Key aspects of Swansea
Council's children’s social services have been criticised as poor by the Care
& Social Services Inspectorate Wales.
A
review of the department by the CSSIW found significant weaknesses in access
to services, assessment, care management and review and protection
arrangements. The range and quality of services was mainly good as were
efforts to promote independence.
Inspectors reported that on the whole the quality of assessments was poor.
Children were not routinely seen or spoken to, their demeanour and behaviour
not observed and their parents not described. Some less urgent cases were
given a light-touch “administrative” assessment to save time.
A “worrying” number of complex and serious cases went unallocated for lengthy
periods, including some children on the child protection register, resulting
in delays in providing services, drifts in children’s achievement plans and
families becoming disengaged.
Investigations into allegations of significant harm were not always thorough
or completed. Some risk assessments were superficial, with little information
gathering and historical concerns not properly taken into account.
Service users and staff were particularly critical of the long waiting lists
to access family support services – such as respite care – for disabled
people.
Problems were exacerbated by significant recruitment and retention problems
for children’s social workers, with a “considerable” number acting up in posts
temporarily, the report says. Frontline staff were also critical of the lack
of support – through supervision and case audit – from managers.
Inspectors called on management and council members to address failings over
referrals, unallocated cases and the workforce shortage as a matter of urgency
and to improve scrutiny arrangements.
Chief inspector Rob Pickford said: “I have made clear to the chief executive
and director of social services my expectations for improving services and
have put in place arrangements to monitor progress at quarterly intervals. The
authority has much work to do to improve its children’s services.”
In response, the council's head of children's services, Mark Roszkowski,
attributed many of the issues raised to
social worker shortages, and said the
authority had launched a recruitment campaign to tackle the problem.
Recruitment drive spearheads improvement
plans for Children's Services
http://www.swansea.gov.uk
An innovative social
worker recruitment drive is spearheading plans to improve Children's Services
in Swansea.
The move is a key part of an action plan being developed to respond to issues
highlighted by a review of the service by the Care and Social Services
Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW).
Since the review's draft findings in April, the Council has made significant
progress in all areas such as improving the speed of carrying out child
assessments and allocating work.
The review highlighted many examples of good practice including family
support, accommodation for looked after children, services for children with
disabilities and within frontline social work services for children in need,
inspectors noted examples of excellent practice.
Mark Roszkowski, Head of Children's Services, said, "The CSSIW report
highlighted a number of areas where we are performing very well in Swansea.
"It also identified shortcomings in some services and some of the ways we
operate. We have acted upon those findings and we now have a comprehensive
action plan in place to address the areas of concern.
"We have already introduced new systems and better working practices which has
speeded up the way we assess children and put in place plans to meet their
needs.
"Many of the concerns raised by inspectors had come about because of a
shortage of experienced social workers.
"Our staff have been brilliant, but they've been working against the odds.
This is simply because we couldn't attract experienced and permanent social
workers to fill all our vacancies."
And now the new recruitment campaign is under way to attract experienced
social workers to Swansea to address what is a factor affecting social work
across the whole of Wales.
A series of imaginative adverts are being placed in the local and national
media. They follow on from the award-winning 'Being Frank' advertising
campaign to help recruit staff in social care.
Mr Roszkowski added, "Recruitment and retention of experienced staff is a
major issue for social services departments across the country. We've improved
the pay on offer to social workers and we've introduced recruitment and
retention bonuses. We hope the adverts will attract a number of experienced
social workers to work alongside our committed team. At the same time, we are
improving the way we develop and support our staff.
"We are pleased with the progress we've made during the past six months, but
we are focussed on introducing even more improvements to ensure we provide the
best possible services to vulnerable children and families."
