Agenda item

Dr Nizamuddin Patel asks:

1. Ofsted's latest report for children's services states LCC 'requires improvement' in every area.  Whereas our neighbouring council Leicestershire County Council has received 'outstanding' in all areas bar one. Is your department planning on working with the county to share good practices to

improve LCC children's services?

2. Ofsted have stated that the overall effectiveness of the department has declined since its last inspection in 2021. It also notes that there is not enough challenge from managers or that they 'were not sufficiently sighted on issues'. Have senior leaders considered 'open door' policy for any level of their staff to speak with them openly?

3. Further to this, will senior leaders consider emailing/contacting parents and other professionals involved with children's social service on a regular basis with a simple feedback form/questionnaire to gauge an understanding of how well the service is currently operating and if there can be any

improvements to the service?

4. There is a national shortage of skilled social workers. I understand council has plans of international recruitment. However, what perks or additional benefits do LCC give domestic social workers which will entice them to continue working with LCC?

5. From exit interviews with social workers leaving LCC, what are the 3 most common reasons of them leaving? Can this be mitigated?

Dr Nizamuddin Patel asked:

1. Ofsted's latest report for children's services states LCC 'requires

improvement' in every area. Whereas our neighbouring council Leicestershire

County Council has received 'outstanding' in all areas bar one. Is your

department planning on working with the county to share good practices to

improve LCC children's services?

2. Ofsted have stated that the overall effectiveness of the department has

declined since its last inspection in 2021. It also notes that there is not enough

challenge from managers or that they 'were not sufficiently sighted on issues'.

Have senior leaders considered 'open door' policy for any level of their staff to

speak with them openly?

3. Further to this, will senior leaders consider emailing/contacting parents and

other professionals involved with children's social service on a regular basis

with a simple feedback form/questionnaire to gauge an understanding of how

well the service is currently operating and if there can be any

improvements to the service?

4. There is a national shortage of skilled social workers. I understand council

has plans of international recruitment. However, what perks or additional

benefits do LCC give domestic social workers which will entice them to

continue working with LCC?

5. From exit interviews with social workers leaving LCC, what are the 3 most

common reasons of them leaving? Can this be mitigated?

The Director of Children’s Social Care, Early Help and Prevention gave the following responses:

1.    Officers were involved in several regional groups across the LLR (Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland) area that shared good practice and support improvement.

2.    Senior leaders held a number of staff engagement events throughout the year to share information with staff about key developments and which provided opportunities for staff to give feedback. Senior leaders also attended team meetings, undertook practice observations as part of our twice-yearly practice weeks and had an open door policy for staff to raise any issues.

3.    Parents whose children had an allocated social worker have the opportunity to provide feedback at a range of points in the support that was provided to them, for example child protection conferences, core groups, Looked After Children reviews. Professionals were also able to provide feedback at a range of key meetings and there was a well-established professionals escalation process to raise any concerns about social work practice or decision making. As part of our quality assurance activity monthly case audits took place on a selection of cases, and this included contacting parents to seek their views on the support their family had received.

4.    Leicester City Council is not alone in seeking to recruit qualified social workers from overseas to address continuing recruitment challenges for experienced social workers, numerous councils across the country are doing so.

All council staff were provided with an employee benefits offer as detailed in the attached document:

5.    January 2024 to June 2025

1. Retirement

2. Career development – as with most hierarchical organisations, as levels of seniority increased the number of roles reduced, so at times some staff were ready to progress but there were not vacancies, as Leicester had been very successful at recruiting and retaining staff in management positions at all levels. There were currently no agency staff at Team Manager, Service Manager or Head of Service level and only had one Team Manager vacancy.      

3. Career change