Cabinet
Date of meeting: 10 October 2016
Report title: Lambeth Children’s Social Care Improvement Programme Update
Wards: All
Report Authorised by: Interim Strategic Director for Children’s Services: Annie Hudson
Portfolio: Cabinet Member for Children and Schools: Councillor Jane Edbrooke
Contact for enquiries: Orla Oakey;
[email protected]; 0772 082 8558
Improvement
Team,
Children’s
Social
Care;
Report summary
Lambeth Council has a clear and unequivocal focus on making the necessary improvements to
secure the best possible outcomes for our children and young people. This report outlines key
developments in Children’s Social Care improvement since the last Cabinet report in March 2016,
including the outcome of the six month formal review meeting with the Department for Education
(DfE) and the latest monitoring visit from the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services
and Skills (Ofsted) which took place in July 2016. The report summarises the different work streams
of the Children’s Improvement Programme and outlines the council’s strategies for improvement
going forward.
Finance summary
The Children’s Social Care budget was overspent by £19.3m in 2015/16 (total Children’s, Adults and
Health overspend of £21m) as a result of both staffing levels and placement costs being higher than
expected. The anticipated reduction in agency staffing did not materialise, which meant that staffing
levels were significantly over establishment for the duration of the year. Expenditure on placements
across residential, leaving care and children with disabilities was £12.4m higher than budget. In part,
this resulted from a backlog of prior year payments and the failure to achieve agreed savings of
£5.7m between 2014 and 2016 arising from placement reductions which were not delivered and
staffing restructure that was delayed into 2016.
To address the non-achievement of historic savings required, a baseline budget virement of £6.7m
was made at the start of the current financial year. A redesigned service and staffing structure was
agreed to deliver required service improvements, however, spend on staffing remains at levels
higher than budgeted for 2016/17. There continue to be major challenges in recruiting permanent
team managers and, albeit to a lesser extent, social workers. This has meant that agency staffing
will continue to at higher than planned levels. The current forecast for the children’s social care
revenue budget for 2016/17 is that it will be overspent by £5.8m, of which £3.3m is attributable to
staffing and £1.8m to on care placement costs.
The budget setting process for 2016/17 was based on a bottom up approach using the redesigned
staffing structure and the data from the Mosaic care management system to forecast cost for
placement activity, allowances and direct payments. The Oracle budget management hierarchy was
also changed so that most budget responsibilities could rest with team managers (the main exception
being children’s placement budgets). However, these changes have still not been implemented.
Within Corporate Resources, the Finance Team has put into place a more rigorous budget
monitoring process with enhanced reporting on salary monitoring and placements analysis. The
Cabinet lead, Cllr Jane Edbrooke, is now having monthly budget focus sessions with Finance and
the Director of Children’s Services. This, together with a range of other actions that are being taken,
will better support managers to actively manage pressures in the system.
Recommendations
1.
To note developments since March 2016, including the outcomes of the formal six month
review meeting with the DfE held on 30 June 2016.
2.
To note the progress which has been made in relation to Children’s Social Care improvements
so far, and also to note the areas of concern that continue and which must be appropriately
addressed.
3.
To note the feedback from the two Ofsted improvement visits which have taken place since
the last Cabinet report.
4.
To approve the priorities for improvement going forward and note the progress which the DfE
and their appointed improvement advisors, Morning Lane Associates, will expect to see by
January 2017 and those which Ofsted will expect to see by November 2016.
1.
1.1
Context
In May 2015, Ofsted judged that Lambeth’s Children’s Services were ‘inadequate’. Since this
inspection, Lambeth Council has implemented a major improvement programme to address
systemic weakness and to make the necessary steps towards becoming a high performing
service.
1.2
Children’s Services improvement remains a key priority for the whole organisation so that the
best possible outcomes are achieved for children and families in Lambeth. Delivering the
necessary improvements will be essential for achieving the outcomes set out in Lambeth’s
Borough Plan for 2016 to 20211.
1.3
Since the ‘inadequate’ judgement by Ofsted in May 2015, Lambeth has committed significant
resource to planning and delivering an Improvement Programme, which sets out the vision for
Lambeth Children’s Social Care and how this will be achieved. Please see Section 3
(‘Children’s Social Care Improvement Programme’) for a summary of updates to the
Improvement Programme since March 2016.
