Swansea slow to improve poor children’s services

A PANEL of experts brought in to oversee the work of Swansea Council’s children’s services department says the authority needs to show “far more urgency” in dealing with the problems.

The intervention board was brought in earlier this year after critical reports of children’s social services in Swansea by the Care and Social Services Inspectorate for Wales.

It was the first time such a board was created in Wales and followed concerns that the local authority was failing to protect young people

The inspectorate found “serious concerns in core areas of service provision” and drew up an action plan with the council for improvements.

But a full meeting of Swansea Council will be told in a report tomorrow that the intervention board is not entirely satisfied with work to put things right.

A report of a meeting between councillors, officials and the intervention board makes it clear board members are unhappy a specific officer and councillor team has not been put in place to deal with the problems.

The report says: “Given the precarious position faced by the authority, the board would have expected a corporate leader and a combined team of senior councillors and officers to have been appointed specifically to address the acute and pressing problems confronting the authority.

“The problems identified in the CSSIW reports, now of long standing, ought to have been analysed by this team and strategies devised by the team for dealing with them.

“The team ought to have ensured that such strategies were being driven into effect.

“By such means progress could be incrementally measured and serious obstacles overcome.

“As matters stand, the council does not have effective combined leadership of members and officers in relation to the pressing problems.”

The report added: “The board believes some progress has been made and the problems facing the council can be solved, but the pace of change however is not adequate. The authority needs to show far more urgency and to accelerate in particular its resolution of organisational problems and staffing issues.”

But the panel of experts praised the work of Nick Tregoning, the cabinet member for social services, and two councillors aiding him.

The panel of experts is to visit the children’s services department this week.