The report of the Strategic Director of Children’s Services (Document “AH”) presents the most recent information on the workload of Children’s Social Work Teams and updates Members on key pressures on the service. The workload analysis is based on activity up to 31^st December 2017.

There has been a slight rise to the overall workloads of social workers, and pressures upon the service since the last report was presented. The report demonstrates that Social Work Services for Children & Young People in the District remain strong, robust and well managed.

Recommended -

That the Committee consider further reports in the 2017-18 work programme to ensure the continuation of safe workloads and practice into the future given the current financial climate.

(Di Drury – 01274 437077)

The report of the Strategic Director of Children’s Services (Document “AH”) presented the most recent information on the workload of Children’s Social Work Teams and updated Members on key pressures on the service. The workload analysis was based on activity up to 31^st December 2017.

There had been a slight rise to the overall workloads of social workers, and pressures upon the service since the last report was presented. The report demonstrated that Social Work Services for Children & Young People in the District remained strong, robust and well managed.

The Deputy Director of Social Care noted that the increase in workloads was a cause for some concern but  that mitigating action had been taken to ensure the safe running of the services.  He added that the issue of most concern was the balance between experienced and less experienced social workers.  He went on to advise that social worker turnover was at 17.7%.  Feedback provided at exit interviews had highlighted that the level of pay was lower than other authorities and in particular Kirklees.  He advised members that an additional £450,000 had been allocated in the 2018/19 budget for the social work service and that consideration was being given to how best to use this.  He noted that managers had not left the authority and remained loyal to Bradford despite bigger rewards that could be offered in other authorities.  He referred to the increase in looked after children to 988 but noted that  this was still significantly better than the Council’s statistical neighbours.  He noted the significant pressure due to the number of referrals and assessments that were being received.

A member asked a question about the staff survey referred to at a previous meeting.  In response the Health and Wellbeing Portfolio Holder advised members that a working party of Labour members had been set up and had held meetings and drop in sessions with social workers who had also completed questionnaires.  She added that an improvement plan had been drawn up and that an additional £450,000 had been allocated in the 2018/19 budget to deal with issues raised.  It was agreed that the questionnaire and action plan be circulated to members of this Committee.

A member asked a question about the support that was given to looked after children that were excluded from mainstream school and the Deputy Director of Social Care advised that the Head of the Virtual School reported regularly to the Corporate Parenting Panel.  He acknowledged that looked after children were vulnerable but that in general they did have good attendance records.  He accepted that some looked after children did struggle in mainstream settings and that the Head of the Virtual School worked to reintegrate them into mainstream schools.  Support plans for looked after children were reviewed every six months to ensure that they had the right level of support.

A representative of UNITE attended the meeting and highlighted the union’s serious concerns regarding Children’s Services.  He stressed that this report should be considered in conjunction with the report on Early Help.  He referred to the fact that social workers were leaving the authority and that caseloads were rising.  He added that social workers had contacted UNITE stating that they felt burned out, that they did not get support from senior management and that they felt under pressure.  He stated that social workers were leaving due to the senior management structure.  At OJC in October-November 2017 senior management proposed deleting Time Off  In Lieu and requiring new social workers to give 3 or 6 months notice to leave.  He was of the opinion that this was punishing dedicated social workers.  He referred to the fact that high caseloads were factors in the deaths of Victoria Climbie and “Baby P”.  He asked a number of questions which he was requested to put in writing and a response would be provided by officers.  He concluded by stating that UNITE was concerned about the service and the ability to protect vulnerable children.  He added that the situation would worsen if Early Help went ahead and that UNITE believed that social workers and community support workers did an excellent job to reduce the risk to families and felt that management did not support them.

The Strategic Director of Children’s Services noted that the service had been inspected last year and the inspectors did not find any of the issues referred to by UNITE.  He added that they found that social workers enjoyed working for the Council, were supported and felt that it was a good place to work.  However they recognised that social workers in Bradford did have difficult issues to deal with.  He added that officers were not complacent and that a comprehensive survey was being carried out which would be reported to the Committee on an annual basis.

He recognised that there were issues regarding working conditions at Henry Mitchell House and providing social workers with appropriate technology.  He stressed that there had been no budget cuts in the social work service.  The retention and recruitment of social workers was being looked into.   He added that the UNITE representative had conflated a number of issues however he recognised that this was a high risk service.  He stressed that regular meetings were held with unions and that social work pay would be on an agenda for a meeting the next week.

The Health and Wellbeing Portfolio Holder pointed out that the social workers’ responses to the questionnaire did not support the concerns raised by the UNISON representative however she did accept that individuals did have issues that they had raised.

A member who was on the working party that met social workers noted that issues raised by the social workers were pay, working conditions such as hot desking, workloads and the inability to take Time Off in Lieu.  She hoped that the additional budget allocation would help to reduce workloads.  She expressed concern that the number of experienced social workers was low and stressed the need to increase the number of experienced social workers.

The Deputy Director of Social Care noted that Bradford had a full time dedicated Principal Social Worker who liaised with him on behalf of the workforce.  Bradford had 12 agency social workers which equated to 6-8% of the workforce which was very low and remained static.  Requests for agency social workers came from unions and managers in equal numbers.  He added that he wanted social workers to take Time Off in Lieu but that the needs of the child must come first.

A co-opted member requested information on the proportion of experienced social workers that had 5 or 10 years experience.  She welcomed the additional £450,000 investment as the working conditions of social workers influenced the quality of the service provided to vulnerable children.

The Principal Social Worker confirmed the DfE defined a social worker with 2.5 years as experienced however she stressed that caseloads reflected the length of time the individual had been a social worker.

The Deputy Director of Social Care responded to a member question by stating that caseloads were rising and workloads rising but not by any greater degree than nationally.  He added that caseloads were a concern as this reduced the amount of time spent on individual children and that this was what the additional £450,000 would be used to address.

The Deputy Director of Social Care noted that some reasons for sickness absence had increased and some had reduced.  The main reasons for absence being muscular skeletal, work related stress and non work related stress.

The Strategic Director of Children’s Services emphasised the need for more precise information on why there had been an increase in sickness absence in the social work front door and report back.

The newly created role of Practice Supervisor would look at how staff were supported and in particular  how support was provided for newly qualified social workers.  They would be involved in training staff and preparing them for progression to handling more complex caseloads.

In response to a co-opted member question the Deputy Director of Social Care confirmed that no social workers were suspended at the current time.

The Strategic Director of Children’s Services confirmed that he would circulate the staff survey to members of the Committee and would undertake an annual health check and report this to the Committee.

Resolved –

(1)          That the Committee considers further reports on workloads of Children’s Social Care Services in the 2018-19 Work Programme.

(2)          That the results of the annual staff survey be included in the first report of each Municipal year.

(3)          That the current staff survey be circulated to all members of the Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

ACTION: Strategic Director of Children’s Services