Agenda item

To enable the Committee to maintain oversight of this issue and target scrutiny as required.

The Corporate Director of Children’s Services presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix ‘A’ to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The purpose of the report was to enable the Committee to gain an overview of the outcome of the full ILACS inspection and consider where detailed scrutiny should be focused.

The Committee discussed the presentation and comments were made, including:

• In response to a query regarding recruiting overseas staff, the Committee was advised that the service would assist with visas, offer a permanent post and have a lengthy introductory buddy scheme.  It was also noted that the staff being recruited currently did not reflect the diverse population of BCP, but more work could be done in this area.
• The Committee was advised that the recruitment of social workers was a national issue and that the front door was a challenging space which currently had 87% agency staff filling the roles.  It was noted that the overseas recruited social workers were being placed at the front door which would reduce the use agency staff.  The Committee was advised of the details of the social work recruitment and planning and made aware of the difficulties when rated as inadequate in comparison to neighbouring authorities who were rated as good and outstanding.
• The Committee was advised of work ongoing to stabilise the workforce and comparing BCP’s offer with others locally, including what package could be offered which would be attractive enough to entice agency staff to become permanent and provide more stability for the children and families being worked with
• The Committee discussed houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) and was advised that Ofsted found that the care provided to children in HMOs was not at an acceptable standard.  At the time of the inspection, there was 14 young people in HMOs and that had now been reduced to one.  A Committee Member advised that this matter was going to be considered by the Corporate Parenting Board and suggested sharing a report for information to ensure no duplication of work. ACTION – add to action sheet
• The importance of communication between social workers and service users was discussed together with the permanence of social workers to enable service users to feel comfortable and build a meaningful and productive relationship
• In response to a query regarding how best practice could be shared from the areas which had demonstrated improvements with those rated inadequate, the Corporate Director advised that this would come through the improvement plan
• In response to a query regarding what improvements had been made since the inspection and publication of the findings, the Committee was advised that some improvements had been made with pre-birth assessments by considering work done, reissuing toolbox training for social workers and changing the assessment process.
• The Committee discussed the varied workload of staff in different areas and it was noted that some had very large caseloads in comparison to others.  The service directors had been considering this and acknowledged that good or outstanding authorities had approximately 15 cases per social worker.  Work was being undertaken to try and address this but staffing issues caused delays. The Committee was advised that an update on this could come back to the Committee at a future date. ACTION – add to action sheet
• In response to a query regarding the Ofsted rating and range across the country.  It was noted that BCP was currently ‘Inadequate’ which was the lowest rating, however mentoring work was ongoing with Hampshire, who were rated ‘outstanding’.  The benchmarking process Ofsted used was explained to the Committee and the Corporate Director advised her priority was to stabilise the service and build solid foundations to move it forward.
• The Committee was advised how the improvement plan would be managed and the ways in which it could be monitored and audited.  A new Department for Education (DfE) advisor would be starting soon and the ambition was to achieve the improvement detailed in the plan by the end of the Ofsted monitoring visits, within the next 18 months. 
• In response to a query regarding staff surveys, the Committee was advised that there were BCP wide staff surveys and more specific surveys for children’s services staff.  The surveys could be anonymous however, staff can add the team they work in if they want to.  The questions remained the same to enable benchmarking but there was an ability to add free text.
• In response to a question regarding staff morale, the Committee was advised that some staff were disappointed with the outcome as they felt they had worked hard to demonstrate improvements, which were not recognised.  The Corporate Director stressed the importance of not dwelling on the result but moving forward together on the improvement journey.
• In response to a query about how the Committee could support Children’s Services in their improvement journey and could any lessons be learnt, the Corporate Director advised that as she had only just taken up her post, so felt unable to comment on past scrutiny, but that the improvement plan would help focus the leadership team and committee on what was required and needed to improve.
• In response to a query regarding the legacy case management systems, the Committee was advised there of the issues experienced with the case recording and the steps that needed to be taken to improve in this area
• The need to increase Special Guardian Orders and kinship arrangements was discussed, to move away from using long term fostering.  The Committee was advised that the CPB was considering this issue.
• In response to a query about specialist workers for child exploitation, the Committee was advised that BCP had a small team of specialist workers who worked with exploited children and young people, it was planned to make the offer wider to focus on prevention. The Committee was reassured that all social workers would do an assessment around exploitation.
• The Committee wanted to thank all the staff for their hard work and wanted them to know it was fully supportive of the improvement journey they continued along. ACTION – add to action plan.

The Chair summarised the discussions as follows:

• Staff retention and recruitment
• Houses of Multiple Occupations
• Areas that had shown improvement and how transfer good practice
• Varied caseloads
• Range of standards and how measure progress including timescales.
• Staff input into the process and what Committee can do to help
• Case management recording
• Special Guardianship Orders and Kinship placements.

The Chair concluded by thanking the outgoing DfE advisor, Anthony Douglas, for all his work with Children’s Services and the Committee.

RESOLVED that the Committee hold an additional meeting to fully scrutinise the Children’s Services Improvement Plan at the earliest opportunity.