The Chief Executive presented the Annual Report of the Director of Social Services 2013-14 for approval and requested that Council note the judgements reached locally about social care services in Bridgend.  The report, which was the fifth annual report of the Director of Social Services, was based on the Authority’s self- assessment of the performance and the delivery of social services.

              The Chief Executive reported that the aim of the report was to provide the Council and people living in Bridgend with an overview as to how well social care is delivered and aimed to highlight the progress made during the year and to identify where improvements were needed during 2014-15.  He stated that the preparation of the report involved a detailed analysis, based on evidence of the services that are delivered.  The report had been presented to a Joint Scrutiny Panel made up of representatives of the Health and Wellbeing and Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committees, who had provided valuable feedback on the draft report.

              The Chief Executive reported that the report is in four parts, the first part provided an overview of Bridgend and summarised the main achievements in 2013-14 and priorities for social services in 2014-15.  The second and third sections provide more detail about the two main service areas, namely Safeguarding and Family Support and Adult Social Care.  In preparing the report, two fundamental questions were considered:-

·         Are there effective arrangements in place to safeguard children and adults to promote their welfare and voice and their independence and social inclusion;

·         Can performance be sustained and improved.

The Chief Executive informed Council that Parts two and three of the report indicate that the arrangements in both Children and Adult Services were generally sound although there is always room for improvement and mistakes did sometimes occur.  Services were generally effective in meeting the needs of people who required the support of social care.

The Chief Executive also reported that the CSSIW acknowledged that Bridgend had made good progress in addressing last year’s areas for development and the report set out the key areas of progress and highlighted risks.  He stated that there is now was a permanent Corporate Management Board structure in place and the Corporate Director - Wellbeing is a social services professional who holds national and regional roles and was able to influence and inform good practice and policy in Social Services.  Additionally, the Council is currently recruiting a number of heads of service including that of Head of Adult Social Care.  He also informed Council that the number of Looked After Children and those on the register continued to increase and that the Children’s Directorate was driving forward a whole system approach to supporting Looked After Children and keeping families together.  The Looked After Children Placement and Permanency Strategy had a clear focus on supporting families to stay together wherever it was safe to do so thereby minimising the need for children to become looked after.  This strategy together with the early intervention and prevention strategy should have a positive

effect on outcomes for Looked After Children which reflect the analysis of performance and try to address the increasingly challenging context, both financial and demographic on Safeguarding and Family Support and Adult Social Care.

In response to a question from the Council, the Head of Safeguarding and Family Support stated that focus on priorities for Looked After Children would be maintained and plans would be set that would be monitored to address issues affecting Looked After Children.  He stated that steps were taken to improve the confidence and competence of social workers.  He also stated that in relation to teenage pregnancies the County Borough had one of the highest rates in Wales; however it was promoting education through its Youth Service and also prioritising Looked After Children who may become pregnant and all foster carers were trained in family planning issues.  He also informed Council that the Western Bay Region was seeing an increase in teenage pregnancies, which was heavily influenced by demographics, poverty and drugs and substance and alcohol misuse.  However the Council was one of the highest performing in Wales in conducting Looked After Children Reviews and also performs strongly on permanency plans.

RESOLVED:         That the Director of Social Services Annual Report for 2013-14 be approved.