Issue - meetings

Report of the Head of Children’s Social Care

The Committee considered the report of the Head of Children’s Social Care that provided an overview of the improvement journey and areas of change that would be required for Children’s Social Care in Sefton.

In 2016 Sefton Children’s Services had been graded as “Requires Improvement” under the Inspecting Local Authority Children’s Services (ILACs) framework. In 2019, a Joint Targeted Area inspection took place and identified 4 areas for priority action. In March 2021 a focused visit took place with a focus on “key decision-making points” within the context of the covid-19 pandemic. This was not a graded judgement, although there were 2 areas for priority action and 3 areas for improvement. The link to the Ofsted report was included within the report.

The report set out the background to the matter, together with areas for priority action.

Appendix 1 to the report provided details of the Improvement Plan against each of the five priority areas.

Members of the Committee asked questions/raised matters on the following:

·       Numbers of cases assigned to social workers. Details of the structure under review could be provided in the future.

·       Supervision of social workers and staff morale. Information on recruitment and retention, together with support for staff in general, could be provided in the future.

·       Funding for additional social workers.

·       Workforce planning and the number of interim/temporary managers.

·       Criticisms appeared to re-occur during inspections and whether the Local Authority was learning the lessons of inspections.

·       Whether improvements could be made with the same managers in place.

·       A progress report could be considered for the next meeting.

·       An on-going monitoring report could be considered for the Committee.

·       The Committee was able to scrutinise the Service and its input should be respected.

·       The longer-term strategy for the retention of social workers.

·       Twice-yearly updates could be submitted to the Committee.

·       Reasons behind the reluctance to escalate cases and how to address.

RESOLVED: That

(1)      the contents of the report be noted;

(2)      further updates on the Children’s Social Care improvement will be provided; and

(3)      the Interim Executive Director of Children’s Social Care and Education be requested to submit twice-yearly updates on the improvement journey for Children’s Social Care in Sefton to the Committee, to include:

·       The numbers of cases assigned to social workers; and

·       Information on the recruitment and retention of social workers, together with support for staff in general.