1.4
Since the previous report to Cabinet in March 2015, there have been significant changes in
the leadership of children’s services. Annie Hudson, an experienced Director of Children’s
Services and previous Chief Executive of The College of Social Work joined Lambeth in May
2016 as Interim Strategic Director of Children’s Services, and is now leading a new Children’s
Services Directorate (including Education). Mark Stancer joined Lambeth in June 2016,
initially seconded from Essex but subsequently appointed to the permanent Director
(Children’s Social Care) post as of early September. Ian Smith, Interim Director, left Lambeth
in early September, having made a significant and important contribution to the improvement
of the service. Permanent appointments have also been made at the Assistant Director and
Service Manager levels. These recent appointments have greatly assisted in bringing much
needed additional senior capacity both to drive necessary service improvements and to
provide effective support and oversight of current practice.
1.5
Lambeth Council is required to work closely with the Department for Education (DfE) and
Morning Lane Associates (MLA, the DfE-appointed improvement adviser), following an
Improvement Notice issued in December 2015 by the Minister of State for Children and
Families. In addition to regular monitoring visits by Ofsted, the DfE and MLA formally review
the council’s progress against the improvement plan every six months.
1.6
The first formal six month review meeting with the DfE took place on 30 June 2016 to review
progress being made and the proposed strategy for improvement over the next six months.
(Further details of the latter are provided below, Section 3). The outcomes of the DfE meeting
are summarised in Section 2.
1.7
1
Feedback from the Department for Education and Ofsted: DfE Six Month Review
On 30 June 2016, the DfE visited Lambeth for a formal six month review, to evaluate progress
against the Improvement Plan since the issue of Lambeth’s Improvement Notice in December
2015. This review considered the refreshed strategy and its specific focus on developing a
strong and clear practice framework, recruitment and retention, enabling systems and
communicating the vision for Children’s Social Care to staff, partners and children and families.
The Borough Plan sets out a strategic commitment to reducing inequality, with a focus on achieving the best
possible outcomes for children. This includes the ten year aim that ‘all children receive the support they need
for happy and secure childhoods which give them the best start in life’.
1.8
Morning Lane Associates (MLA) and the DfE concluded that there is a good chance of Lambeth
achieving the necessary changes, provided that the Improvement Programme is implemented
with precision and focus. There are significant challenges to address with pace over the next
few months, particular concerning the highly variable quality of practice. However, the review
found that the necessary building blocks are in place for improvements in social work practice,
the Lambeth Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) and outcomes for children. Based on
evidence from focus groups undertaken by MLA and the DfE, it was noted that staff and
partners were more positive and optimistic than they had been in February 2016.
1.9
The DfE have informally endorsed Lambeth’s plan for improvement up to December 2016,
though we await formal confirmation from the Minister. The review determined that Lambeth
Council will continue to drive forward the improvement of Children’s Services, which remains
within the council’s responsibility.
1.10 Moving forward, the DfE recognise that there are considerable challenges facing Lambeth’s
Children’s Services. Officers fully concur with this evaluation and recognise that too much
practice remains inadequate. It is clear that Lambeth must give unrelenting focus over the
next six months on:



attracting high quality permanent managers and social workers to join Lambeth;
embedding a clear practice framework; and,
addressing system issues, including making sure that there is an effective management
culture that will support best practice.
1.11 The next formal review meeting with the DfE will take place in January 2017. This will mark
the end of Lambeth’s Improvement Notice. This meeting will assess progress made against
plans for the Improvement Programme since June 2016.
Feedback from the Department for Education and Ofsted: Ofsted Monitoring Visit (July
2016)
1.12 Since the ‘inadequate’ judgement in May 2015, Ofsted have visited Lambeth’s Children’s
Services four times to review the progress of Lambeth’s improvement.
1.13 Ofsted’s most recent monitoring visit to Lambeth took place on 26 and 27 July 2016 and the
report of this visit was published (as required under a new and revised framework). During
this visit, Ofsted inspectors focused on the ‘front door’ (including First Response Teams, the
Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub and the Duty and Assessment Teams).
1.14 Ofsted published the inspection letter on 22 August 2016.2 In summary, the letter observes
that “the local authority is making some progress to improve services for children and young
people, but the pace of change continues to be slow”. The inspectors noted that Lambeth has
a realistic understanding of the challenges facing Children’s Services and are taking action to
address the significant weaknesses identified. However, they conclude that many
improvement measures are not yet in place or have been too recent too make a difference.
