Local democracy

Agenda item

PROGRESS UPDATE FOLLOWING THE OFSTED INSPECTION OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES CHILDREN'S SERVICES (ILACS) - IMPROVING MANAGEMENT OVERSIGHT AND QUALITY ASSURANCE

The Strategic Director Children’s Services will present a report (Document “A”) that provides the Committee with a progress update in respect of improvements identified within the Improvement Plan following the Ofsted inspection of September 2018 and the subsequent Department for Education (DfE) notice to improve issued in December 2018.

 

More specifically the report will focus on the actions underway in improving management oversight and quality assurance through this workstream of the Improvement Board.

 

Recommended -

 

That this Committee note the contents of the report.

 

(Jenny Cryer – 01274 432438)

Minutes:

The Strategic Director Children’s Services presented a report (Document “A”) that provided the Committee with a progress update in respect of improvements identified within the Improvement Plan following the Ofsted inspection of September 2018 and the subsequent Department for Education (DfE) notice to improve issued in December 2018.

 

More specifically the report focused on the actions underway in improving management oversight and quality assurance through this work stream of the Improvement Board.

 

The newly appointed Strategic Director of Children’s Services noted that the authority was keen to learn from best practice across the country.  He added that there was a lot of work to do but that formal plans were in place to make progress.  He accepted that there were still challenges and that the authority was working to direct activity in the right places.

 

The Chair of the Improvement Board attended the meeting and explained that following the Ofsted judgement that Children’s Social Care services were inadequate the Government had decided not to appoint a Commissioner as it considered that Bradford had the capacity to self improve.  As Chair of the Improvement Board he had been tasked with reporting to the Department for Education to assure it that the Council was doing what was needed to improve and prepare for an inspection of good or better.  He added that the Committee should get to a position where it was able to scrutinise the service and make a judgement for itself regardless of what officers told it.  He referred to the “vital signs” report which contained 200 performance indicators of which there was a short version.  It was being considered by the Improvement Board  to identify how to know if things were going wrong.  The report would start to be presented to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.  He described it as an early warning system that could be imbedded in the Overview and Scrutiny’s business.  He explained that the Improvement Board had identified 8 to 10 areas of development and the Board was overseeing areas of work.  At the point when these were good or better the Board would like to transfer them to a statutory body such as the Corporate Parenting Panel, the Health and Wellbeing Board, the Community Safety Committee and the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, with a recommendation that they be seen at a regular interval.  He suggested that the Chairs of the statutory Committees would have to agree that these areas of work were reported to them on a regular basis.  However, he pointed out that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee could call anything in.  He confirmed that the transfer would not happen until the Improvement Board had agreed to it and he noted that the Chair of this Committee was a member of the Improvement Board.

 

The Chair welcomed the input from the Chair of the Improvement Board and was appreciative of the extra work undertaken by a significant number of people.

 

When asked whether he was satisfied with the pathway to improvement the Chair of the Improvement Board confirmed that Bradford had built the infrastructure for improvement but that the improvement had not yet been made, but that building the structure was vital to maintain improvement.

 

The following responses were given by the Strategic Director of Children’s Services to member questions and comments were made:

 

·         Bradford was not ready to be re inspected and needed to move with some pace, within the framework set.

 

·         In the next 18 months all the regulatory services would be inspected such as children’s homes and fostering.  The biggest challenge would be making sure that the basic quality of social work was good or better.  Work was on going to address this and the framework was in place.

 

·         The timescale for the review of how best to deploy targeted performance information to individual managers was on going and would be completed in weeks.

 

·         The recruitment of qualified social workers was a challenge, part of which was making Bradford a good place to work.  Additional recruitment of social workers had taken place but it was still a challenge.

 

·         The detail of how much case work was being graded good or better would be presented to a future meeting of the Committee.

 

·         A Co-opted member expressed concern about the amount of Time Off in Lieu social workers were carrying and noted that in some cases it was as high as 100 hours.

 

·         Following the Ofsted inspection the Council had invested in new social worker posts, some of which had come on stream.  Social workers were under increased pressure due to increased demand.  This could not be solved by the Council alone and needed the support of partners such as health and the police.  Work loads were higher that desired, but one of Bradford’s biggest assets was its front line workers who were committee to Bradford and to getting it right.

 

·         Members agreed that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee needed to see the “vital signs” report regularly and in a timely manner and a request was made that they receive it in September.  The Chair of the Improvement Board confirmed that at the Chair’s discretion the members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee could receive the “vital signs” report and confirmed that the Department for Education would be pleased that the Committee had asked for this early.  He wanted the Committee to be comfortable that it understood enough of what was happening in Children’s Social Care without officer input.  He had produced a document on his suggestions of how the Overview and Scrutiny Committee could be involved in the process that he had sent it to the Children and Families Portfolio Holder.

 

·         A Co-opted member commented that staff in schools should be regarded as key partners in the process and that soundings should be taken from them.  She noted that in monitoring what goes on in schools Ofsted encouraged the use of evidence from officers together with using one’s own eyes.  She suggested consideration be given to how members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee use their own eyes and have some hands on engagement with the work.

 

·         Officers were aware of the difficulty in championing the voice of the child and noted that additional advocacy had been commissioned for children to have their voices heard.  The use of social media was being explored as an on going piece of work.

 

·         The additional investment in social worker posts had been used to recruit quickly by using agency staff.  This had led to some children having more than one social worker which was not desirable. However it was noted that the most stable teams were the long term teams and the majority of the changes had been in respect of children coming into the service.

 

·         The Chair of the Improvement Board noted that the focus group of front line staff was very committed to Bradford.  They had reported a number of small issues that could be resolved.  Staff had too high a workload and a short term fix had been put in place with the use of agency staff.

 

The Chair thanked the Interim Strategic Director of Children’s Services and the Interim Deputy Director of Social Care for their work.

 

The Strategic Director noted that the letter following the second focussed Ofsted visit would be published on Thursday 4 July and that it would include some positive but also some challenging messages.

 

Resolved -

 

That the contents of Document “A” be noted.

 

Supporting documents: