary of the matters which have received the Panel’s attention over the course of November and December, 2017 along with an updated version of the Panel’s work programme to May 2018.

Councillor Richard Griffiths, the Corporate Scrutiny Committee’s representative on the Panel reported that all work-streams pertaining to the Service Improvement Plan appear to be on target thus far. However, the Panel wishes to bring the Corporate Scrutiny’s attention to the fact that although good progress has been made on implementing the revised staffing structure, some social worker posts remain filled by agency workers. This needs to be addressed as soon as possible.

The Committee considered the information presented and was assured by the feedback received from the Panel and the areas covered by it during the reporting period as set out in section 2.2 of the report. The Committee noted that the Panel had observed that there had been a significant reduction in the service’s dependency on agency staff in filing vacancies but that 4 social worker posts continued to be filled by agency staff and needed to be filled on a permanent basis. The Committee therefore sought an update on the recruitment position, particularly in relation to whether the service had taken the step as previously suggested by the Committee to be more proactive in its approach to recruitment and to advertise more widely.

The Head of Children and Families Service said that the Guardian (on-line) and Community Care (a social work journal) which the service has used to advertise vacancies are recognised sources of social work advertisement and recruitment. The service has started to offer taster placements aimed at sparking the interest of sixth form pupils for example and there are two internal members of staff who are following the traineeship programme to become qualified social workers which it is hoped could be a recurring feature in future years. Social worker recruitment is a national issue and many of Wales’s 22 local authorities depend to varying degrees on agency staff. Additionally, 5 of the service’s staff have been trained as social care ambassadors to go out to local colleges and sixth forms to talk about social care work.

It was RESOLVED that the Committee –

•           Takes assurance from the progress report and is satisfied with the steps taken to progress implementation of the Service Improvement Plan and the pace of progress.

•           Notes the progress made to date with the work of the Children’s Services Improvement Panel and that all work-streams pertaining to the Service Improvement Plan appear to be on target thus far.

•           Notes the Panel’s concern that some social worker posts continue to be filled by agency staff and notes also, that the service is taking steps to broaden and diversify its recruitment approach.

NO ADDITIONAL ACTION WAS PROPOSED