Agenda item

Report of the Corporate Director for Strategy and Resources

Helen Blackman, Director of Children’s Integrated Services presented a report updating the Committee on Post Safeguarding Inspection Progress since the Ofsted inspection carried out in 2014. The following points were highlighted:

(a)  In 2014 Ofsted judged that there was lots of good work taking place in Nottingham City with room for improvement in some aspects;

(b)  the workforce had issues with capacity despite the Council taking on 10 additional social workers shortly before the inspection started. This remains a challenge for the Council despite steps being taken to ease caseloads;

(c)  the IT system used, Carefirst, was considered increasingly unsuitable, no longer intuitive to the increasing workloads being experienced. A new system called Liquid Logic was commissioned and went live in December 2016. Members of staff have received training but it will take time for new system to be embedded. The system is far more intuitive and will reduce screen time;

(d)  assessment and planning issues were made worse by the issues with inadequate computer systems. This issue is being addressed with the new system and will improve as staff become comfortable with the software;

(e)  the ‘voice of the child’ approach was applied widely but the recording was not always done well enough. It did highlight good practices with younger children. As a result, all recording templates have been reassessed and re-written. The introduction of the Liquid Logic software has also improved the quality of staff recording. Additionally, the Council has introduced an app called Mind of My Own (MOMA), whichis designed to enable Children in Care to be better heard;

(f)  there was an issue with the governance and capacity of the Virtual School used by Children in Care. Following a peer review of this service there is now extra capacity and a governing body place. In addition to this, all Children in Care have a full education plan alongside a full health plan;

(g)  in the past, the Fostering Service suffered from a lack of technical leadership. This has been addressed with a restructure to ensure technical lead is in place. There is also an increased focus on finding local fostering families and a change in the way payments are made to make it easier for foster carers;

(h)  Adoption Services was also involved in the restructure to ensure technical leadership and development of specialist skills;

(i)  strategic tools like Carefirst have now been updated and corporate business plans are better communicated;

(j)  a recent peer review of Children’s Services showed that children in Nottingham City were are safe, and that the Council was not risk averse. An Ofsted inspection of the Youth Offending Team in 2016 judged them to be a good service, offering innovative work and good leadership;

(k)  new Multi-Systemic Therapy for Child Abuse and Neglect has been introduced to work intensively with the most in need families. This work looks to break the cycle of abuse and breakdown of families and to support change for the whole family;

(l)  children’s residential homes are inspected annually and reviewed every 6 months. All have been found to be safe and meeting the needs of the children living there.

(m)  Ofsted are arriving on 23 January 2017 to conduct a pilot inspection using a new, more proportionate approach. In April 2018 the new framework will be in place and the timetable for inspection will restart. By inviting Ofsted to inspect at this stage it will allow the Council to assess progress made since the last inspection and will also mean that the Council will be one of the last to receive mandatory inspection following the April 2018 introduction of the new framework.

Following comments and questions from the committee the following information was provided:

(n)  in work with priority families the Council used the government funding to create and fill Co-Ordinator posts that are working to change the culture of approaching social work. The aim was to alter the way everyone works not just those working with these priority families to take a systemic approach to make an enduring difference. These Co-Ordinators will remain in post as long as funding exists and the change in approach to the work will continue;

(o)  families needing extra help are increasingly signposted to the voluntary sector to seek help directly. The increase of self-referrals to voluntary services is increasing with resources already stretched within this sector. More work can be done between the Council and the voluntary services to deliver work on a whole family approach;

(p)  social worker retention is on par with the national average. 40% of social workers in the Council are agency staff but there is some variation to this figure across the year. Reasons for the nationally high turnover are well documented and include high workload/caseload;

(q)  the Council is taking part in a key piece of work along with 8 other councils across the region to standardise terms offered to agency staff within the East Midlands. The work aims to create a regional agreement ensuring standard pay, rewards and experience requirements are the same between the authorities;

(r)  the Council has a robust set of checks before employing agency Social workers. Agency staff are unable to work as social workers without being registered, which requires recognised Social Work Qualifications. The Council also requires a certain level of experience before it will employ agency staff and will hold interviews for all agency staff prior to appointment. Newly Qualified Social workers are not employed through an agency. The Council also completes independent Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks in addition to those held by the agency, and requires full references;

(s)  the Council has recently agreed a distance learning course with Manchester Metropolitan university to develop existing staff and train new social workers. The Council has loan arrangements in place for staff taking up the distance learning allowing experience to remain within the Council workforce.

RESOLVED to note the content of the report and thank the Director of Children’s Integrated Services for the informative presentation.