Agenda item

That the Committee requests a progress report be submitted to the

meeting of the Committee to be held on 3 March 2016 on the action plan to

include barriers, challenges and risks.

The Chief Officer (Social Services) introduced a report  on the findings of the Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW) concerning their Inspection of Children’s Services in Flintshire.  The report also sets out the Council’s action plan in response  to the report.  He thanked Katy Young, Lead Inspector CSSIW, and her team for the detailed inspection of services during May and June 2015 and invited her to present the report.

                        The CSSIW Lead Inspector gave an overview of the Inspection of Children’s Services Report which was appended to the report and referred to the following 4 key areas of service:

§  Access arrangements

§  Assessment

§  Safeguarding and Care Management

§  Leadership and Governance

                        The CSSIW Lead Inspector reported on the key findings and recommendations as detailed in the Report.  She advised that the Report reflected some areas of strength in the Service, notably examples of good social work practice, strong political and corporate support for Children’s Services, timely, well managed, child focussed child protection conferences and importantly a committed, suitably trained and qualified workforce. However inspectors also found significant areas for improvement. The Council was yet to translate their strategic direction into a strategy for service delivery. Early intervention arrangements were insufficiently developed and this impacted on the timeliness of early help. The application of thresholds, the timeliness and quality of assessments, care planning, and partnership working as well as management oversight and quality assurance were all highlighted as inconsistent and in need of improvement.  Inspectors welcomed senior manager’s recognition of the issues raised in the report and their statedcommitment to achieving improvements in the support for children and families.

The Chair thanked the CSSIW Lead Inspector for her presentation.

The Chief Officer (Social Services) advised that based on the conclusions of the report, 12 recommendations for required change in the Service had been made for which the Council had prepared a robust action plan.  He reported on the actions and outcomes to be achieved in the action plan and explained that a number of the recommendations acknowledged that the Council had identified the areas concerned as requiring support and had started to make progress in response to the key issues raised.   The CSSIW Lead Inspector explained that the CSSIW would be monitoring the action plan on a monthly basis.  The Chief Officer advised that a workshop would be held late November/early December to discuss the report in terms of partnership working. 

                        The Chair invited Members to raise questions.

                        Councillor Hilary McGuill  asked how the Committee could ensure that the required outcomes/recommendations  were being properly dealt with.   The Chief Officer referred to the Climbie visits which take place once a year and said consideration could be given to further developing the visits.   He also commented on the new approach to performance indicators across Wales and said that Senior Managers would be willing to discuss the matter of monitoring of outcomes with the Committee. The Senior Manager Safeguarding/Lead Children referred to the Single Assessment Works Stream and emphasised that an outcome approach was at the heart of the process.  She also referred to the    National Outcome Framework pilot and advised that the Council had pre-empted some  of the changes noted and that all staff were due to be trained on the Framework in the New Year.  Rob Gifford, CSSIW Inspector, advised that monthly monitoring meetings would be taking place with the Senior Manager team to review progress against the outcomes.  He offered to return to Flintshire at a future date to give the CSSIW perspective.  

                        Councillor Hilary McGuill  commented on the issue of re-referrals and expressed her concerns at the significant increase to over 70%.  The CSSIW Lead Inspector referred to the recommendation in the Report that multiagency arrangements should be established to review repeat referrals and quality assure decision making.   The Senior Manager Safeguarding/Lead Children referred to the actions to be undertaken in the action plan and progress to date to address the matter. 

                        Councillor Ian Smith sought clarification on the term ‘nominal child’.  The Senior Manager Safeguarding/Lead Children explained that the practice was that the eldest child in the family was regarded as the nominal child for the purpose of Children in Need reporting.

                        In response to a question from Councillor Dave Mackie regarding the reporting of information, the CSSIW Lead Inspector commented on the need for the wider needs of the child to be recorded in addition to the risk element in order to achieve an holistic record of the child’s needs. The Senior Manager Safeguarding/Lead Children referred to the single assessment process which had been developed which aimed to address the problem of inconsistency and ensure social workers were able to spend more time with their case families than completion of paperwork. 

                        During discussion the Senior Manager Commissioning and Performance reported on the recent staff conference which was held  to share the recommendations and key findings from the CSSIW Inspection.  He said  that it had been a worthwhile and positive event and commented on the engagement and enthusiasm of staff to achieve improvements in the services provided to help and protect children and families.  The Senior Manager Commissioning and Performance offered to share the outcome of the consultation exercise with the Committee when completed.

                        Councillor Andy Dunbobbin suggested that the Corporate Resources Overview & Scrutiny Committee be made aware of the issues raised in the CSSIW report in relation to I.T.      The      Social & Health Overview and Scrutiny Facilitator agreed to raise this matter with the Member Engagement Manager.

            RESOLVED:

That the Committee requests a progress report be submitted to the

meeting of the Committee to be held on 3 March 2016 on the action plan to

include barriers, challenges and risks.