Question from Councillor Graham Walter to the Cabinet Member Social Services and Early Help

Could the Cabinet Member for Social Services & Early Help please tell me what we are doing as a Council to recruit into vacant positions.

 

Question from Councillor Elaine Winstanley to the Cabinet Member Social Services and Early Help

Does the Cabinet Member for Social Services and Early Help have confidence that we will be able to meet care and support demands for our vulnerable residents during the winter months?

 

Question from Councillor Paul Davies to the Cabinet Member Social Services and Early Help

Considering fairly recent events in Bridgend reported in the press and through documentaries’, does the Cabinet Member for Social services and Early Help have confidence that Children’s Services is fit for purpose and that the services they deliver are safe and effective?

 

Question from Councillor Alex Williams to the Cabinet Member Communities

Is the Cabinet Member for Communities satisfied with the way in which Bridgend County Borough’s refuse and recycling service is being operated by the current service provider; is he content that the service is fulfilling the agreement as set out in the terms of the contract; and what is being done by BCBC to address the significant challenges faced by the operator during the stop-gap extension to the contract whereby there will be little commercial incentive for the operator to improve service delivery?

 

Question from Cllr Ian Williams to the Cabinet Member Communities

There has been a great deal of anger towards BCBC regarding the recreational provision for adults and children in Newbridge Fields which are to be honest an absolute disgrace.
I would like to know when works will start to make our premier park an inclusive and fun place for families with improvements to the substandard playground and the provision of toilets and disabled changing facilities and a suitable attraction such as a skateboard park for older children and teenagers.

 

 

 

Question from Councillor G Walter to the Cabinet Member – Social Services and Early Help

 

Could the Cabinet Member for Social Services & Early Help please tell me what we are doing as Council to recruit into vacant positions?

 

Retention and recruitment of the social care workforce is the highest priority for the Council.

 

It is important that Council roles offer a fair and competitive salary given the market for roles in social work and social care. The Council approved a market supplement policy in October 2021 and the market supplement has been applied where the criteria for it has been met in children’s social care. In addition, there has been a wider review of job descriptions to ensure that they reflect accurately the duties undertaken and this review has resulted in some roles, such as experienced social workers, being evaluated at a higher grade.

 

The Council has also progressed a range of actions to ensure that Bridgend is attractive to potential employees. Workforce charters for key occupations in social work and social care are being progressed which set out the commitment of the Council to employees as a flexible and supportive employer in which people can commence, and develop, their careers. The foundation of support for social care workforce is regular and good quality supervision and the opportunity to develop their careers and access excellent training and development. These aspects are core to the charter.

 

There is a major focus on workforce well-being with timely access to corporate wellbeing resources and specialist support when required.

Reviews of skill-mix have been undertaken and resulted in the creation of innovative social work support officer roles which mean that professionally qualified social workers undertake duties which only they can and there are opportunities for non-social workers to progress and develop their careers in social care.

 

Recognising the challenges in the social care and social work recruitment market, Bridgend is investing significantly in growing our own workforce of the future. Apprenticeship roles in social care and business support have been created. In the last 2 years Bridgend has appointed 16 people as social work secondees and trainees to the social work degree course. We work closely with our partners in Bridgend college and Social Care Wales to develop and implement career pathways into social care.

 

The Council is a flexible employer and promotes hybrid working and family friendly flexibility for the workforce in recruitment literature. Staff working in direct care services in adult and children’s services have a choice of contractual hours to reflect their needs. 9- day fortnights are promoted in social work teams and a generous relocation package is available to people moving to the Bridgend area to take up a role.

 

Barriers to working in particular roles are being addressed, for example, rotas are being changed to open up homecare roles to a non-driving workforce and electric vehicles are being purchased for workforce who can drive but do not have access to a vehicle for work.

 

In addition to the work to attract workforce from across Wales and the UK to Bridgend, work is also progressing to recruit internationally to shortage occupations. We have engaged with a specialist agency to recruit social workers and are considering international recruitment of social care workers.

 

Where partners may be better placed to recruit workers, we work closely with them and are progressing work with Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board to recruit care workers and support their work within our integrated teams.

 

We are enhancing the way we market and promote roles, recognising how competitive recruitment markets are currently, recognising there is more to do to positively promote the opportunities to potential recruits. One newly appointed social worker referred to Bridgend as a ‘hidden gem’ which highlights the need to better promote the positive experience of people working in social care and social work. A new social care marketing officer post is being created to support this work. Bespoke social care recruitment fairs are being held throughout the County Borough in addition to the recruitment fairs for all Council roles.

