A vision and strategy
for Lambeth Children’s
Social Care
September 2015
A vision and strategy for Lambeth’s children’s social care
September 2015
1. Strategic Vision and Analysis
Our strategy for improving Children’s Social Care in Lambeth is focussed on ensuring a significant
improvement in outcomes for those children and families that are in the social care system. This is
based on a strong set of values that children’s life chances are significantly improved when families are
kept together wherever possible and that outcomes are improved most when high quality social work
practice takes place. We know that when we are able to achieve this vision that the number of families
in the social care system will be reduced.
This document sets out our commitment to achieve the best outcomes for children and their families
through a systemic and values-based approach which is grounded in high quality social care practice and
inspiring and committed leadership.
In order to achieve this, there needs to be very strong and clear organisational leadership at both a
political and managerial level to both signal and deliver this new approach. Our leadership will need to
put in place a system that ensures the quality of social work practice is dramatically improved and that
the calibre and skills of individual social workers and their managers are of the highest quality. Our
vision is that social workers are the agents of change and they are empowered and supported to deploy
the most effective theories and methodologies. In order to deliver this vision Lambeth will need to
recruit, retain and develop the best social workers and managers.
The priority for developing this approach will be within Lambeth Council’s Children’s Social Care Service
but this must be undertaken in conjunction with a whole system approach across key partners and
facilitated by an effective LSCB that will take responsibility for ensuring that safeguarding and
improvement exists across the agencies.
The reason for this new vision and strategy is that for too long Lambeth’s Children’s Social Care has
focused on process at the expense of the bigger picture – the children and families we are here to help
and the outcomes that will improve their lives.
Our social workers have not been supported through a whole-system approach, our staffing structure is
top heavy, and accountability lines are unclear. We have judged performance based on outputs like how
many children we see on time, and how quickly we process them through the system. This has made us
risk averse. Whilst we have been pursuing process, there has been a real and human impact on some of
our most vulnerable families; staff morale is low and turnover is high.
We are fundamentally changing the way we work, to apply a systemic methodology which trusts and
values the professional skills of our social workers. Our model will enable and support social workers to
spend their time doing good quality, meaningful social work, coproduced and tailored around the needs
and issues of each family they work with. This reflects our continued commitment to cooperative
working and empowering the people with whom we work. Our whole-system approach will mean that
different parts of the partnership will act early to prevent issues from escalating, and in instances where
active social work is required we move quickly, based on evidence to achieve real improvements in
outcomes. All social work will be purposeful and framed around clearly defined goals. Social workers
will not visit families just to monitor cases and our best and most experienced social workers will work
on our most complex cases.
This approach will shift us significantly from our current process-driven and compliance model, moving
away from managerialism towards the practitioner as expert. We know that this level of change and
ambition is very challenging to achieve and will require strong and uncompromising leadership from the
top of the organisation and through Children’s Social Care. We believe that we have the ability to drive
this improvement but recognise that help, advice and support will be required to ensure that our vision
can be delivered.
Our ambition and values for Children’s Social Care in Lambeth
Our values are based upon improving the life chances and outcomes of children and families through
active, timely social care interventions, and effective management of risk. We look at children as part of
a whole system and our partners are clear about their role through a fully functional LSCB. We have
some of the best social workers in London with the expertise, skills and capacity to work directly and
successfully with children and families to help them stay together.
We know that the transition from where we are now to where we need to be will not be an easy
one. Changing the organisation’s culture will be the most significant issue and we do not underestimate
how difficult this will be.
But we believe we have the building blocks in place to make this change. We have a realistic assessment
of the issues, and we have a track record in delivering sustainable improvements in complex and
sensitive areas. For example our schools have gone from being the worst to some of the best in the
country and our young people are achieving their best ever school results.
From our experience in education we have learned that we must:
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Have a clear vision based on explicitly stated values from strong and committed political and
managerial leadership;
Invest considerable time, energy and resources;
Have the courage to stick by our convictions and make difficult decisions when things are simply
not good enough; and
Develop a whole-system approach where all our partners and corporate services understand
their role and play their part.
Therefore these factors underpin our approach.
We are absolutely committed to making this change and while in two years’ time we expect to have a
solid foundation of good social work practice that is delivering improvement in outcomes and a
functioning LSCB on which to build; our two year plan is by no means the end point.
