The purpose of the report of the Director of Children’s Services (Document “AE”) is to provide members of the Committee with a progress update on the Children’s Services Improvement Plan.

Recommended-

That the contents of the report (Document “AE”) and the progress being made be noted and that the Committee receives a detailed analysis in respect of recruitment and sickness absence at the next meeting.

                                                            (Irfan Alam – 01274 432904)

The report provided Children’s Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee members, with a progress update relating to the Children’s Services Improvement Plan, which is aimed at enabling Bradford Council to improve services for children and families.

Officers from Bradford Councils Children’s Services Department covered three key aspects of the Improvement Plan, which included highlights from this period and areas for improvement over the coming months; key areas of focus and action with more in depth updates; Children’s Improvement Plan summary of progress.

Members enquired whether the newly established Performance Clinics were just another layer and if we should actually be using them and how they would assist in the improvement Journey.

Children’s Services officers stated that this was not another layer and was required to examine patterns and trends, along wit being able to forecast potential difficulties at an operational level.

Members were also keen to know what the current figures were in relation to sickness absence and the current state of the recruitment campaign for Level 3 Social Care workers.  Furthermore, members indicated that vacancy rates are at 15%, which also means that a Serious Case Review is likely to happen;  and that the Council was covering holes with agency staff.

Officers indicated that they did not have the information, but would provide this information.  Also, officers did not agree that agency staff were filling a gap and that a more measured and detailed response was needed in relation to the management of agency staff and full time staff.

Members stressed that it was clear that improvements would only happen, if there was a stable and skilled workforce and what the degree of dependence was, on agency staff.

Officers said that if they started to explore the agency staff numbers, then it could undermine the recruitment campaign that was about to be launched and that the did not want to start casting doubts over the quality of agency staff.

Members said the recruitment of Social Care workers and it was disappointing that no substantial improvements hade been made in this area and that they could not see any significant improvement.

Officers from Bradford Councils Children’s Services stated that they had to pick up on a lot of big issues and that it was not correct to say that there had been no improvements.  The biggest problem was the recruitment of Level 3 Social Care Workers and that all of the leadership team were not permanent, which was not the case a year ago.

Member were keen to explore the increasing workloads of Social Care workers and the impact that this was also having on sickness absence.

In response, officers said that they had undertaken a lot of work to review case loads and challenging workers where they have more than 26 and that there is a commitment that staff should have case loads of 22 or less.  A year ago, it was not common to see Social Workers with cases of 50 or more.

Resolved-

(1)  That the contents of the report (Document “AE”) and the progress being made were considered and that the Committee receives a detailed analysis in respect of recruitment and sickness absence at the next meeting.

(2)  That future presentations to the Committee include the full Improvement Plan and the Vital Signs report with detailed explanation of items where required, following the Chair and Deputy Chair of Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee Briefing.

Action:           Strategic Director, Children’s Services

                                                            (Irfan Alam – 01274 432904)