Agenda item

To submit a report by the Head of Children’s Services.

The report of the Head of Children’s Services seeking the Executive’s approval to recruit additional agency staff in Children and Families’ Services was presented for consideration.

The Portfolio Member for Social Services reported on the context to the request by saying that a crucial element of the Children’s Services Improvement Plan which was formulated in response to the CIW’s inspection of Children and Families Services in 2016 is the recruitment and retention of committed and qualified social work staff. Although much has already been achieved as documented within the report, the service continues to be on a journey of improvement and as part of this journey the service is now looking to appoint 7 Newly Qualified Social Workers (3 have already been appointed); 3 agency Social Workers and a Practice Leader to form a Practice Group to review legacy cases along with additional legal capacity to meet the demand arising from this review in terms of cases that may proceed to Public Law Outline or into care proceedings.

The Assistant Chief Executive (Governance and Business Process Transformation) and Statutory Director of Social Services said that the number of children coming into care has doubled in the last four years thereby leading to a significant increase in the work required to support these placements. Although the number of children in the Authority’s care has since stabilised and levelled out it remains a matter of being aware of the continuing pressure on the service because of this increase and consequently of the number of staff that is required to provide appropriate support for these children and young people. The Officer referred to the request being made as having three elements to it namely –

•  To retain the 7 Agency Social Workers who are currently filling 7 vacant posts within the department for a further period until the end of October when 3 Newly Qualified Social Workers (NQSWs) will be able to take caseloads (Cost £56,658).

•  To appoint 7 NQSW to the Fieldwork Teams in October, 2018 (3 of whom have  already been appointed as referred to above) and to support these by going over establishment of 4 agency workers for 12 months. (Cost £123,686). The service continues to advertise for permanent social workers and has had some success in this endeavour although the appointments made have not been numerous. However, during its latest round of recruitment the service did appoint the 3 Social Work students to which reference has been made who will qualify in October, 2018 as NQSWs. There were four other candidates who were appointable during that process but they will not qualify for a further six months. Given the current social work recruitment difficulties throughout England and Wales it is unlikely the service will be able to recruit enough experienced social workers to fill the existing vacancies. The service will therefore seek to nurture and develop its own social workers but as NQSWs their caseloads will be limited initially and they will not be able to take responsibility for and lead on serious cases hence the need to retain agency social workers to provide support and guidance until the NQSWs gain experience.

•  The Head of Service has recently been made aware of historical cases some dating back a number of years which for the reasons stated in the report, could have been dealt with differently and more appropriately; these are being referred to as Legacy cases. These cases will have to be re-assessed and it is proposed to recruit 3 agency Social Workers and 1 Practice Leader over establishment to form a temporary Practice Team to be managed directly by the Head of Service in order to audit, assess and progress these cases to the correct plan or to the Courts (Cost £177,874).  As it is difficult to provide an accurate figure for the amount of cases which will proceed to the Public Law Outline or into care proceedings, the Service would need to estimate and provide additional capacity within its legal service (over and above the 1.5 FTE Solicitors that currently support the Children and Families Services) to meet this demand. It is proposed that the additional capacity is extended to 2.5 FTE for a period of 12 months at a cost of £54,527.

•  Taking into account the reserve of £144,737 within the Service for staffing costs the total additional funding requested is £268,008.

With reference to supplementing the legal capacity within the Service, the Head of Function (Council Business)/Monitoring Officer advised that having discussed the matter of additional legal capacity with the Head of Children and Families Services the estimated costs of making this provision as set out in the report are accurate in the event that the service is successful in recruiting a professional to work internally in this field for a period of 12 months. However, experience suggests that this is unlikely given the historical difficulties in recruiting for a temporary period to a specialised area. The alternative is to engage an agency solicitor for this purpose but at a significantly higher cost. The cost of a previous agency appointment to an area of similar specialism was £130k per annum which is considerably more expensive than the figure quoted in the report.

The Head of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer said that the additional costs incurred from meeting the request outlined above will fall to the Council’s General Reserves; these have reduced to £6.232m as at March, 2018 having been drawn upon to balance the 2017/18 Revenue Budget which was overspent by £1.7m. Further utilisation of the General Reserves to provide the additional funding requested by the Children and Families Services will take them below £6m which is the minimum level of general reserves which the Section 151 Officer has assessed the Council needs to hold in light of the financial context. The Officer said that however, the Council’s usable reserves are there for situations such as this when a sum of money is required to meet an unplanned for need.

The Executive noted the information presented and raised the following points –

•  The Executive noted that the Council has in the past supported traineeship schemes in a number of service areas. The Executive noted that establishing a solicitors’ traineeship scheme might be an idea worthy of further consideration in view of the difficulty of recruiting a professional for a fixed period and the high costs of procuring additional legal capacity when that is required from an agency source.

•  The Executive noted that historical cases have emerged within Children’s Services that are deemed to require audit and review to ensure there have been no oversights in their conduct and management. The Executive further noted that a strategic plan is proposed to reassess these legacy cases .The Executive was agreed in stating that it would be helpful if the service was able to clarify a timeframe for addressing and resolving legacy cases and the issues involved.

•  The Executive noted that the 2018/19 Budget Book shows that the income in the form of grants and other contributions to Children’s Service is £1.26m (now approaching £1.5m if the request above is acceded to). In light of this and also in view of the ongoing pressures on the Looked After Children’s budget although not unique to Anglesey, the Executive sought clarification of whether the assumptions in the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) should be revised to factor in this additional expenditure and the likelihood of reoccurrence in future years, and whether the £8.224 standstill budget for Children’s Services for 2018/19 is a realistic and true reflection of the actual position.

The Head of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer said that the MTFP contains 3 scenarios for Children’s Services, namely no additional funding for Children’s Services; 10% additional funding and 20% additional funding. So when the MTFP makes reference to a possible savings requirement of £10m, additional funding for Children’s Services has been accounted for within that sum.

It was resolved to approve the following –

•  For the Children and Families Services to recruit 7 NQSW to the fieldwork teams from October, 2018 (3 already appointed) and for these to be supported by going over establishment by 4 agency social workers for 12 months.

•  For the Service to extend the legal capacity within the service by 2.5 FTE for a period of 12 months.

 •  For £268,008 additional funding to be released from the Council’s reserves to fund the additional requirements outlined in the report.