Agenda item

·        To present the report of the Head of Children and Families Services

·        To present the report of the Children’s Services Improvement Panel

4.1       The report of the Head of Children and Families’ Services setting out the progress to date with implementing the Service Improvement Plan was presented for the Committee’s consideration.

The Assistant Chief Executive (Governance and Business Process Transformation) and Statutory Director of Social Services reported that over the period since CIW’s inspection of Children’s Services, the Service has been involved in putting in place a series of important changes which it is considered will better deliver in line with legislation. The main areas of change which are elaborated on in the report relate to the following –

•           Restructuring the service so that the focus is on Early Intervention and prevention and intensive intervention under service managers leading on and holding the resources for each of these service areas. It has substantially increased the level of supervisory resources, management oversight, case direction, and has improved care planning with small Practice Groups led by Practice Leaders who aim to improve the quality of professional practice.

•           Developing a prevention strategy with the objective of de-escalating need at all levels thereby reducing the need for intensive involvement. The Council has invested resources to establish an intensive intervention Resilient Families’ Team to respond proactively to children with high level/edge of care needs and also to work with the allocated social worker to assist with returning children out of care to friends or family closer to home.

•           Improving the systems in place to support intensive intervention by reviewing cases to ensure the right cases are being dealt with at this level and that the Service’s processes are as effective as possible.

•           Improving the quality and consistency of practice. Improved processes and guidance have been developed and additional resources have been committed to improving the Quality Assurance and Improvement function.

The Officer said that the Service recognises that the steps taken are recent in their implementation with most coming to fruition since the inspection report was published in March, 2017 and are dependent on the successful implementation of the Practice Leader role. This will take time to achieve what is expected of it but the benefits of doing so effectively will be seen in good quality practice across all Children and Families’ Services. The focus of the work in the last quarter has been on consolidating recruitment and retention arrangements. Given the national shortage of experienced Social Workers the Service has implemented a contingency plan (funding for which has been approved by the Executive) which is to recruit newly qualified Social Workers (NQSWs) to vacant posts and to engage experienced agency social workers over capacity for a period of one year to provide support for the NQSWs throughout their first year in the Practice Framework. Implementing the 21 actions on the Service Improvement Plan (SIP) is also ongoing. After 12 months of work on the SIP, the service has developed a RAG rating system to measure progress – the table within the report shows that 6 areas have been completed (Green), 10 areas are almost complete (Yellow) and 5 Amber areas are ongoing pieces of work in relation to Social Work practice. There are no areas denoted as Red in which progress has not been made. The areas rated as Amber are being prioritised throughout 2018.

The increase over the past four years in the number of children who are looked after by the Authority has correspondingly increased the financial cost of Children’s Services both in terms of staffing and in terms of arranging and funding foster care and/or residential placements. The report refers to the financial implications of more children and young people coming into the care system and the additional investment made in Children and Families’ Services over the three years since 2016 to meet the increased demands on the service. In 2017/18 the Service overspent its budget by £1.78m because of the increase in the number of Looked After Children where individual placements can entail a significant cost. The Service is looking to reduce the number of children reaching this stage as well as increasing placement options on the Island. However, this will take time and there remains a risk that the Service will overspend again in 2018/19.

The Committee noted the information presented and made the following points –

•           The Committee noted that the Council has allocated additional resources to Children’s Services since 2016.The Committee sought clarification of the extent of the investment made and the uses to which it has been put.

The Assistant Chief Executive (Governance and Business Process Transformation) and Statutory Director of Social Services said that the over the three years an additional £803k of permanent funding has been added to the Service’s budget with a further £240k (2 year funding) for an early intervention team. In May, 2018 the Executive approved a further one-off sum of £268k to fund agency staffing costs to fill existing vacancies, to support newly qualified Social Workers and to deal with Legacy cases where the Authority may not have responded appropriately to historic cases. The additional money has also been used to meet the demand for residential placements which can cost up to £250k per young person for a specialist placement. In light of the fact that the Authority now has 14 young people in residential placements compared with 8 two years ago this increase could potentially incur additional costs in the region of £1.5m. The Service is seeking to intervene sooner so as to prevent cases from escalating to the point where a residential placement is the only option. The Service is also aiming to provide better placement choice locally e.g. Small Group Homes in order to reduce usage of out of county placements which puts an increased travel burden on children’s social workers and puts added pressure on the service’s budget. The service is reliant to an extent on whatever placement is available at a point in time when the need arises - whilst arrangements are made to identify an appropriate longer term placement that matches the individual’s needs. These placements can be in the locality or more usually they are further afield.

