Efforts to improve social work services in the city pays off
A redesign of children’s social work services has led to a reduction in the number of children in care and families are happier with the service.
In August 2018 Ofsted rated the service as ‘good’ for the first time and this was reconfirmed by a further Ofsted visit in March 2020.
The report published for the children, young people and skills (CYPS) committee on 8 March, has revealed that in the last five years the number of children using our social work service has reduced by 24%, children with a child protection plan decreased by 13% and there are 18% fewer children in our care. Complaints were down from 101 in 2015 compared to just 29 in 2020.
Eighty nine percent of social workers said they felt safe and supported by the council up from 64% in 2016 and agency social workers are no long employed in the children’s social work teams.
The figures highlighted in the report follow significant changes to the services as a result of implementing a new model of social work in 2015. At that time there were a high number of complaints from families, social workers felt unsupported and we had a significantly higher than national average number of children open to social work, on a child protection plan or in care.
Principal social worker for children’s services, Tom Stibbs, said; “Our social workers have worked incredibly hard over these last five years, with families, other local authorities and local universities, to change our services.
“We know that a social worker’s relationship with the family is the most powerful tool to facilitate change and that when social workers are well supported they can help families make the changes they want to achieve.”
“We needed to provide continuity and consistency for families so that would not have to experience changes of social worker and they know how to access support. We created small social work teams that work with families so that a child can have the same social worker from their first assessment until they end their involvement with social workers.”
Next steps for the service include taking forward the council’s commitment to anti-racist practice, such as being one of 18 local authorities to join the national Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) for social care from April 2021, increasing the involvement of families in the evaluation of the service, and the development of peer mentoring for families.
Deputy chair of the CYPS committee, Councillor Elaine Hills, said: “The improvements in our service are really encouraging, and for our children’s services to be as good as possible it is essential that we to continue to review and evaluate what works best for the children, families, and social workers involved.”
To view the report from the CYPS committee click here.
