Report CS17062

The Committee considered an update on progress in implementing the Children’s Services Improvement Action Plan which had been agreed by the Council’s Executive on 14^th September 2016.

The Council’s services for children in need of help and protection and children looked after and the Bromley Safeguarding Children Board had been inspected by Ofsted between 11^th April and 5^th May 2016.  Although the Inspection had identified some strengths across children’s services, the Local Authority had received an overall judgement of ‘Inadequate’ and the Bromley Safeguarding Children Board was rated with a judgement of ‘Requires Improvement’.  Following the publication of the Ofsted report, the Department for Education had appointed a Commissioner to assess the service and make a recommendation on how to improve children’s services in Bromley. In September 2016, the Commissioner’s report was provided to the Secretary of State, who accepted the positive direction of travel indicated and agreed with the recommendation that a Department for Education Commissioner be appointed to undertake a further six month period of scrutiny to ensure that progress continued to be made. 

The multi-agency Children’s Service Improvement Governance Board was established to oversee the improvement process and support the development of the Improvement Action Plan which had 10 priorities covering the 23 Ofsted recommendations.  An Officer-led Service Improvement Team was also convened to lead on work streams identified in the Improvement Action Plan, as well as to monitor improvement actions and performance measures and to report progress to the Governance Board.  The Council’s Executive had evidenced its commitment to implement the Improvement Action Plan by agreeing an additional £950k funding to be released over two phases, with plans for a third phase of funding in early 2017 that would bring the total additional funding to £2.3m.  A comprehensive training programme had also been developed for Members to assist them in their role as Corporate Parents. 

The first Ofsted monitoring visit took place between 8^th and 9^th November 2016.  The Inspection Team reviewed six cases from the Children’s Social Care Division’s monthly audit cohort, and sampled 15 cases chosen from the list of children and young people who had been involved with children’s services since June 2016.  The Inspection Team also interviewed a number of Officers from across the Local Authority, as well as young people and parents and carers.  Following the visit, Ofsted confirmed that it recognised the progress made in management, leadership and governance, but identified a need to further improve social work practice and increase the pace of change.  It was expected that more significant improvement would be demonstrated at the next monitoring visit in February 2017.

In considering the update, the Chairman was concerned that of the six cases reviewed as part of the first Ofsted monitoring visit, four had been judged as ‘Inadequate’ and two as ‘Requires Improvement’.  The Executive Director acknowledged that there were issues with historical casework but that the focus of improvement would be on cases going forward.  The six cases had been audited by the Quality Improvement Service and reviewed by senior management prior to the Inspection, and a realistic view of the cases had been formed that was in line with the subsequent Ofsted judgements and demonstrated that areas where practice required improvement were being identified.  The next monitoring visit in February 2017 would consider working practices since September 2016, and was expected to show that significant progress had been made as a result of the Improvement Action Plan.  A Member noted that there were 174 days until the end of the six month period of scrutiny, and queried if this would allow time for the necessary improvements to be embedded across children’s services.  The Executive Director advised Members that there would be further monitoring visits in February and April 2017 that would support the Local Authority in assessing the progress being made, and that this would demonstrate that the necessary measures to support ongoing improvement were in place.  At the request of the Committee, the final Ofsted letter from the first monitoring visit would be circulated to Members following the meeting. 

With regard to the caseloads of social worker practitioners, the Executive Director reported that whilst caseloads at Bromley had been higher than at other local authorities, the size of caseloads had now reduced following the recruitment of additional staff and work was being undertaken around how caseloads could best be managed going forward.  The need to build flexibility into the system to allow additional support to be provided to social worker practitioners who were dealing with very complex or demanding cases had been identified and would include managerial support and practical assistance with tasks including the supervision of contact sessions.  The Local Authority was part of a pan-London group that shared a range of data including caseload levels, and Councillor Nicholas Bennett JP suggested that this data be used to compare levels of locum social workers and their average length of service.  In response to a question from a Member around the possibility of a departmental restructure, the Executive Director emphasised that the current priority was on embedding improvement across the existing service structure, but that flexibility would be built in to ensure that the support needs of individual children and young people were met.  Councillor Nicholas Bennett JP underlined the potential to identify best practice from local authorities judged as being ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’. 

In considering risk management, a Member noted the issues identified around the capacity of the Legal Service and Bromley Safeguarding Children Board team.  The Director of Corporate Services advised that there had been a significant increase in care proceedings relating to children during 2016/17, and that work was in progress to develop a business case for the most effective model for the future delivery of the Legal Service, which was likely to involve the integration of the Legal Service with the Court Team to support more efficient, high-quality outcomes.  In response to a question from the Vice-Chairman, the Director of Corporate Services confirmed that the Local Authority’s aim in all care proceedings relating to children was for the best outcome for the child to be secured, which could be to remain with their families with a package of support.  Out of hundreds of cases brought by the Local Authority, very few had been criticised by the Court for failing to meet the threshold for consideration, although there had been a range of outcomes from Court proceedings dependent on the needs of the child.  The Executive Director noted that cost implications around work to increase the capacity of the Legal Service and Bromley Safeguarding Children Board team were being identified and that measures might be included as part of proposals for the third phase of funding to deliver the Improvement Action Plan, the details of which would be presented to the next meeting of Care Services PDS Committee on 10^th January 2017, prior to consideration by the Council’s Executive.  Councillor Nicholas Bennett JP emphasised that the additional funding agreed was significantly less than that required to fund a Children’s Trust over which Members’ would have no control, and requested that information on the cost of Children’s Trusts in other local authorities be provided to Members following the meeting.  A Member underlined the need to ensure that the quality of other key services such as Adult Social Care were maintained as measures to improve children’s services were introduced. 

In response to a question from a Member, the Executive Director confirmed that work was underway to ensure foster carers received the support they needed to deliver their role to the highest standards.  An enhanced training programme had been developed, and measures such as those to develop a stable workforce of permanent social worker practitioners would provide continuity for children looked after.  The Chairman noted that the Living in Care Council had raised concerns around a lack of continuity with social workers as part of their presentation to Care Services PDS Committee on 15^th November 2016, and requested that issues impacting children looked after be included as a separate section in the annual complaints report, which already included issues raised by foster carers.

A Member was concerned at the high workload of the Care Services Portfolio, particularly in relation to contracts management, and requested that more emphasis be placed on scrutiny, including analysis of policies and procedures.  Another Member suggested that the Portfolio structure be reviewed to ensure an equal balance of workloads and responsibilities across Portfolios.  All committee reports now included a section on the impact on vulnerable adults and children, and Members requested that this be rolled out to Planning reports to enable decisions relating to housing and development to be made with due regard to the impact on vulnerable adults and children.

In response to a query from a Member around the monthly audit process of casework, the Chairman confirmed that the Care Services PDS Committee would continue to receive regular updates on progress in implementing the Children’s Services Improvement Action Plan and the outcome of any monitoring visits as appropriate, and that this would include information on audit outcomes.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.