Therefore, Ofsted advise that the changes required need to accelerate considerably to
sufficiently support and safeguard vulnerable children from harm.
1.15 Ofsted noted improvements in staff morale, the frequency of supervision, the timeliness of
assessments and recording in case files, and improved performance management (including
the involvement of senior managers in auditing cases through quarterly ‘practice weeks’). The
2
See Appendix 1: Ofsted, Monitoring visit to Lambeth children’s services (22 August 2016).
inspectors also noted that threshold decisions in the front door services are timely and
effective, with prompt transfer between teams.
1.16 Ofsted nonetheless identified a number of areas of continuing concern, primarily relating to the
quality and consistency of practice. The recommendations for action are outlined in full in
Section 4 of this report (‘Priorities for Improvement’). The areas for improvement include
increasing management oversight, tracking the outcomes of internal case audits, recruiting
permanent team managers, and ensuring that assessments are consistently child centred.
1.17 Ofsted will return to Lambeth for a further monitoring visit in early November 2016. This visit is
likely to focus on family support and child protection services (including Lambeth’s service for
children with disabilities) and care leavers. Ofsted will be expecting to see tangible
improvements in the areas highlighted during this visit (see Section 4: ‘Priorities for
Improvement’).
2.
2.1
2.2
Proposal and Reasons
Progress against the Improvement Programme
The Children’s Social Care Improvement Programme is both ambitious and challenging,
outlining how a range of necessary and significant system changes should be delivered.
Prior to the DfE June visit, the Plan was reframed to reflect our assessment of current needs
and priorities. The previous six work streams have been condensed to four; these are:




2.3
2.4
communicating the vision;
a clear practice framework;
attracting and retaining the best people; and,
an enabling system.
Details of each of these work streams are outlined below, together with a summary of progress
that is being made (see Appendix 1 for an overview of the changes to the work streams in the
Improvement Programme).
Communicating the Vision
Since March, the Improvement Programme has made considerable progress in
communicating the vision for Children’s Services, focused on embedding a practice culture
that supports and promotes high quality, purposeful and relationship based practice that keeps
children safe. A strong communications strategy continues to be essential for ensuring that all
staff and partners are fully engaged in building momentum for a successful improvement
journey.
2.5
A range of activities have been undertaken, including engagement with staff. On 14 July, over
200 staff attended a service-wide conference at the Kia Oval. This event received highly
positive feedback, enabling staff to collectively engage in dialogue about improvements in
Lambeth’s Children’s Social Care services and the new practice framework ‘Lambeth, Children
at the Heart of Practice’. The event included the opportunity for Q&A with the Cabinet Lead
and Directors.
2.6
In recent months, Lambeth has introduced several regular methods of communication across
Children’s Services. Since March 2016, the Director of Children’s Social Care has been
sending a weekly briefing email to all staff. The weekly briefing is supplemented by a monthly
newsletter, launched in June 2016, which shares news about the improvement journey,
celebrates achievements and highlights good practice.
2.7
Lambeth’s external communications strategy supports the priority of recruiting high quality
staff. Lambeth has launched a microsite for the service’s external recruitment campaign
(www.inspirelambethsocialwork.com), which generated over 100 applications for social
workers between March and June 2016. On 20 July 2016, Lambeth Children’s Services hosted
an invitation-based recruitment event, from which 11 applications were received from 21
attendees. The service also promoted working at Lambeth at Community Care Live, a two-day
conference for social work professionals on 27 and 28 September 2016. Lambeth is due to
launch the new practice framework through a major event, to which sector media have been
invited, on October 12 2016.
2.8
A Clear Practice Framework
This work stream focuses on developing and embedding a coherent and clear practice
framework to improve the quality and consistency of social work practice.
2.9
There is evidence of progress being made in a number of areas:




Lambeth has spent considerable time with staff, and the DfE appointed improvement
partner MLA reflecting on the values, and qualities of good social work practice in a
Lambeth context;
a comprehensive set of tools and methods has been agreed upon. The tools and
methods can help our social workers to deliver against the Lambeth practice framework,
and all social workers will receive training in these;
the first Practice Week in June 2016 enabled social workers to learn from feedback and
have reflective conversations with senior managers about practice. Practice Weeks have
been rolled out as a quarterly quality assurance activity; the second Week took place in
mid-September 2016; and,
Ofsted noted the increased frequency of supervisions, which is a critical element of
management oversight and practice development. Further work is need to make sure
that supervision is effective and of a consistent quality.