•           The Committee noted that out of county placements can be especially expensive and can very quickly take the Service beyond its budget. The Committee therefore sought clarification of the provision that is available locally and whether there is scope for greater collaboration on a regional basis.

The Assistant Chief Executive (Governance and Business Process Transformation) and Statutory Director of Social Services said that there are currently 140 children and young people being looked after by the Authority in Anglesey. Some of those are placed with their families mostly on Anglesey although they remain formally in the care of the Authority. The Authority has 25 of its own registered foster carers catering for different types of need and additionally it makes use of Independent sector foster carers. Two private companies provide residential placements on the Island which are mostly utilised by young people from England. Therapeutic placements are available in Gwynedd but these are short-term and are for specific trauma related care needs. Choice of placements is driven by the individual’s needs but increasingly the Authority is challenging companies on the quality, value and suitability of the provision provided in order to ensure that the service obtained is the service paid for. The Officer said that it is important to bear in mind that although the number of children in the Authority’ s care has almost doubled over the last few years the budget for Children and Families’ Services has not increased proportionately. The doubling of the number of children being looked has also led to a doubling in the need for placements which in turn means that more Social Workers are required to manage the increased caseloads hence the need for additional investment. Most other authorities nationally, including the North Wales authorities, are facing the same challenges as Anglesey with regard to shortage of placements; however, Anglesey is leading in terms of developing alternative placement options.

•           The Committee noted that there have been issues over time with the recruitment and retention of Children’s Services Social Work staff. In order to help it understand the impact which  an overhaul of processes including improved support, supervision and guidance has had on recruitment and retention in the past two years, the Committee requested the following information – the number of current vacancies, the number of children’s  social  work staff that have left the service in the past two years; the reduction in the number of agency social workers over the past two years and the number currently  engaged by the Service; whether there has been a change in trend following the re-evaluation of Children’s Social Worker posts as part of the Job Evaluation process and whether benchmarking  against other authorities occurs.

The Head of Children’s Services said that there were 7 vacancies for Children’s Social Workers, 4 of which have just been filled with 3 remaining to be filled. Further interviews are to be held in the next few weeks. The four appointees are Newly Qualified Social Workers who will receive appropriate support. However, as well as focusing on filling vacancies, the Service is seeking to ensure that the persons appointed are of the right quality.

The Assistant Chief Executive (Governance and Business Process Transformation) and Statutory Director of Social Services said that although remuneration is an important consideration in recruitment, it is not the only one; other factors that are critical to the successful recruitment of Social Work staff are the existence of a safe and positive working environment; a manageable caseload and the availability of appropriate support and supervision. These elements are now in place in Anglesey and recruitment has improved as a result.

Having considered the information provided and the assurances received, the Committee resolved to confirm that it is satisfied with the steps taken to date to progress the implementation of the Children’s Services Improvement Plan and the pace of progress.

ADDITIONAL ACTION PROPOSED: The Scrutiny Manager to source and to circulate to the Committee’s Members information in relation to the number of children’s social  work staff that have left the service in the past two years; the reduction in the number of agency social workers over the past two years and the number currently engaged by the Service,  whether there has been a change in trend following the re-evaluation of Children’s Social worker posts as part of the Job Evaluation process and the availability of  benchmarking data against other authorities.

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

The Scrutiny Manager reported on the work of the Panel for the period from February, to April, 2018 during which period it gave consideration to the following matters over the course of three meetings –

•           Continued oversight of the Service Improvement Plan to ensure the programme remains on target. As part of its ongoing monitoring of the SIP the Panel followed up on five specific issues as noted in the report.

•           Detailed consideration was given by the Panel to two themes in the Service Improvement Plan namely Theme 4 and Theme 5.

•           Laming Visits

•           Partnership working

•           Performance Management

•           Training/awareness raising sessions

The Officer highlighted that at its last meeting, the Panel made arrangements to undertake a self-evaluation of its effectiveness and in particular the impact the Panel has had on the improvement programme in Children and Families’ Services and also to enable the Panel’s members to grade the RAG status of Theme 1.5 of the SIP for Children’s services. This is concerned with progress to date against two recommendations in the recent Care Inspectorate report which directly relate to the role of Members.

Having considered the information presented, the Committee resolved to note –

•           The progress made to date with the work of the Children’s Services Improvement Panel

•           That all work streams pertaining to the Service Improvement Plan appear to be on target thus far and that this was confirmed by Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) following its assessment of the Council’s self-evaluation to date.

•           The ongoing development programme for Panel Members much of which is delivered in-house.

•           That the Panel has escalated for the parent 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 developing experienced home grown Social Workers by supporting experienced Support Workers to qualify and by recruiting Newly Qualified Social Workers.

NO ADDITIONAL ACTION WAS PROPOSED