Agenda item

[Emma Bennett, Director for Children's Services,to present report]

Emma Bennett, Director for Children's Service, introduced the report and outlined progress on the delivery of the Children and Young People Service Improvement Plan 2017-2018. The Director advised the panel that the plan incorporates the recommendations detailed in the Ofsted action plan. The implementation of the plan is monitored monthly. The Director for Children's Service advised the panel of the aim to create a more strategic plan to show the impact and performance of the work being done to improve outcomes for children.

The panel queried issues about the retention and recruitment of social workers and current turnover. The Director for Children's Service commented on the ripple effect of impact of changes in the senior management and the planned service restructuring to address the recruitment and retention of experienced social work staff. The Director for Children's Service added that meetings have been held with staff and issues about management support and casework load has been highlighted as concern by social workers.  The issue of the lack of career progression pathways and confusion about management roles and responsibilities was also highlighted.  These issues are being considered as part for the proposed restructure – consultation with staff starts in July 2018.

The Director for Children's Service advised the panel Wolverhampton was in the top quartile nationally and is working to improve the offer of education, training and employment to care leavers. The Director for Children's Service advised the panel about the range of work undertaken to support looked after children and gave examples of job placement opportunities being created in waste services – four care leavers are working in the service and two carer leavers have work placements elsewhere with an insurance company.

The panel queried the outstanding actions in the Ofsted Action Plan which had been not been completed. The Director for Children's Service commented on the challenge to embed practice in the areas and the Ofsted judgement that work was not judged as being done consistently. The issue is being discussed with the regional link Ofsted Inspector for social care. The Council must submit an annual self-assessment to evidence that progress is being made to deliver the required service improvements.

The panel discussed the issue of the recruitment and retention of social work staff and its impact on service users. The Director for Children’s Services commented that retaining experienced social workers is one of the biggest challenges facing the Council. The Council has a rolling recruitment process and recently recruited 16 newly qualified social workers who have protected caseloads to help manage the demands on the service.

The Director for Children’s Services commented on the challenge in responding to the better levels of pay offered by agencies across the region. The local authorities in the region has signed a memorandum of understanding to cap the level of pay for agency staff to help efforts to maintain workforce levels.

The panel queried the idea of using contact centres to generate income for the Council. The Director for Children’s Services explained that some local authorities do not have supervised contact centre services and the idea being considered is that facilities in Wolverhampton could be offered to other Local Authorities.

The panel thanked the Director for Children’s Services for the presentation.

Resolved:

1.    The panel comments on the 2018-19 Children and Young People Service Improvement Plan to be considered.

2.    The panel support the progress made to implement Ofsted recommendations.

3.    The panel agreed to receive a further progress report on the implementation of the 2018-19 Children and Young People Service Improvement Plan on 16 January 2019.