2.10 These initiatives are being drawn together in Lambeth’s ‘Children at the Heart of Practice’
framework, which provides guidance rather than prescription about Lambeth’s approach to
social work practice.
2.11 The framework provides a common language to describe our vision, values and practice
expectations.3 This work is being led by the Strategic Director and the Director of Children’s
Social Care. The framework draws on best practice, promotes relationship-based practice,
critical thinking skills and clarity of purpose. The framework enables practitioners to undertake
high quality direct work with children and families, assessing and managing risk confidently
and appropriately. Embedding the Heart of Practice framework will help to ensure that children
are better supported, protected and looked after.
Attracting and Retaining the Best People
2.12 A new organisational structure has been introduced in 2016 to reduce management layers,
promoting clearer accountability and a stronger focus on high quality practice. Recruiting and
retaining the best people in the new structure remains a major priority for the Improvement
Programme.
3
Appendix 3: Lambeth: Children at the Heart of Practice (20 September 2016).
2.13 In March 2016, six pilot teams were created to establish the new team design, with teams now
comprising a team manager, six social workers and a business support officer. This structure
has now been rolled out across the Children’s Social Care workforce. It is expected that this
approach will be a major strength for Lambeth’s recruitment strategy, attracting social workers
to Lambeth’s practice-led culture.
2.14 Children’s Services has adopted a clear stance of not compromising on the quality of staff
simply to fill vacancies. All managers were required to apply for new posts in the structure and
the Director (Children’s Social Care) was directly involved in the appointment process for all
permanent senior and team manager roles.
2.15 Recruitment to the most senior posts has generally been successful. In addition to the
appointment of a permanent Director, two (of four) Assistant Directors have been appointed,
and a permanent Principal Social Worker has been appointed. The remaining Assistant
Director roles have been re-advertised and are currently filled on an interim basis.
Appointments to seven of the eight Service Manager have been made on a permanent basis.
2.16 The Children’s Social Care workforce strategy focuses on developing a highly skilled and wellsupported workforce. Increasing the stability of the workforce remains a priority task. In August
2016, agency staff covering vacancies accounted for 41% of the social care workforce
compared to a London average of 22%. Instability of the workforce has implications for the
quality and consistency of practice, is a risk to the establishment of a new practice culture and
is the main driver of the projected overspend within the children’s social care staffing budget.
2.17 Within the Team Manager cohort there is a particular challenge with 27 of 33 posts currently
undertaken by agency staff. Whilst a tactical decision was made to recruit agency staff to the
vacant Team Manager posts to maintain service safety, the service’s strategy is to recruit to
these posts permanently. A range of initiatives are being taken to recruit to permanent Team
Manager and social worker posts. Alongside recruitment events (outlined under Section 3.7),
Lambeth has incentivised permanent job applications to critical posts by introducing a ‘Finders
Fee’. This is a one-off payment of £500 for staff who refer new Team Managers, following the
candidate’s success in the application process and their completion of the probationary period.
A leadership development programme is under development to enable the service to ‘growits-own’ and the authority will, from 2017 be one of the few authorities nationally to be taking
part in the Firstline leadership development programme. Work is also being progressed to
maximise and enhance the ‘offer’ to would be Team Managers so that it is competitive in a
London market including the introduction of a further market supplement.
2.18 Retention is also a key priority for stabilising the workforce. When talented staff remain in
Lambeth, individual social workers provide more consistent support to children and families.
In order to retain new social care staff and the talented staff we already have, it is key to ensure
that the working experience at Lambeth reflects our ambition for Children’s Social Care and
the messages in our advertisements. A new induction and learning and development plan has
been developed in line with the Heart of Practice framework. Activity is underway to embed
some of the enabling factors that will make social work in Lambeth attractive, for example,
ensuring the quality of supervision and embedding Business Support Officers in each team. A
new progression scheme for social workers has been agreed and the first progression panel
took place in September 2016, providing social workers with the opportunity to advance from
the PO1 to PO3 pay grade.
2.19 This is an especially challenging work stream, given the very considerable number of staff
leaving Lambeth through voluntary redundancy, along with higher turnover than anticipated
among agency staff. The recruitment of permanent staff will remain a primary focus of the
Improvement Programme.
