Stirling Council needs to make care changes

A critical report says Stirling Council needs to make important changes to its social care delivery. The Social Work Inspection Agency report said the council needed to improve services for children, the elderly and the disabled.

The improvements will need to be made in the face of proposed budget cuts as the council struggles to make ends meet.

Stirling Council leader Graham Houston said recent changes to councils make-up would improve the services.

During the six-month inspection the Agency looked at 10 service areas and found seven were ‘adequate’, two were ‘weak’ and one was ‘good’.

But inspectors said they were ‘not confident’ that the council had ‘sufficiently thought through’ the impact on social services of its cost cutting plans .

However, inspectors did praise the efforts of staff and said the service was working to deliver a clear vision and ways of monitoring and reporting on performance.

Alexis Jay, chief inspector at the SWIA said: ‘Today’s report highlights the important changes which are required to Stirling Council’s social work services in order to provide a better service to the public, particularly older people, people with learning disabilities and children leaving the care of the council.

‘Whilst social work staff are hard working and committed, the council needs to ensure there is strong professional and strategic leadership in place to deliver the necessary changes.’

Mr Jay said the agency would be working with Stirling Council on an action plan to improve the service.

Council leader, Graham Houston said: ‘We have appointed an assistant chief executive to oversee all strategy relating to care, health and wellbeing and all social care services are being housed under one head of service who is also the chief social work officer.

‘We want to be an organisation that delivers efficient and effective social work services at a time and place that meets the needs of our citizens and improves their quality of life.

‘Caring for the most vulnerable people in our society is a priority for us and our new organisational structure and our improvement plan allows us to do this.’