News Insight: Social Care – ‘Inadequate’ Authorities Get To Work

Eight local authorities were judged “inadequate” for safeguarding in Ofsted’s annual performance assessments during December. Janaki Mahadevan investigates what steps each authority has since taken to improve child protection.

BIRMINGHAM

The council says it has been working since last May to address issues raised by Ofsted, but says the publication of the annual performance assessments (APAs) was a catalyst to announce initiatives designed to “dramatically” improve children’s services.

A task force has been set up to drive improvements in children’s services. It will be chaired by leader of the council, Mike Whitby, and will include the chief executive and the lead member for children, young peopel and families.

Whitby says: “We are also determined to play a positive role in teh future development of social work, which is why we have proposed the new all-party overview and scrutiny team to look at the government’s national review of social work.

DONCASTER

Doncaster’s children’s services came under fire with news that seven children have died in the area since 2004, in cases involving abuse or neglect.

The mayor Martin Winter has refused to step down despite growing calls for his resignation.

Last week, the council started an internal investigation into the department and has said it is committed to recruiting more specialist staff.

Winter says: “I have injected a further £4m into children’s services and ensured all our systems have been brought under review. Under the expert lead of our interim director of children’s services, Paul Gray, who joined us in April last year, we have been able to drive forward a robust improvement and prevention programme.”

ESSEX

According to a spokesman at Essex County Council, the authority had already been working on the problems in the department before the APA was undertaken.

The council says it will invest £50m over four years in frontline services and recruit an additional 60 social workers appointed by an independent chair of the local safeguarding children board.

The money will also go towards creating new senior management posts, family support services and appointing two independent assessors. The authority spokesman says: “We are absolutely committed to protecting our vulnerable and we are dedicated to making sure each and every child in the county has the safe childhood that they are entitled to.”

HARINGEY

Haringey dominated national news in November in the wake of the Baby P case. Following the subsequently damning joint area review (JAR), APA and the sacking of director of children’s services Sharon Shoesmith, the council has undertaken a programme of structural change in the department.

A council spokesman says: “Our aim is to become an exemplar in safeguarding and child protection practice. We have new managerial and political leadership. We are reviewing the operation of our corporate parenting responsibilities, including training for all members on both corporate parenting and safeguarding.”

The council also says the political scrutiny of these areas will be strengthened.

READING

Following criticism from fellow councillors after a critical JAR, Reading’s lead member for children’s services decided to step down from the position last week.

Citing “bitter politics” for his decision, Pete Ruhemann says steps had already been taken to overhaul the department.

Measures made so far include commissioning staff and management training and appointing more social care staff to reduce the workload of the child protection teams.

Since the reviews, the council has commissioned two external audits of all child protection cases, the first of which has reported that most plans are adequate or better.

SURREY

The Department for Children, Schools and Families has issued the council with an improvement notice and given the authority until 2010 to improve outcomes for vulnerable children.

Andy Roberts, director for children, schools and families at Surrey County Council, cites an increase in senior managers among the steps taken to improve child protection. He says: “Part of the reason we failed is because we didn’t have the right level of senior management.

“We have audited about 3,500 files of all children in need to ensure no one has slipped through the net. This identified a number of questions about quality of casework and has led to some children being put on the child protection register or being taken into care.”

WEST SUSSEX

In Ofsted’s APA in December, inspectors stated that progress made in safeguarding and services for looked-after children and young people had been “unacceptably slow”. It went on to say that some previously identified weaknesses, such as the timeliness of initial assessments, still remained.

A spokesman for the authority says: “Difficulty in recruiting social workers has been an issue for West Sussex, along with neighbouring authorities.

“As a result of a major campaign we have recruited 19 new social workers – 11 to work with children – and the campaign is continuing. We are also talking with staff about the best way of using a £500,000 recruitment and retention package that has recently been approved.”

WOKINGHAM

A JAR of Wokingham Borough Council’s children’s services judged safeguarding to be inadequate, highlighting “significant weaknesses” in the management of the authority’s local safeguarding children’s board.

Chief executive of the council Susan Law says: “Following the inspection, we have made some immediate improvements. A comprehensive action plan to implement the report’s recommendations has been developed and we will work closely with our partners to achieve the targets set out.”

The council is currently working on implementing better systems for recording social care files, improving the timeliness of assessments, the effectiveness of the local children’s safeguarding board and the use of safe recruitment processes.