The Strategic Director Children’s Services will present a report (Document “D”) 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 improvement activity around the next Ofsted monitoring visit, preparation, progress and continuing challenge.

Recommended -

That this Committee note the contents of the report.

                                                            (Paul Findlay – 07967 682575)

The Strategic Director Children’s Services presented a report (Document “D”) 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 improvement activity around the next Ofsted monitoring visit, preparation, progress and continuing challenge. The next Ofsted Inspection was due to take place in middle of October 2019.

A document titled Vital Signs was tabled at the meeting. Members were informed that the Vital Signs report had been created to help all members of the Improvement Board understand and interpret the key trends in children’s social care performance. It was hoped that this would help support a culture of challenge and assist Bradford through the improvement journey following Ofsted. 

Members of the Committee made the following comments:

·         What progress had been made with the recruitment of Social Workers?

·         Did the service monitor staff moral?

·         Members questioned officers as to why the Vital Signs report was not circulated with the agenda.

·         What was the number of staff that had undertaken the back to basics training as it was not detailed in the report?

·         Would have been useful for Members if the report had included the figures for June 2018 and July 2019.

·         The Committee had on a number of occasions asked for the information relating to Social Workers Health check; had that been undertaken and where was that information? the Committee wanted to know how Social Workers were doing? Relevant information should be provided to the Committee as well as the Improvement Board.

·         What happened when agencies the service worked with, who were not undertaking certain tasks on time?

·         Would be useful to have more details on the workforce, issues relating to recruitment and retention and evidence of how the Service was dealing with it and plans to improve the future workforce.

In response it was reported that:

·         The recruitment of Social Workers was a national challenge too and Bradford was not unique; additional social workers had been recruited which included some agency workers becoming permanent employees; there was a planned recruitment fair taking place for September and October 2019; information in relation to workforce could be provided to the Committee.

·         Some staff had left to work in other parts of the organisation.

·         Newly qualified staff were applying but the service was lacking in experienced social workers and the focus now was on recruiting to such posts.

·         Staff morale was monitored and was improving, the feedback received was that staff were positive.

·         Manageable case loads, suitable training and development and good supervision were key components to retaining and recruiting social workers.

·         The Vital Signs report was circulated to Members electronically on the 27 August; future reports to the Committee would include the Vital Signs report circulated with the agenda.

·         All Managers should have completed the back to basics training by the end of August 2019; training Social Workers was the next stage.

·         Social Worker Health Checks could be provided to the Committee; reports to the Improvement Board should be publicly available; Membership of the Board was currently being looked at.

·         Officers would work with Senior Officers of the relevant agencies where there were any problems and if matters could not be resolved the issue would be escalated to the Safeguarding Board.

·         Information in relation to workforce could be provided to the Committee.

Resolved-

That the Committee looks forward to receiving further updates detailing improvements/progress made and workforce breakdown at each Committee meeting throughout the Municipal Year.

Action:  Strategic Director, Children’s Services