An Enabling System
2.20 To deliver Lambeth’s vision for social care, the systems surrounding practice must consistently
enable high quality work with children and families. These systems include ICT, finance, legal,
performance data, physical space, and governance, along with the policy and procedure
frameworks within which practice takes place.
2.21 The successful launch of Mosaic (the social care case management ICT system) in April 2016
represented a key milestone for the Improvement Programme. In the coming months, the
launch of Mosaic ‘Phase Two’ will address operational issues with the new system, including
data quality and ensuring the workflow is as smooth as possible (see Section 5: ‘Moving
Forward’, below).
2.22 There have been several key improvements to performance management systems. Monthly
performance data is now routinely provided by the Corporate Performance Team to managers,
the Children’s Services Improvement Board and the Children’s Services Scrutiny Commission.
A range of management metrics are also now the basis of regular reports to managers;
including information about cases where risk is high.
2.23 A comprehensive ‘bureaucracy busting’ project was conducted with social workers in spring
2016. This activity identified 34 projects for action, relating to excessively complicated forms,
processes and systems issues. Several of the changes have now been delivered, including
the reduction of the social worker report for LAC reviews from 56 pages to 6 pages and moving
the adoption panel to paperless meetings. Lambeth will ensure that the recommendations from
the project are actioned by December 2016 and the remaining projects are largely being
incorporated into the Phase Two of Mosaic.
2.24 The Lambeth Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) has made significant progress in
developing the building blocks for a successful board. Consequently, the improvement of the
Board’s supportive challenge function has been recognised by Morning Lane Associates.
Since March 2016, the LSCB has agreed new safeguarding thresholds, established an
escalation policy, developed and delivered an LSCB training programme, and welcomed
Andrew Christie, previously Director of Children’s Services in Tri-Borough, as the new
permanent chair.
2.25 There are regular meetings and considerable commitment from the lead member, Cllr Jane
Edbrooke, and Cabinet more broadly to ensure political oversight of both the Improvement
Plan and the risks within the usual service. Cllr Edbrooke also sits on the monthly Children’s
Service’s Improvement Board, chaired by the Chief Executive and attended by all senior local
partner stakeholders, DfE and Morning Lane Associate. A Scrutiny Commission on Children’s
Services has met several times from March 2016 onwards, chaired by the Chair of the
Overview and Scrutiny Committee. The Scrutiny Commission focuses on challenge in relation
to the monthly performance digest and progress against the Improvement Programme.
2.26 There is now a much stronger understanding of the financial pressures within Children’s
Services. Alongside staffing costs (to be reduced through permanent recruitment), placement
costs represent a significant area of overspend. In August 2016, a review of commissioning
and contracting arrangements identified a number of actions to improve the placements
budget. This work is due to be delivered by December 2016, helping to secure better outcomes
for children and young people at a reduced financial cost.
Priorities for improvement
2.27 Whilst the service has made good progress in implementing its improvement plan, there are
significant remaining challenges to be addressed through the Children’s Services Improvement
Programme.
2.28 Ofsted’s monitoring visit in July 2016 identified a range of actions that the authority must take
to ensure that children are helped and protected. By the time of Ofsted’s next monitoring visit
to Lambeth in November 2016, it will be essential to evidence a range of improvements to the
quality of practice. Recruitment to permanent posts, particularly Team Managers, is critical to
Lambeth’s ability to deliver sustained improvement in the quality of practice and outcomes for
children. This remains a key focus over the coming months.
2.29 It is clear therefore that whilst progress is undoubtedly being made, many risks remain. There
is much work still to be undertaken to embed quality social work practice across all services.
The consequences of failure – for children and families, for staff, for the Council and for the
Borough generally – cannot be exaggerated. It is thus crucial that, over the next few months,
significant improvements are made.
2.30 The delivery of the Children’s Social Care improvement plan includes important priorities about
improving budgetary management and making significant improvements to the way that
services are commissioned. A review of the commissioning of placements to children looked
after was undertaken in the summer; recommendations arising from this review are now being
implemented.
2.31 It should also be noted that the Youth Offending Service (YOS) moved to children’s services
at the beginning of October. The re-integration of the YOS should yield some significant
benefits but there is a risk that the demands of managing another service which has a
significant improvement agenda might distract from the Children’s Social Care improvement
agenda.
