The report of the Strategic Director of Children’s Services (Document “AA”) will presnet the improvement plan that has been revised to make it more outcome focused and more streamlined so we can quickly accelerate the improvement Ofsted require in key areas and make sure that we see better outcomes for children and young people.

Recommended –

That the Committee notes the contents of this report and the progress being made.

(Marium Haque – 01274 436625)

The report of the Strategic Director of Children’s Services (Document “AA”) presented the improvement plan that had been revised to make it more outcome focused and more streamlined so that the improvement Ofsted required in key areas could be accelerated to ensure that better outcomes for children and young people were seen.

It was reported that the Corporate Parenting Strategy had been drafted and would be reported to this Committee in June.  With reference to engagement with Councillors to understand and fulfil their Corporate Parenting responsibility it was noted that work was being undertaken with members of the Corporate Parenting Panel.  Work would also be undertaken to broaden member involvement in Regulation 44 visits with the intention to ask members for expressions of interest to become lay visitors of children’s homes. 

It was stressed that it was important to have as wide an audience as possible regarding Corporate Parenting.  There was a need to identify ways for members to understand how their role as Corporate Parents impacted on their role as Councillors for by example in tapping into their other areas of interests such as housing or green spaces.  With reference to the engagement with looked after young people it was reported that the format of the Corporate Parenting Panel had been changed with half of the meetings being led by Young People, the first of which had been held in the previous week and a number of actions had been raised which would be reported back.  One of the issues that arose was the turnover in social workers and the impact on young people and the young people expressed a wish to be actively involved in getting the right staff and retaining them.  It was intended to reinstate the involvement of young people in the recruitment and interviews of Social Workers.

A number of members referred to the RAG (Red Amber Green) rating used in the improvement plan.  A member asked why a number of key milestones were marked green when they were yet to be delivered and asked whether there was confidence that the rating given was robust.  The Strategic Director responded that the lower level operation actions came below the high level plan and that external oversight was given outside Children’s Services.  She added that each area had a number of actions under it.  She stressed that green meant that the authority was on track to deliver.  She pointed out that the previous plan was criticised for being over complicated and activity based and there had been a need to move to a plan that focused on outcomes and urged members to allow officers to work with the current plan that had been seen by Ofsted, the DfE and the Commissioner who were all happy with it.  She stressed that the emphasis was about delivering outcomes that impacted on the lived experience of children rather than recording actions.

In response to a question about reducing the number of cases held by individual social workers it was noted that social workers were being given time to be in the office and that business support officers were giving them support with administrative and IT work to free up more of their time for case work.  It was stressed that the priority was to employ more staff which was a significant task.

Reference was made to recruitment of Community Resource Workers to support Social Workers leaving them more time to do detailed work with families.

In response to a member question the Strategic Director confirmed that caseloads continued to be safe and manageable.

A member referred to people having difficulties getting an answer to phone calls and asked if staff were returning to the office.  In response it was noted that staff were being brought back into the office on a 60% office: 40% working from home split.  Officers would follow up individual cases where people were experiencing difficulties. 

A member referred to the RAG rating and noted that 12 key milestones were on target and 23 were not and asked whether it was anticipated that this would be different by the end of April.  She asked how the RAG rating was decided.  In response it was noted that the coding was explained in the document and that it was a well used system which the authority and partners were well used to.  It was also noted that the next iteration would be based around 7 priorities and engagement events were being planned with partners.  It was noted that introducing a scoring system alongside the RAG rating was being explored.

A member asked about the time frame and evidence to support the judgement that children and young people will recognise Bradford Council and its partners as good corporate Parents (priority 1).  In response it was noted that all forums would be used to identify the voice of young people including the Care Review Process, a survey of care leavers, the Independent Reviewing Officer and the Corporate Parenting Panel.

In response to a question about ensuring that the authority had a sufficient fostering workforce (priority 3) it was noted that recruitment had been static for 3 years; that the authority did not have a fostering recruitment strategy; and that there was a need to increase the number of carers across the board.  Reference was made to difficult to place groups such as sibling groups, adolescents and children with disabilities and complex needs.  The need to have engagement with partner agencies such as health to provide appropriate levels of support for foster Carers was stressed.

A member asked what the authority was doing to attract more social workers to the district and to mitigate against neighbouring authorities paying social workers more than this authority.  The Strategic Director responded that there was an emphasis on making the district an attractive place to work which was difficult given the negative messaging around.  She referred to positive messages such as the result of the recent monitoring visit that had identified that the authority had made significant progress on child exploitation and noted that this had not received much press coverage.  The Council had made a lot of the positive improvements but she acknowledged that staff picked up on negative messages in the district.  Positive messages were being put out by the authority to encourage people to come and join the district on its improvement journey.  She acknowledged the need to recruit permanent staff but recognised the national issue of attracting people into social work and pointed out the need to address this issue nationally.  The role of social worker should be highly regarded and respected in keeping children safe.  With reference to the need to explore rates of pay it was noted that as a result of research the authority was becoming more competitive in paying agency staff and there had been an increase in the number of CVs being received as a result and that permanent staff would be looked at.

Resolved –

1.    This Committee requests that the next Improvement Plan report focuses specifically on Priority 2 – Caseloads across all Social Work Teams.

2.    That future Improvement Plans contain an outcomes column, which illustrates improvements being delivered.

ACTION: Strategic Director for Children’s Services