In our new model we expect there to be fewer children entering the social care system and outcomes to
be much more individualised and family-focused for those we do work with. Outcomes such as a child
being able to talk about positive experiences at home, improved school attendance and attainment,
parents feeling more confident and supported will all feature.
The rest of this document sets out where we expect to be in two years aligned with the McKinsey seven
S framework and sets out our action plan.
2. WHAT IT WILL LOOK LIKE IN TWO YEARS
This section sets out the difference we expect to see in two years’ time and is structured around the
McKinsey seven S framework.
Shared values
Our organisational values are led from the top, both politically and managerially. Our values for social
care are based on a systemic methodology, underpinned by a belief that families are better together
and that good quality social work can change lives and improve outcomes for children and families.
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Leadership of values is absolutely vital. The promotion of the organisation’s values will be led
by the political and managerial leadership and embedded into the whole of the organisation
and partnership.
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Improving outcomes is at the heart of everything we do. Success will be measured in terms of
outcomes not process.
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Only the best social work intervention and practice is good enough for children and young
people in Lambeth, based on robust, analytical assessment and a bespoke plan for each family.
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To achieve this requires high quality social workers and strong and effective leadership,
management, systems and process.
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Keeping families together, wherever possible, improves life chances and outcomes for children.
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Where a child is not able to live with their family, we act promptly to safeguard them and find
alternative, secure homes as quickly as possible. It is unacceptable for children to suffer drift
and delay on their cases.
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The child is at the centre of everything we do and we recognise the family, context, and
community within which they live. This is what we mean by a systemic approach.
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Helping families to help themselves, through targeted prevention and early intervention,
provides the best outcomes for children and families.
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Safeguarding is the responsibility of us all and we take a whole-system view, recognising and
ensuring the role of partners and communities in this through a fully functional LSCB.
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We are a learning organisation and will support and develop our staff.
Strategy
Our strategy is to improve outcomes through high quality social work that keeps families together. The
strategy requires excellent managers and social workers who are skilled and supported to apply
interventions that make a difference.
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This is a strategy that is led politically and by the Chief Executive and DCS. It requires whole
organisational leadership, excellent managers and the best social workers.
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The strategy ensures that social workers are focused on achieving outcomes for children and their
families through high quality social care practice.
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Active intervention from social workers has the expressed intention of keeping children and
families together, wherever that is safe to do so, and improving life chances.
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We recruit and retain the best social workers and develop newly qualified social workers to the
highest standards. We are an employer of choice for social workers because of our values,
management culture, and strong focus on quality social work, face-to-face time with families, and
learning and development.
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We protect and support the critical role of social work in the context of broader children’s services
and a targeted early help strategy.
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Lambeth is seen in as a leading authority in social work development and plays a crucial role in the
national and London agenda through things like the DfE pilot for social work accreditation.
Structure
Our structure firmly embeds strong and inspirational senior leadership that sets out a clear vision and
values for managers and social workers. We are introducing smaller teams with fewer layers of
management supported by a new advanced practitioner role to support professional development and
enable social workers to focus on high quality practice.
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Strong and effective leadership is at the heart of our approach to a structure and service design
that works. The structure reflects the values and vision for social work and puts social work
practice as the key driver for the service and structural arrangements.
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Small front line teams with manageable spans of control - no more than 8 direct reports - create
team manager capacity to know cases and support teams.
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Reduced layers of management between DCS and the front line.
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Social workers are empowered and decision making is at the lowest level, and at a team level
whenever possible, supported by clear frameworks and guidance based on risk .
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Advanced practitioner roles both add capacity and develop the expertise of our staff by holding and
co-working complex cases and leading on peer reflection, group supervision and learning.
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We have fewer transfer points for looked after children to provide continuity, whilst retaining
specialist assessment and long term care teams.
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Roles and responsibilities are simply and clearly articulated so that we can all understand them.
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Caseloads are manageable, enabling social workers to bring about meaningful change.
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All staff have direct access to the DCS and CE to escalate risks and concerns and for whistleblowing.
Systems
Social workers are supported by the rest of the organisation so that they focus their time on quality
social care practice. Thresholds are well applied so that only those cases that require social work
intervention are referred. Performance, quality assurance and peer review are used to identify issues.
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Social workers are skilled in a range of evidenced-based and effective theories, tools and
methodologies including among others the ADAM Project, Social Learning Theory, and the Secure
Based Model and there is ready access to specialist therapies if social workers feel they need to
draw on these skills.
