The Director of Social Care and Education will provide a verbal update in relation to the scope of the Commission.
Minutes:
The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education presented a verbal update on the overarching issues currently for the Services covered by the Commission. It was noted that:
· Due to a number of factors, Children’s Services were entering their biggest period of change in several years.
· The recent Independent Review of Children’s Social Care by Josh MacAlister and the reviews of the murders of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson would both lead to significant change in Children’s Social Care Services.
· There was now a new focus from the Government on prevention with regards to CYP entering care, Leicester was one of the priority areas for Family Hubs.
· The cost of placements for Residential Home Services was increasing significantly. With the quality of more affordable placements being weaker.
· There was a national staffing crisis in Social Work, with the prices for agency staff becoming excessive.
· In Education, levels of attainment were lower than they should have been. It was felt that this was primarily driven by what happened during early years.
· In SEND Services there was currently an accelerated progress plan with regards to the NHS.
· In July the Leicestershire CCG would be replaced by an Integrated Care Board. There was a risk that the new organisation would focus disproportionately on adults and not give sufficient attention to health of younger people.
In response to Members’ questions, it was noted that:
· There was an in-house service for residential care which received strong ratings. There were plans to expand this in-house service but it would be difficult to provide a service which would be sufficient for all CYP who needed it in-house, given the range of needs.
· The costs of providing the in-house service were similar to comparable private sector residencies. However the in-house service made more of an effort to create space for any CYP who needed it, and placement breakdown was far less common in-house.
· Despite there not being a great amount of positivity towards social workers in the media, they provided an important service and made a positive difference in many lives. High profile cases of mistakes in this area were often complex.
· Vacant beds in Leicester residential homes could be filled by other Local Authorities for a price. It was expected that the capacity from new homes opening would be filled entirely with CYP from Leicester.
· Since the star of 2022, many permanent Council social workers had gone over to agency work or resigned. It was not currently possible to fill internal social worker posts, and prices for agency staff were currently inappropriate. Therefore, work was being undertaken to use the current social workers in the most efficient way possible, including reallocating staff on a temporary basis.
· Exit interviews with departing social workers showed that they had a positive experience at the Council, but they were leaving for the better pay of agency work. This was due to other Councils outside the region who had recently received inadequate inspection results offering extremely high rates. Work was ongoing to provide a better offer for internal social workers outside of the pay package.
· The apprenticeship approach in social work was well established, there were strict rules about what roles needed to be undertaken by a qualified social worker but expanding the role of apprentices was being looked into.
Commission Members were encouraged to visit the in-house residential homes to see the level of service provided.
AGREED:
That the Commission notes the update.