Agenda item

Early Help and Social Care Pathway - Progress Report

Minutes:

The Director of Children’s and Young People’s Services and the Assistant Director, Social Care attended the meeting to provide a progress report on the delivery of the Council’s Early Help and Social Care Pathway.

 

In introducing the report, the Director of Children’s and Young People’s Services noted that like all directorates across the Council savings had needed to be to identified, but that Children’s and Young People’s services still needed to be delivered, and delivered to a high standard. The Assistant Director, Social Care advised that the Early help and social way pathway was part of the transformational activity, alongside demand and market management, taking place in Children’s and Young People’s Services that would enable services to continue to be delivered at a high standard, but at the same time enable the savings that were needed to be made. 

 

The Assistant Director advised that the pathway aimed to create an environment where children and their families received targeted help at the earliest possible opportunity that ensured that only the children who required more intense support progressed to receiving statutory social work intervention, and that where such intervention was made that intervention was underpinned by a service that delivered excellent social work practice

 

The Assistant Director made a presentation to the meeting that provided a detailed progress report on the development and implementation of the Early help and social care pathway. The presentation provided information on:

 

·       The principles and objectives that had informed the design of the pathway.

 

·       The activity surrounding the development of 10 workstreams that made up the pathway

 

·       What was working well, including:

 

·       a well-trained and motivated workforce with reduced reliance on agency social work staff.

·       reduced demand for social work led services.

·       closer and more collaborative working between social care and early help services.

·       audits of the service having provided assurance on the quality of practice being delivered.

·       the delivery of the savings linked to the delivery of early help and social work pathway being achieved during 2019/20.

 

·       Issues with regard to the delivery of the Early help and social care pathway that required further attention, including:

 

·       the turnover of staff, most notably in case holding social work teams being higher that was ideal.

·       caseloads of early help practitioners continuing to rise.

·       being able to reach a point of assurance where a reduction in the social work workforce could be safely made.

 

·       The next steps in the delivery and development of the pathway, including:

 

·       completing a review of the work of social work locality teams and corresponding early help teams to inform future service delivery.

·       ensuring that any reduction in numbers of social workers was implemented in line with the principles of ensuring manageable caseloads and ensuring that any reductions were only made when it was safe to do so.

·       continued learning from audit and other feedback so as to share and showcase best practice in order to enable practitioners to learn from each other.

 

The Assistant Director advised that so far as result of the transformational work that had been carried out savings of £1.435m had been achieved during 2019/20 with further savings of £2.370m anticipated for 2020/21 and an additional saving of £1.935m in 2021/2022. The Assistant Director noted that the savings that had, and would be realised had been enabled by a reduction  in the number of cases requiring intervention from qualified social workers, and that better understanding across the directorate of what support Early help could offer had enabled initial referrals to be made to Early help rather than straight to a social work teams as had previously been the case.

 

Members asked for information on how managers reviewed and monitored caseloads to ensure that they were being managed and monitored safely and effectively, especially with regards to the appropriate transfer of cases between Early help and qualified social worker interventions. The Assistant Director provided information on, and assurance around the procedures that were carried out by managers to ensure the safe management of caseloads. The Assistant Director also noted how the Liquid Logic case management system that was used enabled regular and effective caseload monitoring. The Assistant Director advised that the monitoring of caseloads not only enabled any areas for concern to be picked up at an early stage but also enabled managers to see examples of good work being carried that could then be shared amongst their teams to demonstrate best practice and develop service delivery.

 

Members asked for further information on the steps that were being taken by senior managers to reduce staff turnover. The Assistant Director noted that as the retention of good staff across the teams was integral to the success of the Early help and social care pathway this area was being focussed on with particular attention. The Assistant Director advised that current staff were being actively engaged with and listened to in order to ensure that managers understood all the pressures that staff faced in all areas of their work and not just regarding pressures related to caseload size and management. The Assistant Director advised that such engagement with staff not only enabled managers to understand the issues that staff encountered on a daily basis that would enable them to ensure that working conditions were as good as they could be, but also enabled sharing and learning opportunities that came from regularly identifying best work practices.

 

Councillor Clark thanked the Assistant Director for the excellent and informative presentation, noting how far it showed that the Children’s and Young People’s Services had come in the last four years, and how much it had achieved. Councillor Clark noted that the progress that had occurred gave members across the Council confidence in the work that was being done to ensure that the borough’s children and young people were looked after and kept safe.

 

The Vice-Chair, on behalf of the committee thanked the Director of Children’s and Young People’s Services and the Assistant Director, Social Care for attending the meeting and answering their questions.

 

Resolved: -

 

(1)  That the report be noted.

 

(2)  That an update be provided to members of the Improving Lives Select Commission on the implementation and use of the Liquid Logic case management system.

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