Question from Councillor C Webster to the Cabinet Member for Social Services & Early Help

“'Following publication of the CSSIW report Inspecting Children's Social Services June 2017, can the Cabinet Member for Social Services tell this Council what he is doing to implement the requirements of the Social Services and Wellbeing Act (Wales) Act 2014?”

Question from Councillor C Webster to the Cabinet Member Social Services & Early Help

'Following publication of the CSSIW report Inspecting Children's Social Services June 2017, can the Cabinet Member for Social Services tell this Council what he is doing to implement the requirements of the Social Services and Wellbeing Act (Wales) Act 2014?'

Response from the Cabinet Member Social Services & Early Help to Councillor C Webster

A project team was recruited for a 6 month period, made up of professional lead managers from children and adult social care, a training and development officer and a strategic development project manager.

The scope of the project was developed to review and identify gaps in policies and practice and ensure the directorate was able to work and align practice to the requirements of the Act. The team developed a work schedule and plan outlining the requirements with timescales, itemising the work necessary with managers, teams, partners, service users and members across adults and children’s services, including the work with welsh government and western bay over the 6 month period to the full implementation of the Act.

A project milestone action plan developed identified 68 key milestones necessary to the implementation and imbedding of the Act into practice. The team engaged with the Western Bay Regional Implementation Team, and also represented Bridgend at the national working groups looking at common approaches to implementation of specific areas of work across Wales (eg. information, advice and assistance).

Progress was reported, monitored and reviewed by a management board made up of the Director Sue Cooper, Head of Adult Services Jackie Davies and Head of Safeguarding and Assessment for Children’s services Laura Kinsey, with representation from legal and workforce development colleagues. The tight timescale for this work required monthly meetings to evaluate progress. A final report outlining all the work undertaken was produced in May 2016. A number of further reports have been written for members, and for western bay reporting purposes in relation to embedding the changes required by the Act into our practice. As Cabinet Member for Social Services I have been kept informed throughout.

Implementation of the Act is now an ongoing piece of work and the focus is now to embed new ways of working into everyday practice.

Member’s induction about the Social Services and Wellbeing Directorate is scheduled for the afternoon of 20^th July and following this meeting the CSSIW Children’s Services Inspection report will be presented to Scrutiny by the lead inspector. In addition to this the Director of Social Services and Wellbeing will be     presenting her annual report to full Council on 26^th July. There will be an opportunity at these meetings for there to be a greater debate about both the implementation of the SS&WB Act and the recent CSSIW inspection

A Member asked what involvement  the Council has had with local partnership agencies affecting the need of vulnerable children

The Leader advised Members that partner agencies are involved in decisions for vulnerable young people and Looked After Children and stated that it did depend on circumstances of child.  Many partnership agencies were involved in the decision making process including that of Health workers and the police service where necessary and they would be present when decisions are being made.   Child Protection would also be part of decision making process under current law and regulations. And would always be consulted when changes are being proposed around care of child or adult. 

A member was concerned that having spoken to some parents and carers that she had met; some partner agencies are not attending meetings as they should be.  The Leader advised that we do have some difficulty with some partner agencies not engaging fully in the process and these issues will be raised with Chief Executive of those organisations.   He added that the Health Service and the Police have a crucial role in the decisions of vulnerable people and should be in attendance. 

The Head of Childrens Social Care advised that meetings held for Looked After Children and children in need were not quorate then they should not go ahead.  Children in need have detailed support and care plans and if the chairperson of meetings were concerned then they should escalate those concerns. 

A Member stated that the report was produced in May 2016, however this report was in June this year adding that most of this report does not tell us what happened this year and that Members have not been given the correct information to understand the outcomes and asked what has been done to inform members of outcomes.

The Leader stated that a report would be going to the Corporate Parenting Cabinet Committee which will include an action plan on the recommendations to CSSIW, there would also be regular review meetings throughout the year.   The Head of Childrens Social Care stated that the Social Services and Wellbeing Wales 2014 Act report went to project group to establish that we were ready to implement the Act and this further went onto Cabinet and the Adult Social Services Committee She advised that a further report on the delivery of an action plan regarding the outcomes of the report would be presented to Scrutiny in July.   The Chief Executive stated that there was a requirement on the Corporate Director for Social Services and Wellbeing to complete an Annual report and present to Council and this would be presented in July

A Member referred to the recruitment and retention of staff in the Social Services Directorate and asked what the Authority’s position was on this

The Leader stated that they have had difficulty in recruitment and retention in the past but was pleased to report that the “grow your own policy” had been successful, with Social Workers becoming senior Social Workers and Senior Social Workers becoming managers.  He added that frontline social workers carry out work in a highly pressurised environment and worked long hours so it was therefore difficult for them to find time for training, however they were looking at ways to improve this.

The Head of Childrens Social Services stated that this was the recruitment and retention of Social Workers was a priority and there were few vacancies at the moment she explained their focus was on retaining staff to develop a mature workforce.  She added that they were undertaking exit interviews, staff surveys to understand why staff leave to try and address this issue in the future