Performance Indicators
2.32 The service now considers a comprehensive monthly performance digest that tracks a range
of indicators including those identified as priorities in the improvement plan.4 The indicators
highlight the timeliness of decision-making at the front door and placement stability and
adoption as areas of strength for the service. However, a number of areas remain priorities
for improvement:



4
Child Seen Alone (SG09): this has declined in July (performance for Q1 was 68%
compared to performance in July of 59%). The decline is mainly accounted for by a
recording issue on Mosaic, and work is underway to ensure that data fields are being
completed correctly;
Adoption: although timescales have improved considerable in July (FA.08 and FA.09),
waiting times still remain too long and the service is focused on maintaining momentum
on the improving trajectory on these indicators;
Initial health assessments, PEPs and annual health assessments: timeliness of
initial health assessments remained broadly similar between the end of Q1 and July at
Appendix 4: Lambeth Children’s Services Performance Digest (August 2016).

30%. The timeliness of annual health assessments fell from 75% to 72% at the end of
July and the timeliness of PEPs continues to remain low (65% at the end of Q1 and 64%
at the end of July). Taken together, these indicators continue to remain an area of focus
as the service are still performing significantly below target. This was also an area of
focus for the Corporate Parenting Board recently; and,
Indicators relating to ICPCs: Conversion of S47 to ICPC improved 48% in July and
achieved target. However, the proportion of ICPCs converted to a CP Plan fell further
from 84% at the end of Q1 to 74% in July and is now below target. This reduction follows
an investigation to assure ourselves that decision making in ICPCs was sound as the
previous 100% conversion rate suggested this may not be the case. The proportion of
parents sent reports in advance of ICPCs remains very low and needs significant further
work.
Moving forward: January 2017
2.33 By the time of the next DfE six-month review in January 2017, Lambeth expects to demonstrate
that significant improvement in the quality of practice with children and families is taking place
at a strong pace.
2.34 The revised Improvement Programme sets out expectations by the end of 2016, Lambeth’s
Children Social Care services will be able to evidence that:











discernible improvements in the quality of practice will be made so that outcomes for
children are improving, assessment and case planning has been enhanced, risk is being
better managed, and children are being more effectively helped and protected;
Lambeth Children’s Social Care will have rolled out a distinctive ‘Children at the Heart of
Practice’ framework to support quality and consistency in social work practice. This will
enable practitioners to deliver purposeful relationship-based practice and be consistently
child and family-centred in all that they do. Social workers will be increasingly confident
in explaining the rationale for their practice decisions;
the range of communications activities has further increased and deepened;
the Quality Assurance Framework will be embedded and will support improving practice.
Findings from the second Practice Week (September 2016) will be used to support
practice improvement;
there will be a fully operational Children’s Services Directorate, incorporating Children’s
Social Care, Early Intervention, Commissioning, Education and the Youth Offending
Service, transferred to Children’s Services in October 2016;
bureaucracy will be reduced, and plans to simplify workflows, policies and procedures
will be being implemented;
Phase Two of our case management system, Mosaic, will start to be embedded. By
December, staff will be able to more easily and automatically produce the data required
to track and manage performance;
a ‘model’ office will be tested in International House to ensure the new accommodation
in the Town Hall enables quality social work practice;
the quality and depth of partnership-wide responsibility and challenge at the LSCB will
continue to improve driven by increasing understanding of data and multi-agency audit;
the new commissioning strategy, following a placement review in August 2016, will be
agreed with a focus on improving outcomes for children whilst also achieving financial
efficiencies;
Lambeth will be more successful in recruiting permanent Team Managers, increasing
the proportion of permanent Team Managers (currently 3 of 33), with a target of 10
permanent employees in 33 overall posts;


the workforce will be more stable, as evidenced by a reduction in turnover and the social
worker staff survey illustrating an improvement in staff satisfaction. Agency numbers will
reduce by an approximate of 10% to 20%; and,
there will be clear processes for career progression for both Social Workers and
Business Support Officers, with the first Progression Panels taking place in September
and November.
3.
3.1
Finance
The costs of the Children’s Social Care Improvement Programme are met from transformation
budgets held centrally. Project costs in the last financial year were £184,000 and are expected
to be c£700,000 in the current financial year, made up of c£300,000 staffing and the remainder
being external work stream costs, including those for recruitment, and external improvement
capacity.
