To enable the Committee to understand arrangements being made to address the findings of the recent OFSTED inspection of early help and child protection services in Herefordshire and to determine the action the Committee needs to take to assure the strength of the improvements being made.

The Committee received a report on the arrangements being made to address the findings of the OFSTED inspection of early help and child protection services in Herefordshire, undertaken between the 10^th and 19^th September 2012.

The Director of People’s Services reported that this was the first inspection under a new national inspection framework that would only be in place until April 2013, and Herefordshire was the fourth area to be inspected in the country. Inspections had focused on those areas that were judged to be adequate or inadequate.  A new multi agency, multi-inspectorate inspection framework would be in place thereafter, which would inspect all agencies at the same time.

Whilst there were strengths, particularly in the area of early years help, the inspectors had identified a number of significant weaknesses in the quality and effectiveness of child protection practice, the effectiveness of leadership and governance in child protection  and therefore the impact of the child protection services on outcomes and experiences for children and their families. As a result of these weaknesses, OFSTED judged arrangements in Herefordshire to be inadequate for all elements.

The Director went on to say that, under national arrangements, all councils graded inadequate were considered to require the oversight of the Department for Education (DfE), to ensure the improvements made were as rapid as possible, and were likely to continue to improve. It was likely that Herefordshire would require an Improvement Notice from the Minister which would be developed with the Council. This would set out the specific improvements to be made and the timescales for doing this. It could take up to two years to be in a position to reach an ‘adequate’ rating. An Improvement Board had been established which comprised the Chief Officers of all relevant partner organisations; the Lead Member for the Council; external advice from the DfE and an Independent Chairman.  In the ensuing discussion, a number of issues were discussed.

The Director said that there would be an audit of all cases by an independent organisation in order to provide a baseline understanding of the practice issues that the Council was experiencing. 

The Independent Chairman of the Children’s Safeguarding Board reported that, since 2010, the Board had not addressed the issue of how all the agencies worked together.  This was an issue that OFSTED had commented on, and if Agencies did not respond quickly enough, or the quality of practitioners, including social workers was not adequate, then hard edged child protection would not be delivered.  This was a situation that would be addressed.

In reply to concerns expressed by Members, the Assistant Director Children & Young People Provider Services said that significant steps were being made to address the low baseline from which children’s social care was working.  Issues had been identified and a Principle Social Worker appointed, who was also the Head of Children & Families Casework.  The recruitment and retention of staff was a relentless process, but there were very few experienced potential staff available in the market place. Work was underway to explore all issues regarding recruitment and retention including remuneration of social workers and managers and how this compared regionally.

The Head of Children & Families Casework said that there was confidence amongst staff that the qualities of social workers were recognised within the management structure of the Council.  Staff felt confident to report issues internally and to expect a resolution without the need to resort to whistleblowing.  He went on to say that the degree of Member involvement had been a great support in the past, both to the workforce and to support of the decisions that had to be made.

There had been a three-fold increase in safeguarding referrals without comparable growth in social work staff to support such an increase. There was an anxiety that social workers were being asked to deal with issues that could have been picked up at much earlier stage, before social work intervention was required. 

In reply to a question, the Assistant Director said that there were 51 FTE social worker posts, of which 94% were filled.  There were more staff than the total number of posts as a result of the use of agency workers working above establishment in order to address the caseloads.  The aspiration was to reduce the caseload burden on social workers to seventeen, although this would depend on the nature of the cases. OFSTED had noted the progress made in reducing caseloads.

A Member pointed out that some of the issues raised in the OFSTED were the same ones that had been highlighted in the 2010 report and pointed out that whilst all Members were corporate parents, the ultimate responsibility for the service lay with the Cabinet Member (Health and Wellbeing) and suggested that an apology for the situation should be forthcoming.  The Cabinet Member replied that she had expressed disappointment in the findings of the OFSTED report, and pointed out that whilst it was a valuable exercise, it should be seen as a snapshot in time which would help to inform choices for the future of the service.

A Member supported the need for Councillors to understand their role as corporate parents, and said that it was important that there was no impact on the early help service and that regular monitoring of the degree of communication between partner agencies should be maintained.

The Assistant Director Children & Young People Provider Services said that there was a great deal of pressure on social care and children’s provider services budgets.  There was significant spend in the agency budgets, although this had been significantly tackled and reduced. This was a high cost area, and a strategic approach was required to deal with the issue but to still be in the position to meet the needs of children placed in care.  Over the past year good strategic and operational work had resulted in in-house fostering provision in Herefordshire increasing, which would be beneficial both to children and to social care budgets.  The Assistant Director emphasised the importance of early help, and that it was vital at this time that early support for families should not be reduced – particularly in light of the fact that OFSTED judged these services to be good.

The Cabinet Member (Health & Wellbeing) said that she would welcome support from the Committee in the upcoming budget discussions for the settlement for 2013/14.  She believed that it was important that Children’s Safeguarding should be supported by good services which would have beneficial outcomes for children and would, ultimately, cost the Council less to run.

RESOLVED:

            That:

(a)         That the report be noted; and;

(b)        A standing Review Group be set up to support the work of the Improvement Board.