 

I believe it is also important to note that recruitment and retention of our social services workforce is being discussed within the Social Services Cabinet Network across Wales, with Welsh Government Ministers highlighting our grave concerns about workforce planning nationally.

 

Supplementary question from Councillor G Walter

 

What role can the Council play, ie as a whole as 51 Members, in assisting with recruitment

 

We need to look at all our recruitment processes and social media avenueswith a view to encouraging candidates. As Councillors, we all have a corporate parenting role and it is up to all of us to recognise and acknowledge this role and the responsibilities that come with it. That responsibility is carried with you wherever you are at any given time. There will be a Member Development session on Corporate Parenting as part of the Member Development Programme currently ongoing and I urge you all to attend this, even longer standing Councillors, for a form of refresher training in this extremely important work area.

 

Question from Councillor E Winstanley

 

Does the Cabinet Member for Social Services and Early Help have confidence that we will be able to meet care and support demands for our vulnerable residents during the winter months?

 

In Bridgend, as other Council’s across Wales, there are significant challenges in providing and securing sufficient care and support at home services to meet the assessed care needs of our most vulnerable residents.

 

I have confidence that the Cabinet and officers are doing everything we can to try to support and enhance our internal and commissioned homecare services, but we must acknowledge that we are not always able to meet the need for services in a timely a way due to the level of need and the workforce challenges in the social care sector.

 

To support and help increase capacity within the commissioned sector, independent domiciliary care providers have been funded an extra £1/hr from August 2022 until March 2023, with clear criteria that the extra funding must be passed-on to care workers to help with increasing fuel costs, where this is needed, and/or must be used to assist in the recruitment and retention of staff to increase their capacity to support with current and future pressures.

 

From an internal services perspective, there is on-going work to care workers, which includes:

 

• Existing staff given the opportunity to increase their contract hours
• Community based recruitment events/marketing campaigns are taking place
• The service has considered applications from non-driving individuals and recruitment events planned in key areas for non-driving individuals
• Mileage rates have increased to £0.50/mile, which is in-line with health’s recent changes in response to the pressures
• Work with Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board to explore the opportunities for joint appointments to our integrated teams.

 

There are also some longer-term options being looked-into as a method of making internal homecare services more attractive, which includes:

 

• Review of current working patterns to move away from ‘split shifts’
• Consideration of an application under the Market Supplement Policy
• Options are also being explored for the use of pooled, electric vehicles and increased recruitment of ‘walkers’.

 

In terms of overseeing this work during this difficult time, there is an established adult services pressures project board (Chaired by the Corporate Director) who monitor and track progress and effectiveness of various actions on a fortnightly basis, as well as analysing key measures, such as workforce capacity and waiting list information.

 

Question from Councillor Paul Davies

 

Considering recent events in Bridgend reported in the press and through documentaries’, Does the Cabinet Member for Social Services and Early Help have confidence that Children’s Services is fit for purpose and that the services they deliver are safe and effective?

 

My response to this question aligns with the recent performance evaluation inspection into Bridgend children’s services by Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW). That inspection report recognised that the context for delivering effective children’s social care in Bridgend is very challenging and Bridgend is experiencing, and addressing, issues faced by many other local authorities in Wales and beyond.

 

Children’s services across Wales are particularly challenged in responding to the increasing needs of children and families after the pandemic lockdowns, alongside the difficulties of securing a permanent social worker workforce and ensuring there is sufficient accommodation, care and support services for care experienced children when they need it.

 

I am confident that we have the right priorities for children’s services through the strategic plan approved by Cabinet in February 20021. The inspection undertaken in May highlighted a number of improvements had already been delivered since a previous inspection undertaken last year, alongside the areas for significant improvement. CIW acknowledged that the Council has a robust action plan in place, which sets out actions over the next 3 years to improve the workforce, practice, partnerships, provision and how we hear and act on the voice of children and families. 

 

The inspection highlighted that the Council must continue to ensure there is a robust corporate support and prioritised resources to deliver these identified improvements in order to sustainably address variations in the quality services and social work practice. My Cabinet colleagues and I continue to exercise leadership and oversight, alongside senior accountable officers, on the delivery of the improvements required.