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The LSCB and partners is supported and developed so that the system supporting improvement in
outcomes is across the whole partnership.
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There is protected time for regular, reflective supervision focused on social work cases (min imum
1.5 hours, 10-12 times per year) that is quality assured.
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We have regular forums and mechanisms for assisted review, reflection and conversation with
professional colleagues in a team environment (min monthly 2 hour team supervision) .
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Plans are carefully monitored through Quality Assurances systems which focus on outcomes for
children and support social workers whilst providing healthy challenge if care plans or interventions
are not as effective as they could be. Plans are escalated to more senior managers if cases are
“stuck” or not progressing satisfactorily.
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Good technology and IT systems free up social worker time and make life easier through “anytimeanywhere” access and there are simple workflow and recording requirements that align with social
work processes.
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We have a business support function that understands the role of social work, can interact credibly
with professional and families, and minimises the administrative tasks undertaken by social
workers.
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Our corporate support functions, including HR, performance management and finance, enable
social workers and managers to focus on social care practice, removing non-value adding tasks from
their day to day work.
Staff
We will ensure that only the best and most capable leadership, management and social workers are
employed by Lambeth.
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Staff are well led and supported by committed senior leaders.
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We recruit the best social workers available who are attracted by our ethos, training and support,
and the opportunity to work with children and families to improve outcomes.
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We recruit and train the best newly qualified social workers and have an effective talent
management programme.
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We reward expertise - supervision and performance management mean the best social workers
and managers progress and prosper in our system.
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Social work teams are smaller and there is a more supportive environment that enables staff to
learn from each other and keep focused on outcomes for children.
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We have capacity to enable manageable caseloads and direct social work with children and
families.
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We have multi-agency, professional teams (virtual and fixed) which reinforce the critical role of
social work.
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Partners recognise and are committed to their role and responsibilities as part of the wider
children’s workforce.
Skills
There is good quality training on a handful of privileged methodologies which mean that social workers
have a ‘toolkit’ they can draw upon to develop the best interventions tailored to the needs of individual
children and their families.
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Social workers act as agents for change. Through their strong assessment skills they help families
identify strengths and weaknesses and formulate a plan to overcome any presenting problems.
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Social workers have the skills to help families understand the causes of their difficulties and develop
solutions to minimise risk and improve outcomes for children.
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There is ongoing learning and development for staff based on an annual assessment of need,
building professional confidence and competence, and aligning with DfE accreditation.
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Social workers are assessed for development and support tied in with the DfE accreditation pilot.
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We have social workers with expertise and skills to successfully work with children and families.
They are skilled in range of evidence based interventions and theories to support assessment and
interventions, including ADAM Project, Social Learning Theory, and Secure Based Model. These are
among our privileged methodologies and all social workers are confident in their application.
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Social workers are clear what good local authority social work looks like and are confident in their
ability to achieve this standard.
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Advanced practitioners provide professional support, guidance and challenge – both adding
capacity and developing skills and expertise in the team.
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Partners are skilled and confident in delivering on their responsibilities to protect children.
Style
There is clear and committed leadership from the top of the organisation which values social work and
ensures it improves life chances of children and their families.
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Management and leadership will be inspirational and promote our values. It will support and
enable social care to focus on its core function – to improve life chance and outcomes.
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Management and leadership provide positive performance management with clear standards and
expectations; timely, constructive feedback; and rewards and consequences.
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Senior managers are clear that their role is to promote front line social work and to deal with issues
and blockages that may get in the way of promoting this.
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There is clear management line of sight from front line to the Chief Executive.
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Everyone in the organisation is clear that their key role is to maximise the impact that social
workers have on their families.
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We have clear expectations for our managers to ensure they offer effective supervision and
support to the teams.
3. HOW WE WILL GET THERE
We recognise that the biggest change we are seeking to achieve in Lambeth is a cultural one; this is not
about demonstrating superficial improvements to pass the OFTSED test. We also know that being able
to identify the problems and being clear about our vision – about where we are going and why - is only a
very small part of our improvement journey. We need to have credible and realistic plans. The rest of
this document sets out our action plan.
