Agenda item

a)         Report of the Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s     Services

b)         Presentation by Mark Gurney, Strategic Manager Child Protection and        Disability

The Committee received a report from the Director of Children and Young People’s Services that raised awareness and understanding of the role of the social worker in Durham County Council (for copy see file of Minutes).

The Strategic Manager for Child Protection and Disability gave a very detailed presentation that included the range of work covered by Children’s Services Social Workers, the current activity, performance management framework and service pressures.

Members were provided with a snapshot of social worker activity as at 31 October, information on the performance management framework and how the pressure on the service had increased in the past few years.

He highlighted paragraph 17 of the report that gave examples of the type of work carried out on a typical day including domestic abuse referrals, mental health issues, attending team around the family meetings, being cross-examined in court, working with foster carers and prospective adopters and working with vulnerable children at risk of homelessness.

Councillor Kennedy referred to domestic violence when it was the young people abusing their parents and asked about the approach in that situation.  The Strategic Manager advised that this would be recognised within LSCB procedures and if the parents were struggling in their own home the urgent care service would formalise a robust and flexible approach for them.  Further to another question from Councillor Kennedy about where a child would be placed if taken from the home in these circumstances and was advised that extended family members would be approached in the first instance and on rare occasions the child would be placed in foster care.  The main aim of the service would be for the child to return back to the family home safely.

Councillor Bainbridge asked if the increase in more cases was in certain areas of County Durham and if it was from families already in the system or from alcohol, drugs and abuse.  She was informed that there were more cases in the East of the County than in more affluent parts of the County and that austerity was impacting on families coping strategies.  This was not just the link to poverty but when people did not feel secure in their lives and could lead to mental health issues, drug or alcohol issues and could lead to abuse within the home.  There had been an increase in drug use from parents and the patterns of neglect were identified earlier through the One Point Team and Families First Team.  The Strategic Manager also advised that the service was working with parents to support them but there was a link to poverty and children coming into care.

Councillor Crute said that there was a common thread with regards to the direction of travel as the number of active cases and applications for care proceedings continued to increase.  With the role out of Universal Credit he asked how the service could plan ahead.  The Strategic Manager advised that the restructure of the service would better shape the teams and there would be a focus on babies and adolescents.  There had been an independent evaluation from Northumbria University with regards to the pre-birth team that showed that in 50% of cases the child stayed with the mother and the other 50% had first and final statements issued.  He added that it was about all services working together to be much more pro-active and look at what could be done to tackle poverty.

The Chairman recognised that this was a difficult profession and asked if the good work was recognised or celebrated.  The Strategic Manager said that for newly qualified staff end of first year celebrations were held and that staff could be nominated through the Council’s ‘great staff, great stuff’ award.  Recognition had grown over the last few years and by coming to meetings such as Scrutiny, the voice of the profession was reaching the people who mattered.  He also added that the Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services hosted a celebration event for the social worker of the year.

Referring to a Select Committee’s report on Social work last year, Councillor McKeon asked if merging the Adult and Children’s social worker roles would be considered.  The Strategic Manager advised that the qualifications had become much more specialised, although they are regulated by the same body, the Health and Care Professions Council.  He advised that the roles were the same in terms of the ethics and the Code of Conduct and that the Corporate Directors of Children and Young People’s Services and Adult and Health Services were keen to do a joint work programme for next year.  However, it was recognised that the knowledge base and legislative frameworks were very different.

Councillor Maddison asked what impact social media had had on the social worker and was advised that there had been a significant impact and had changed the nature of the service users outside of work.  A number of incidents had taken place with social workers and sessions had been organised with the Cyber Crime team on how to keep themselves safe on the internet.

The Strategic Manager advised that there were a handful of cases that were monitored pre-birth and in some instances, the child would be taken into care at birth, following a question from Councillor Blakey.

Councillor Crute said that there were a range of factors and that it was important to see how this would link together to take on the challenges ahead.  The Strategic Manager said that the restructuring would also work around the voluntary sector and for those parents whose child was taken into care from hospital were the most vulnerable and challenging people to deal with. 

The Strategic Manager Child Protection and Disability advised in relation to an earlier question about cases transferred to Durham County Council that the service had seen an increase of children from the south of the country moving into the area who brought with them a number of concerns.  This was a challenge but he assured the members that once these children were here they were our responsibility.

The Chairman thanked the Strategic Manager for his presentation.

Resolved:

That the report and presentation be received.