 

I have confidence that political leadership and management oversight is effective through the governance we have established through the Improving Outcomes for Children programme so we are sighted on, and are in a position to ensure, that children’s social care is meeting statutory duties and improving outcomes for children and families. The ‘fitness for purpose’ of children’s social care is currently highly dependent on engagement of an interim workforce as. Bridgend, in common with other Councils, has engaged an increasing number of agency workers in children’s social work teams in order to fulfil statutory duties and provide children and families with the support they need.

 

We are working closely with Welsh Government, have recently met with the Deputy Minister, to progress priorities for improvement. Workforce has the highest priority in our 3-year improvement plan and as a local authority Bridgend, has taken focused action to retain and recruit children’s social workers in the very challenging post Covid employment market. In addition to a number of short term actions, such as application of the market supplement, we are supporting more of our workforce to become professionally qualified, including a significantly enhanced ‘grow your own’ scheme of secondees and trainees and international recruitment of social workers and internationally recruiting social workers to Bridgend.

 

Question from Councillor Alex Williams to the Cabinet Member – Communities

 

Is the Cabinet Member for Communities satisfied with the way in which Bridgend County Borough’s refuse and recycling service is being operated by the current service provider; is he content that the service is fulfilling the agreement as set out in the terms of the contract; and what is being done by BCBC to address the significant challenges faced by the operator during the stop-gap extension to the contract whereby there will be little commercial incentive for the operator to improve service delivery?

 

The current contract with Kier has 18 months left to run before it ends on 31^st March 2024.  A specification for a short two-year contract is currently being finalised that will run from April 2024- March 2026.  Kier are coming out of the waste market so will not be bidding for this short contract.

 

In terms of collections and the management of our 3 CRC’s, Kier perform very well.  Missed collections are also very low at a rate of an average of 43 per 100,000 overall.  Typically, just over 430,000 collections are made each month so the rate of missed collections is low. Typical sector best practice is recognised at 50 misses per 100,00 for weekly collections and 80 per 100,000 for fortnightly collections.

 

In regards to cost, the service also performs well. A report published this month by the WLGA, listed Bridgend as having the 4^th lowest household waste and recycling service costs out of the 22 authorities in Wales.

Comparing figures for January to August this year to last year, recycling missed collections are down by just over 20%.  Complaints received have almost halved during the same period.

 

Recycling container requests have increased by 15% comparing this year to last year which is likely to be due to increased promotion of the service by the authority.

 

Recycling performance of our CRCs is currently averaging at just over 90%.

An area where it is recognised that Kier have experienced issues is roll-out delivery of blue refuse sacks and bio bags, resulting in complaints in this specific service area.  This has been due to staffing issues due to covid, sickness and the ability to recruit staff.

 

In August additional resources were used, including weekend working where possible to catchup on the backlog of deliveries.  Most recently, continued staffing issues and bank holiday catchup working meant that roll-out deliveries slipped.  In order to catch up on deliveries, Kier allocated 5 rounds to deliver on a Saturday and a Sunday in order to get back on track as quickly as possible.  This additional resource was implemented at a cost to Kier to enable them to get back on track with deliveries.  Kier are now back where they should be with deliveries as per the published schedule.  Officers are continuing to monitor this part of the service closely.  Default points are also allocated through the payment mechanism of the contract where non-compliance with a number of standards including delivery of containers.

 

As previously reported to scrutiny, repeated public satisfaction surveys demonstrate a clear high level of satisfaction with the waste service. Our waste contract team will continue to monitor the service to ensure this continues until the end of the contract period with Kier and continues with any future service provision.

 

Supplementary question by Councillor Alex Williams

 

I thank the Cabinet Member for his written response and also noted his appreciation of the engagement with him from the Corporate Director for Communities and her team on the issues raised within the question in the intervening period between now and when the question was first posed. 

 

How will the local authority ensure that Kier meets its contractual obligations until the end of their contract in 2024 and how will the new specification for the two-year contract from 2024 – 2026, ensure that there is a commercial incentive to maintain high performance in some areas (and improve service delivery in others) for the benefit of BCBC residents given the relatively short length of the contract.

 

Response

 

The current Contract contains conditions within it that include strict penalties should these conditions not be met, as the Contractor was obligated to. The proposed Contract for the two year extension, would at least contain the same strict conditions as part of this Agreement, in order to ensure a high level of performance going forward.

 

Note:

 

The response to the last question to the Executive from Councillor Ian Williams as outlined at Agenda Item 17. had previously been circulated. It was noted that Councillor Williams had lost his broadband connection with the meeting at this point in proceedings. It was further noted, that there were no supplementary questions to the original question posed by Councillor Williams.