3a. The first six months
We have a clear view on the actions we need to deliver in the first six months; at the same time, we
recognise that the impact of some of these will not be felt within that period. From now until March
2016 is phase one of our improvement and we will be focusing on three broad areas:
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Developing ownership and communicating our vision and strategy for children’s social care to
children and their families, staff, partners, and contracted organisations;
Designing and implementing the core building blocks we need to make the cultural change. This
includes service and structural redesign, our recruitment and retention strategy, IT systems,
training around privileged methodologies, service standards, and the performance management
framework; and
undertaking the analysis and planning that allows us to define our medium term plan.
Indicators of improvement
From April 2016 through to the end of 2016 is phase 2 where we will be embedding the building blocks.
It is at this stage that we expect to start to see some tangible improvements in key indicators like:
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Number of assessments carried out by Children’s Social Care – this will decrease as only the
right cases are assessed where there is a need for ongoing social work support;
Re-referral rates decrease as our interventions are successful in bringing about long term
change in families;
Number of children subject to a Child Protection Plan and number of looked after children
decrease as we bring about successful change in families;
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Timeliness of adoptions improves as we pursue adoption quickly for those children where it is
the best route to permanency; and
Length of time for care proceedings decrease with less Court Ordered assessments as Courts
have more confidence in the quality of Lambeth social work reports.
3b. The two year plan
The detail of the actions, targets and timescales for the April 2016 - September 2017 plan will be
developed over the next six months based on a joint assessment of progress and risk with the
Improvement Board. We already know that there will be some key areas where we will need to focus
our time and resources and these are set out below.
Shared Values
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Sustained focus by CE, DCS and senior leaders and members on promoting the vision and values.
This will ensure understanding and buy in from staff and partners
Ensuring values are fully reflected in our performance and QA frameworks and our key
processes including recruitment and job descriptions.
Strategy
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Joint assessment of progress and risks with the Improvement Board to inform development of
the strategy for April 2016 – Sept 2017.
Carve out quarterly reflection and review sessions to ensure the strategy is still aligned to and
delivering improved outcomes for children and families through high quality social work
practice.
Evaluate the use and impact of our privileged practice models and methodologies to ensure
they are improving the quality of social work practice and making a difference to children and
families.
Structure
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Design and implement the long term structure for children’s services that protects and
promotes the specialist role of social work.
Develop, agree and implement improvements to the front door to ensure the right children are
receiving the right intervention and support at the right time.
Systems
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Design and implement our new performance and QA frameworks that reflect our vision and
values for social work.
Work with the new LSCB chair to improve the functioning and effectiveness of the LSCB.
Implement a redesigned business support function that support and enables social work and
frees up social workers to undertake quality social care practice.
Staff
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Recruit a permanent DCS when organisational conditions are right for a transition to new
leadership.
Review and update the recruitment and retention strategy.
Recruit permanent staff to at least 85% of head of service and team manager roles by March
2017.
Complete participation in the DfE social work accreditation pilot and implement a development
programme to address gaps.
Skills
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Embed practice improvement through an ongoing programme of professional development
including coaching.
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Build the confidence and competence of team managers to effectively manage performance
and raise standards of practice.
Design and implement a talent management strategy to ensure we identify and develop our
staff.
Develop and implement a best practice development programme for NQSWs.
Style
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Continued focused time and effort from the CE, DCS, Strategic Director and senior members to
reinforce key messages and embed the vision and values.
Strong leadership from the CE, DCS and SD to challenge the organisational and partner
commitment to improving social work.
Establish leadership performance measures to incentivise the right behaviours that support
social work practice and improvement and embody values.
3c. Summarising our plan
To summarise as illustrated below our journey over the next two years reflects three key phases: phase
1: communicating, design and implementation; phase 2: embedding and phase 3: sustaining
improvements.
3a. Six month action plan: October 2015- March 2016
The table below sets out in detail what we will do over the next six months.
ACTION
Timescale
Responsible
Impact
Shared Values
1. Embed and communicate social work values to the workforce and
partners to build ownership and commitment
Dec 15
DCS and LSCB
chair
2. Reflect the values in the assessment processes for the restructure
and recruitment
Oct 15
DCS
Collective ownership of the values,
translated into our people strategy and
visible in behaviour of our staff
3. Communicate the vision to the workforce and partners to build
ownership and commitment
Dec 15
DCS and LSCB
chair
Staff and partners understand and buy into
the vision and know how they contribute
4. Develop and implement a communication plan for staff, partners
and children & families, including regular mechanisms for dialogue
between the DCS, unions and staff
Sept 15
DCS and CE
Staff, partners and our families feel well
informed about our purpose, plans and
performance
5. Identify the strategic and operational implications for making the
transition to "higher quality social work" with families, including
capacity requirement, and develop a feasible, costed approach for
delivering this.
