To receive a report on the receipt of the Improvement Notice from the Department for Education and progress to date on the Ofsted recommendations.

The Committee received a report on Children’s Safeguarding from the Assistant Director Children & Young People Provider Services.  In the ensuing discussion the following points were made:

·         That following the Ofsted inspection of local authority arrangements for the protection of children in autumn 2012, the Council had received an Improvement Notice, which had been developed with the Council. This sets out the key areas of action which are essential to secure good child protection services within the next two years.

·         The Improvement Board, which includes the Department for Education will drive the plan for improvement which has already been developed.

·         One of the requirements of the Notice was a statement of expectation by the Council for safeguarding services in exercising of its lead role for Safeguarding and a plan of action, both of which had been endorsed by Cabinet.

·         That the biggest risk was the recruitment and retention issues that the Council was experiencing, and the reliance on interim staff.  Morale amongst social workers had been badly hit by the OFSTED judgement, and a number of staff had left the organisation. 

In reply to a query from a Member, the Assistant Director went on to say that there is an apprenticeship scheme for newly qualified staff in place and the recruitment and retention group are considering a range of options to increase the number of permanent social workers employed.  A career progression route was being developed to allow social workers to move to more senior levels of practice, as well as ways of making front line staff feel supported and rewarded. 

·         That referral rates were relatively constant, and a work flow analysis was in hand to ensure that no more cases were being taken in than should be, measured against a benchmark with other Local Authorities.

·         That issues associated with Frameworki had not yet been sorted out, but that this was a major piece of work that was underway.  The intention was to make the platform more user friendly, and this could take up to two years.  There was a project plan in place with an order of priority of areas to address.  A successful conclusion of this project would enhance the information available to managers, and enable more successful management of front line staff.

·         That it was not clear that the £5k ‘Golden Hello’ initiative had been successful in attracting staff, although some staff had been successfully recruited through the initiative.  It had only been available to the more experienced candidates with at least one years post qualifying experience.  Of the fourteen social work vacancies, only one had been filled from the short list of candidates.  This was a national issue, and the Council was competing with other authorities for a limited pool of staff.

In reply to a Member’s question, the Assistant Director said that there was a sense of order, discipline and purpose within the improvement planning for the Service. The Improvement Board was working to ensure the implementation of the plan, and was the ‘glue’ to address the issues within the Improvement Notice, and oversaw the plan.  The Service would be accountable through the Children’s Safeguarding Board, which would also hold the Council’s partners to account.  The Improvement Board would shift responsibility back to the Safeguarding Board, which would be responsible for the adequacy of the safeguarding arrangements. This was a complex system, which was complex to repair.

A Member pointed out that the same issues kept arising, and that only three of twenty six local authorities across the region had been judged as being ‘good’.  All agencies needed to be accountable in order to ensure that there were no weak links.  The Assistant Director Children & Young People Provider Services said that there were successive changes to the inspection system.  She pointed to the Fostering Inspection Report, which read as though it was a good service, but the judgement overall was that it was adequate.  The safeguarding aspect of the service was seen as adequate, together with leadership and management. Leadership and management was adequate due to shortfalls in the availability of management information. Quality of service and outcomes for children were both judged to be good.

In reply to a Member’s question as to whether tablets would be given to staff to allow them to work remotely, the Assistant Director said that the Council was talking to other authorities that had been judged inadequate in order to share good practice and consider ways forward.  Cambridgeshire had issued social workers with iPads, but as this was a considerable investment, a case would have to be made for such an initiative.  It would be interesting to see whether this helped staff, and whether it aided staff retention issues.

In reply to a further question, she went on to say that substantial steps had already been taken in order to meet the timescale for the Improvement Notice.  The audit of all cases had been a major task, and meant that the Service now knew exactly what was happening in each case, and that children were being seen in the requisite time scale.  The Service was concentrating on a constant and steady improvement in order to ensure that it would meet the requisite targets.

Resolved

That:

a)         The Improvement Notice from the Department of Education and the statement of expectation for children’s safeguarding in Herefordshire be noted; and;

b)        The progress to date in addressing the recommendations from Ofsted be noted.