Agenda item

Improvement Journey – Update

Director for Children – Presentation (copy available online via the Council Website).

Minutes:

Mr Paul Boyce, Director for Children introduced his presentation that provided an update on progress following the Inspection of Children Services, and work underway in preparation for the next Ofsted Monitoring Visit scheduled for the 14-15 March 2018.

 

The Director for Children informed of the importance of creating the right conditions for best practice to thrive these included: 

 

  • Clear direction with purpose and pace
  • Strong and visible leadership at all levels
  • Wrap the Council around the service and find solutions
  • Secure a permanent and motivated workforce
  • Focus on the child and the child's journey
  • Getting the basics right first

 

The Director for Children detailed the Improvement Journey in 5 key areas of focus:

 

  • Creation of a clear vision and engagement of staff and partners
  • Recruitment, retention and professional pathways
  • Lines of accountability and proactive decision making
  • Effective Integrated Front Door (access path)
  • Is practice improving and are children better off?

 

Re-affirming his earlier report to the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee Mr Boyce informed Members with regard to the clarity of vision required and the focus on improving practice within the Children’s Service i.e. what the Council is trying to do, and why. He added that by ensuring that the right number and quality of service practitioners were in place to deliver good and outstanding practice, the Council would become an ‘employer of choice’. He added that progress in this area had been demonstrated already with 11 new staffing appointments having been made on the 8/9 February 2018, including the senior role of professional development, and next wave in hand. 21 transfers of agency staff onto the Council’s payroll had also taken place, with an additional 15 transfers currently in process.

 

The Director for Children’spresentation informed of clarity about lines of accountability and ‘who was doing what’ to support service improvement and the child. The presentation also informed of the requirement for a stable and effective access path (front door) that could evidence a consistent application of multi-agency thresholds and decision making which was timely, child focused and of high quality.

 

The Director for Children expressed his personal view that quality remained the key challenge of the improvement journey and that this would be the primary criteria by which individual casework practices would be measured. He explained that work was underway to ensure staff and managers had the right tools, systems and support available to enable them to produce consistently good practice. This work included provision of state of the art Information technology enabling agile working and co-location of staff in the Council’s Cheshire Lines Offices, Birkenhead.

 

The Director for Children closed his presentation informing that instability in the staffing of key roles had resulted in a stop / start approach to the delivery of change, and that the Service was not in dispute with Ofsted about the pace of change, however he believed that Ofsted were satisfied with the actions being taken by the Council and that those actions will have a positive impact on children under the Council’s care. In conclusion Mr Boyce informed that next Ofsted Monitoring Visit was scheduled for the 14-15 March 2018 with more thematic visits scheduled take place every three months, providing opportunities to check the Council’s progress.

 

The Chair thanked Mr Boyce for his detailed presentation.

 

Resolved – That the presentation be noted.

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