3.2
The Children’s Social Care revenue budget is set at £50.9m for 2016/17, with the principal
categories of budgeted spend being staffing at £16.3m (32% of budget) and expenditure
related to children looked after including the cost of placements, allowances and direct
payments of £31.9m (63%); the remainder of the budged is allocated to legal costs, including
staff and disbursements.
3.3
The current forecast for the children’s social care revenue budget for 2016/17 is that it will be
overspent by £5.8m, of which £3.3m is attributable to staffing and £1.8m to on care costs. The
new staffing structure went live in May and the new teams are in place. However, until agency
costs are brought down there will be a higher level of staffing cost than budgeted for. The
forecast includes the unbudgeted cost for a fourth Assistant Director and the Strategic Director
(Children’s Services). The key areas of overspend on children looked after are on residential
placements and leaving care.
3.4
A recently completed review of the commissioning and contracting arrangements across
Children’s Social Care has identified a number actions to support the improvement in the
placements budget.
3.5
To support the review of placements, Finance has developed detailed monthly reports
analysing the number of placements, unit cost, average cost, spend by supplier, budget,
budget forecast etc. This together with the benchmarking analysis was fed into review of
commissioning and contracting arrangements identifying actions to improve the placements
budget. This work is due to be delivered by December 2016. This should enable the Service
to target and identify both short and medium term cost reduction strategies.
3.6
To support better budget management, regular meetings between senior managers and
Finance colleagues are taking place. The budget monitor is also reviewed on a monthly basis
at the Children’s Services Management Team meetings, chaired by the Strategic Director.
However, a great deal of further work must and will be undertaken to instil good budget
discipline and management across all of children’s services.
4.
4.1
Legal and Democracy
The Children’s Social Care Improvement Programme has been devised following the Morning
Lane diagnostic and in response to the Improvement Notice issued by the Secretary of State.
Should the council fail to deliver the improvement programme at a satisfactory level this could
result in the Minister invoking statutory powers of intervention, under s497A of the Education
Act 1996, to direct the council into an appropriate arrangement to secure the improvements
required in Children’s Services.
4.2
There are no further comments from Democratic Services.
5.
5.1
Consultation and co-production
It is important that the council continues to involve a wide range of people. It is vital that political
and professional leaders share and communicate the vision for Children’s Services, whilst
sharing information about the delivery of the improvement plan to all key stakeholders.
Consultation with internal and external stakeholders is therefore ongoing.
5.2
The communications strategy engages staff in shaping and delivering the necessary changes.
Staff receive regular updates on improvement activities at events and via a dedicated intranet
site; staff are frequently invited to share their needs and ideas.
5.3
Significant further work is required to ensure the voice of children and young people is being
adequately heard and addressed through the Improvement Programme. The Children in Care
Council has been fully briefed about the plans and their views will be sought about any matters
that could be improved upon. Lambeth’s Heart of Practice centres on the absolute necessity
of listening to children and families, and keeping children’s needs at the heart of all practice.
Many of the practice changes and improvements which are being embedded as part of the
‘Children at the Heart of Practice’ framework are focused on ensuring the child’s voice is clear
in all interventions.
6
6.1
Risk management
The Children’s Social Care Improvement programme cannot be achieved without taking
considered risks. These risks will be managed through:





6.2
a comprehensive and robust programme management approach, including the
Improvement Team monitoring a strategic and organisational risk log;
a weekly Improvement Programme Board chaired by the Chief Executive;
monthly Children’s Services Improvement Board chaired by the Chief Executive, with
challenge from MLA;
quarterly challenge by Cabinet; and,
monthly challenge by Scrutiny.
Major risks and mitigations include:




maintaining a safe service through the changes involved in the improvement journey.
This will be mitigated by ensuring the sequence of actions and communications is judged
correctly;
the risk that the council will compromise on the standard of staff appointed to ensure the
service has adequate capacity. This will be mitigated by bringing in additional short-term
capacity to keep the service safe whilst permanent recruitment takes place;
improving organisational culture at a time of high staff turnover. Senior leadership will
continue to host a series of briefings to encourage staff and there will be a specific focus
on recruitment and retention, training, staff relations, culture and morale; and,
maintaining whole-organisation priority and focus on children’s social care improvement.
