Man who brings sea change to storm-hit councils

Colin Anderson remembers when Peter Peacock, the former education minister, spoke to the Scottish Parliament about the Miss X case in the Scottish Borders.

Investigations into the horrific abuse case showed that at least three people with learning disabilities had suffered serious sexual and physical abuse. Mr Peacock said he had never come across a more harrowing or appalling case and later described reading a report into the case as “life changing”.

For Mr Anderson, who had worked as a social worker for Scottish Borders Council and its predecessors for three decades, it was also a life-changing moment.

“I remember the views expressed by Peter Peacock in Parliament. He was talking about people suffering 30 years of institutional abuse and I thought: ‘That is my 30 years’. I had been a member of that service.

“When it is an organisation in which you have invested almost all your professional life … I was in tears, to be honest.

“Hearing someone in the Scottish Parliament stand up and talk about your service like that. It had an impact on me.”

That moment six years ago led to what might be described as a gear shift in Mr Anderson’s working life.

He had been head of business management in Scottish Borders Council, and by his own admission “wondering when the opportunity might arise for early retirement” when the revelations about the protection of vulnerable adults in the region threw the council into turmoil.

He became head of community care services, charged with helping steer through a recovery programme to help restore the reputation of Scottish Borders and ensure such a situation couldn’t arise again.

Subsequently, in 2007, Midlothian Council suffered a report on its child protection provision so damning that both the council’s deputy leader and director of social work quit in response. The education inspectorate HMIE, which has responsibility for child protection, said children were at risk, and action was required urgently.

At this point Mr Anderson found himself headhunted by Midlothian and his transformation into Scotland’s de facto social work troubleshooter was complete.

“Although I was sitting as head of community care services, the chief executive [of Midlothian] knew my post-graduate qualification was in child protection,” he recalls. “We had also operated a recovery model in Scottish Borders, so he felt I would have the necessary skill set.”

He became acting director of social work and was later confirmed in the post. The turn of events was “quite strange” he says, but he felt he had something to offer at Midlothian. “It invigorated me as a manager. I was being given an opportunity – I wanted people to be able to have confidence in frontline services again.”

As the HMIE report indicated, the challenge at Midlothian was daunting. Inspectors found widespread management failings, with child protection cases left unallocated and some children left in high-risk situations without clear plans to protect them.

Mr Anderson found a lack of vision and different parts of the department working to different policies. “There wasn’t a vision – literally, there was no vision, we had to start by writing one,” he says.

Meanwhile it wasn’t just in child protection he found gaps. “We had to put strategies in place for how we delivered services to older people, people with disabilities, those with mental health problems and children’s services.

“We had a key policy document, but one office was using version four while another was using version one. The whole organisation needed a fundamental overhaul.”

He set about making changes, but progress was less than smooth. Unison, the union which represents most of Scotland’s social workers, said they had been warning for months of unallocated cases and excessive workloads.

Many of the staff voted with their feet. “The previous director was obviously a high profile resignation and there were people who chose to leave. We had 18 months of turmoil and a 32% staff turnover.

“I put that down to the fallout from the HMIE report. Whether people chose to leave because they felt the organisation was in disrepute and they decided to disassociate themselves, I don’t know”, Mr Anderson says.

“But those who stayed have bought into the new culture.”

Mr Anderson relates the condition of Midlothian and Borders Council to the crisis theories of psychiatrist Gerard Caplan, developed in the 1960s.

Caplan saw a family crisis as a time of opportunity. It is during crisis, Mr Anderson argues, that we most easily achieve a sea change.

“It can be the same for councils. It can be a real window to make profound changes,” he explains.

At Midlothian, as at Scottish Borders, he feels he has been able to turn his department around.

There have been new staff, and a programme of organisational change which has revitalised the role of middle managers.

Specific changes include the introduction of an independent panel to review child protection decisions, much better surveillance of case files to ensure standards are being maintained, and procedures to enable the council to react much more swiftly to child protection concerns. Crucially this includes more effective liaison with partners in health, education and the police.

Staff were required to retrain – even those who had decades of service. “We assumed everyone had the same starting point, even the most experienced.”

The council is also now looking at whether a single children’s service, uniting social work and education under the same department, would work for Midlothian.

Six new children and families social workers have just been approved, Mr Anderson adds. Some staff have found the pace of change a challenge, and the level of new workers has been daunting. “We have had a lot of people coming in who were not only new to the council but in many cases fairly young in their social work careers.”

However the council no longer has children at risk sitting on caseloads with no decision being made about their future. Subsequent reports from both HMIE and the Social Work Inspection Agency have rewarded Midlothian with a shower of “Goods” and “Very goods”.

“I wouldn’t say everything was hunky dory. We are 100% not complacent,” Mr Anderson says. “But this is no longer a high risk council.”

He highlights the role of middle managers in putting councils to rights. “What we found in the Borders and now here is that line managers and team leaders are the people who carry the culture of the organisation. If they function well, the organisation functions well, and if they stop the organisation ceases to function well.”

While much has improved, he still has sleepless nights, he adds.

“There may always be something out there which hasn’t come to our attention. The key thing which has changed over my career has been substance misuse. This is the most challenging area, with situations that are volatile and can deteriorate rapidly. But we are in a much more robust place in terms of monitoring, and the checks and balances we have in place.”

While staff would still complain about workload and shortage of resources, a £1.6m uplift in spending on social work is evidence of the political commitment at the council to change, he says.

Meanwhile he can now see ways Midlothian can take a national lead. It has already pioneered in areas such as telecare and is playing a lead role in the Lothian wide NHS mental health strategy.

“People say, ‘we’re just a wee council,’ but I say we are small enough to make a difference. We don’t have the same bureaucracy – we can enthuse people to try something new and see the effects. We can be fleet of foot.”

Turning around councils rocked by crises

In Scottish Borders in 2002 three men were convicted for their involvement in the rape and torture of a woman with learning difficulties. A report found the woman, known only as Miss X, had first come to the attention of Borders social workers 30 years earlier.

While Midlothian Council has not hit the headlines in quite so shocking a way, child protection inspectors were alarmed enough in 2007 to demand immediate action. Their report warned services were weak and unsatisfactory and children were at risk.

Subsequent reports on both councils have given them a clean bill of health.