Agenda item

The Committee considered the report of the Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services that provided Members with an overview of the Government’s response to the Children’s Social Care Review, the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel’s review into the deaths of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson, and the Competition and Markets Authority review in relation to the provision of children’s homes (for copy of report, see file of minutes).

The Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services was in attendance to deliver a presentation on Children’s Social Care National Framework; Child and Family Social Worker Workforce and the current position (for copy of presentation, see file of minutes).

The Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services referenced the government's children social care reform consultation “stable homes, built on love” and advised members of the six pillars around which this strategy had been written including reference to the 12 Families First for Children pathfinders and the associated £45 million funding stream. In respect of the children social care national framework, members were advised that much of the detail within the framework was awaited and further information was anticipated upon the associated performance management arrangements within which this would operate.

In terms of the development of the child and family social worker workforce mechanism members were advised of the proposed 8 national rules which would be applied.

Councillor C Martin indicated that there were positive things contained in the strategy such as taking action before a person ends up in care and commented that numbers of people in care was not sustainable and cost the council a lot of money. He continued in relation to the use of agencies and asked if there was any risk or fear of hammering the agency sector or increasing costs dramatically by enforcing more regulations on them. He indicated that they still needed an agency sector as there were gaps but was glad that this was referenced and the government solution of having social workers who work for the Council and asked if there was any risk of killing the agency sector.

The Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services responded that there was always a need for an agency sector but at the minute this was dysfunctional and the lowest it had even been due to being unable to get workers to fill the gaps. He indicated that they needed a different model and moving some of the profiteering that was happening and put some price caps and rules around it. There would always be staff who wanted to work for an agency and have the flexibility and what was needed was a level playing field and some rules to regulate. One of the recommendations in the care review was having a regional bank of staff and commented that this was not possible at the minute as staff could get paid three times as much going into a project team so they could not look at other models. They were not saying there was not a need for agency workers they just needed a set of rules around it.

Mrs A Gunn referred to the impact of courts and the case where the court overruled the advice of social workers and asked if this was a significant factor in County Durham and what degree of influence the Courts had over cases.

The Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services responded that they work within a legal framework and decisions to take a child into care was made by judges and they needed to work with Cafcass and the family guardians and judiciary to ensure consistency of the decision making and the application of risk was appropriate. Over the last few years, they had seen an increase in the use of independent expert social work assessment that varies. They would like a system and the strategy does cover the judiciary and the court system and would like to see consistency within the courts and they had trust in the credibility of social worker assessments and recommendations and take them on board and are not dependent on independent views.

Councillor O Gunn indicated that the Josh MacAlister review had a number of good points in it and commented that the Ofsted outcome was evidence of good work of the Council. She stated that the issues were national and affecting all local authorities not just affecting Durham. One of the major issues was the increase in the number of children looked after and the issues around finding accommodation for challenging children that was costly. There were lots of good things in the review, particularly around looking at issues relating to kinship carers that needed to be addressed. She then referred to page 56 of the report, the last bullet point that was a crucial issue and the authority had been under pressure for a considerable time in terms of been able to implement services in children’s social care. She then referred to the conclusion and they required significant investment from central government to affectively implement and stated in the words of Sam help and please listen.

The Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services responded in terms of resources that they were in a much better position than they had been in recent times in making the case for financial investment. The financial modelling that sat alongside the Josh MacAlister review was detailed and compelling, the case was very well built and the need for investment to make this work.

Mrs A Gunn asked if the Corporate Director could provide an update on the recruitment of social workers.

The Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services responded that they were challenged on a local level particularly in recruiting experienced social workers and indicated that over the last eighteen months the turnover and rate of vacancies had started to decrease again and was on trend. They have some strong routes into social work such as the academy and they were hoping to have 35 starting in September. They were also part of the step up to social work programme that was a targeted fast track programme. They were having a major expansion of apprenticeships and were taken a minimum of 12 apprenticeships this year and commented that they had won the supportive employer of the year at the national social work awards last year and was good recognition of the work of the team.

Councillor O Gunn referred to the social work apprenticeship scheme that sounds interesting and asked who could access that route and the age range and experience required.

The Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services indicated that there was a national standard, and a lot of staff would come through this route based on their experience and staff who would not meet the qualification requirements through the academic route. He continued that you were more likely to get people applying who were already embedded in place and committed to Durham which was a positive in terms of retention. They were working with Durham University which takes away a lot of the barriers in relation to access requirements and opens up a different route for people and commented that the applications were currently out, and the applications so far have been fantastic.

Councillor C Hunt commented that she had been part of the full review and had a good input into this. She stated that the new strategy for support work around social work was fantastic, and she welcomed the review on kinship caring. One of the things discussed was how it should all be done as a whole instead of stages as you would have a better chance of achieving the outcomes and obtaining the funding. She then referred to Children In Care Council (CICC) and stated that they should be creating their own panel so that children have their own voice in this review. She stated that a better package for social workers would go a long way for the retention of staff.

The Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services indicated that they were continually looking at packages for social workers and the wrap around support. He referred to the voice of children and young people and the children in care council was huge and the video of the story of Sam was powerful. He stated that the pathfinders were going to be limited to three chosen by government that would go live in September and commented that Durham would unlikely be one of the three but there would be an open competition for the other nine. He stated that a number of the pathfinder requirements had already been done and even if Durham were not a pathfinder this was not going to slow the authority down, the limiting factor was the resources barrier.

The Chair thanked the Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services for his presentation.

Resolved: That the report and presentation be noted.