All members of the Children’s Services Improvement Board hold strategic positions and
are able to delegate and mobilise resources to expedite outcomes. The role of lead
member has been strengthened.
7
7.1
Equalities Impact Assessment
At its core Lambeth’s ‘Children at the Heart of Practice’ framework is about supporting social
workers to use their professional judgement and to spend their time undertaking relationshipbased social work with children and families that truly transforms lives. It is designed to be
flexible, so that the framework can be tailored to work in a place as diverse as Lambeth where
every family is different and what might be right for one family or child may not be right for
another. By taking an approach which is not prescriptive, it means that the variety of needs
and strengths present in Lambeth’s diverse families can be recognised and taken into account.
7.2
Overall Lambeth’s Improvement Programme and Heart of Practice framework will enable the
council to meet the three core aims of the Public Sector Equality Duty as set out in the Equality
Act (2010), most particularly advancing equality of opportunity between different groups.
8
8.1
Community Safety
Protecting Lambeth’s children from the risk of harm is one of the principal aims of the Children’s
Services Improvement Plan and, indeed, all of the work carried out in Children’s Social Care.
This will be achieved by increasing the effectiveness of the Local Safeguarding Children’s
Board, improving child protection planning and ensuring that the organisation collects and uses
data more robustly, especially in respect of child sexual exploitation and children who are
missing from home, school or care.
8.2
The Youth Offending Service moved into the Children’s Services structure at the start of
October, which will enable closer working to reduce and prevent offending by young people in
Lambeth.
9
Organisational implications
Staffing
There will be staffing implications as the department reduces reliance on agency workers and
embeds and develops the new organisational design. The restructure has been conducted in
line with appropriate processes and consultation with unions.
9.1
9.2
Health
The successful implementation of the Improvement Programme will result in better health
outcomes for Lambeth’s children and young people. By improving the quality of social work
practice, interventions to address health concerns will be more effective. Closer working with
colleagues in commissioning will help to ensure care placements deliver the best outcomes
for the health and wellbeing of children and young people.
10 Timetable for Implementation
10.1
Ofsted Monitoring Visit
November 2016
Review meeting with the DfE
January 2017
Audit Trail
Consultation
Name/Position
Annie Hudson,
Strategic
Director
for
Children’s
Services
Mark Stancer, Director for
Children’s Social Care
Sean Harriss, Chief Executive
Councillor Jane Edbrooke
Rebecca Eligon,
Coordinator
Nilesh Jethwa,
Finance
Strategic
Head
of
Lambeth
directorate/department
or partner
Children, Adults and
Health:
Children’s
Services
Children, Adults and
Health:
Children’s
Services
Chief Executive
Cabinet Member for
Children and Schools
Children, Adults and
Health:
Children’s
Services
Corporate Resources:
Finance
Date Sent Date
Received
Comments in
para:
26/08/16
03/09/16
Throughout
15/09/16
16/09/16
22/09/16
Throughout
14/09/16
15/09/16
Throughout
02/09/16
02/09/16
16/09/16
Finance
Summary
3.1 – 3.6
4.1
02/09/16
Throughout
13/08/16
2.24
14/09/16
Alison McKane, Head of Legal Corporate Resources: 02/09/16
Legal Services
David Rose,
Democratic Corporate Resources: 02/09/16
Services Officer
Corporate Affairs
Maria Burton
LSCB
Business 30/08/16
Manager
and
Report History
Original discussion with Cabinet Member
13/07/16
Report deadline
28/09/16
Date final report sent
28/09/16
Report no.
303/16-17
Part II Exempt from Disclosure/confidential No
accompanying report?
Key decision report
No
Date first appeared on forward plan
N/A
Key decision reasons
N/A
Background information
Cabinet
Report:
Children’s
Services
Improvement Programme (21 March 2016)
Department for Education, Improvement notice
issued to Lambeth the London Borough of
Lambeth (12 December 2015)
Ofsted, Single Inspection of Lambeth LA
Children’s Services and Review of the LSCB (12
May 2015)
Appendices
Appendix 1: Ofsted, Monitoring visit to Lambeth
children’s services (22 August 2016)
Appendix 2: How we have reframed the
Improvement Programme (30 June 2016)
Appendix 3: Lambeth: Children at the Heart of
Practice (20 September 2016)
Appendix 4: Lambeth Children’s Services
Performance Digest (August 2016)