Council Pulls Out Of Social Work Service To Go It Alone

A local authority is pulling out of an out-of-hours social work service led by a neighbouring council, deeming it poor value for money after inspectors warned it must improve.

South Lanarkshire Council has given notice it will withdraw from the West of Scotland standby service and provide its own emergency cover.

Glasgow City Council operates the standby service and last year was told by the Social Work Inspection Agency the service had serious limitations.

Most local authorities work in partnership to provide out of hours care.

The Glasgow-led West of Scotland service covers 13 councils, Edinburgh delivers a service for the three other Lothian councils, Dundee leads for Perth and Kinross and Angus, while Stirling, Falkirk and Clackmannanshire also work together.

However, councillors in South Lanarkshire, which covers large towns like Hamilton and a large rural area and accounts for 11% of referrals to the service, have agreed it is in its best interest to set up its own organisation.

Harry Stevenson, executive director of social work, said in a report to councillors: “The current arrangements do not provide for the responsive service or value for money for South Lanarkshire Council and for the past 18 months social work resources have been developing the case for withdrawing from the service.”

The latest inspection report into Glasgow City Council’s social work service highlighted some concerns about the standby service.

It recommended: “The services should move more quickly to implement the recommendations of their best value review of standby services.”

The report said: “Inspectors heard from a number of different sources about the limited capacity of standby social work services. Many, including police colleagues, said it could be very difficult to get through to them on the telephone and that when they did they were often disappointed at the support offered.”

A South Lanarkshire Council spokesperson said: “We now have an infrastructure to support out of hours emergency services. The council believes it can establish an emergency service integrated with existing services that is responsive to the needs of people in the council area.”