Nov 15
DCS
A feasible plan that we have confidence will
help to deliver our vision and ultimately
improve outcomes for children
6. Develop an updated transformational improvement plan for
children’s services - building on the Priority Action Plan and
incorporating the vision for social work - through to March 18.This
plan to be endorsed at November 2015 Cabinet meeting.
Nov 15
DCS and CE
Staff and partners understand and can buy
into a direction of travel and know our
purpose and priorities
7. Complete implementation of a redesigned service and structure to
reduce layers of management and create smaller teams that will
support the development and delivery of the strategy for
outcomes and the delivery of high quality social work
March 16
DCS and SD
Clearer line of management sight, clearer
roles and responsibilities, and an increase
of management capacity to support staff
8. Design the longer term structure required to enable full
March 16
DCS and SD
Social workers spend more time with
Strategy
Structure
9
ACTION
Timescale
Responsible
achievement of the vision, including SWs undertaking quality
social work focused on outcomes for children, maintaining SW
continuity and minimising hand offs between teams
Impact
families. Children and families experience
more continuity
Systems
9. Establish a policy and system for regular, reflective supervision,
with mechanisms for measuring compliance and quality.
Oct 15
DCS
Staff receive quality professional challenge
and development and feel supported
10. Design and implement a clear performance management and
quality assurance framework that clearly links to the new
standards & expectations and KPIs and measures.
Feb 16
Head of
performance
Our standards and expectations are
effectively reinforced for staff and
performance and practice improves
11. Recruit a permanent Chair of the LSCB and resolve LSCB
membership.
Feb 16
CE
Strong stable leadership and a more
effective LSCB that ultimately helps to
safeguard children
12. Ensure partner compliance with requirement to provide data.
Dec 15
LSCB chair
Improved understanding of the
effectiveness of safeguarding and an
intelligence base for improving this to
better protect children
Autumn
15
LSCB chair
and DCS
The right children receive the right
response at the right time, whether that is
social work intervention or early help
13. Undertake a focused review and improvement project to improve
the quality of decision making at the front door to focus on the
right children and prevent overwhelming the service with
inappropriate referrals.
14. Review, and revise where required, all the processes in CSC to
reduce bureaucracy
Feb 16
DCS
Increase in capacity of social workers to
spend more time with children and families
15. Update Framework-i to Mosaic for the most up to date ICS system
to save workers time and to produce fit for purpose performance
information
Feb 16
DCS
Our systems support good social work
practice and recording
SD and DCS
We retain the best managers and staff who
are committed to our improvement journey
Staff
16. Design and agree a process to ensure that the best managers and
staff are retained, ensuring this is aligned to the vision, values and
national SW competencies.
Sept 15
10
ACTION
Timescale
Responsible
Impact
17. Develop and implement a recruitment and retention strategy
informed by analysis of local and regional issues and challenges.
Jan 16
DCS and Head We improve retention, reduce turnover,
of people
and our reputation as an employer and
management place to work improves
18. Establish a clear process and responsibility for conducting and
analysing exit interviews.
Oct 15
Head of
people
management
We have good intelligence to update and
inform our recruitment and retention
strategy and indication of the effectiveness
of our management style and professional
support
19. Agree on the core set of tools, models and theories for social work
in Lambeth and begin commission training aligned to these to
increase professional competence and confidence to do a great
job.
Oct 15
DCS
Staff report they feel more confident and
competent in their role
20. As part of the pilot, undertake a ‘learning needs analysis’ aligned
to the new national SW standards and develop a plan for
addressing these.
Nov 15
DCS
We understand the development gap and
can start to address that effectively
21. Design and deliver an initial coaching programme for managers to
support them to effectively manage performance aligned to the
new performance framework, standards and expectations.
Nov 15
DCS
Managers feel more confident in managing
performance and having difficult
conversations
22. Co-design and develop clear standards & expectations for staff
and managers supported by a “soft contract” between senior
management and staff.
Nov 15
DCS
Staff and managers have a shared
understanding of what is expected of them
and own this
23. Launch standards & expectations and ensure they are reflected in
the performance framework and recruitment process
Jan 15
DCS
Our systems and processes reinforce our
standards and expectations
Skills
Corresponding improvement in proxy
indicators and quality audits
Style
11