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Short Reviews of Social Work Services in Scottish Local Authorities

East Dunbartonshire Council

Overview

East Dunbartonshire's new leadership is creating opportunities to develop excellent services for children, older people and adults. To succeed, it must make these service improvements as soon as possible.

The Council's social work services staff have faced many changes over recent years but have still managed to keep to the future agenda, and most importantly keep their focus on customers, not systems. The Council should be proud of this achievement.

The Council's achievements include:

• providing more older people with a community care service;
• successfully introducing Free Personal Care; and
• better integrating education and social work.

East Dunbartonshire urgently needs to:

• deliver its reports to Children's Hearings on time and make sure that 75% of reports are delivered on time (currently 50% are delivered late);
• encourage the educational achievement of looked after children, and make sure that all children and young people who are looked after, including those at home, have up-to-date care plans;
• make sure that all children and young people who are looked after are receiving full time education; and
• adopt an appropriate assessment tool for youth justice work and train staff to use it well.

The authority should also give priority to:

• developing its services for people with learning disabilities, including their employment;
• developing its services for older people;
• further developing joint services for older people and people with disabilities;
• agreeing an action plan to put the new Mental Health Act into practice;
• recruiting more foster carers, and supporting foster carers;
• investing more in the health and wellbeing of its staff;
• further developing throughcare and aftercare services;
• developing a strategy (through Community Planning) for special needs housing;
• promoting developments such as Smart Housing to meet the needs of adults and older people in the future; and
• speeding up the pace of joint working arrangements with health services.

Community Care

Services for older people

The total number of older people receiving a service has been stable in recent years, but the number in private nursing homes increased between 2000 and 2002. There was a significant increase in the number in special needs housing in 2001 but the rate is still low compared with other authorities. A low rate of people receive home care and a low percentage receives an intensive service. Services will need to develop to meet future demands from the higher than average predicted increases in older people in East Dunbartonshire.

Increased demand for home care has led to the Council paying for external services as it has been difficult to recruit home care staff. The Council is reviewing the whole home care service.

The IRIS rapid response service within the Acute Trust aims to assess people in their own home within six hours and provide home care in two hours for up to four times a day when a GP has identified the need for support. Support is also arranged for people coming home from hospital. Activity is rising but if the Council is to expand the service it will need extra resources. The shopping and household maintenance service is part of home care to give a comprehensive service through one route. The number of people using the service has increased to 786.

The Council is spending more on respite care. Initiatives include:

• block-buying respite beds, which has increased the number of people who can use this service;
• more short breaks at home; and
• a multi-agency initiative to support vulnerable older people.

The Council successfully introduced Free Personal Care. More people want home care services, from the population previously paying charges or for private care. Staffing problems have slowed the Council's response. Loss of income through charging is a concern. Free Personal Care is fully combined with finance and the systems of care home admission. People have to be eligible for services to receive Free Personal Care at home and there is a cost limit equal to nursing home costs.

Services for people with learning disabilities

While very few people have been resettled in individual tenancies, East Dunbartonshire is certain that this is because of:

• individual hopes;
• lack of available council houses;
• the level of resource available for transfer; and
• 'Nimbyism' ('not in my back yard').

This makes four-person units very suitable.

There is a database for individual needs and commissioning teams meet every four weeks to look at needs for commissioning services. The Council intends to develop other day services beyond the major resource centre and to set up a dedicated respite service for people with a learning disability. A joint team is based together and works on individual cases, with an appropriate worker taking the lead. An integrated out-of-hours service is provided for people with complex needs, with access to 36 bed places with Greater Glasgow Health Board.

The Council is looking at employment needs and dedicated respite care and will need to develop these.

Services for people with physical disabilities

The Council has set up a Direct Payments scheme but so far this has not been used. The Council is commissioning ILC Glasgow to provide support and hopes to develop capacity for a user-led organisation. East Dunbartonshire will appoint a worker who will be supervised by ILC. Direct Payments will be available for all client groups, but they have still to decide on buying services from the Council. Direct Payments should develop in the next year.

On equipment and adaptations, timescales for assessment are decided according to priority with a senior practitioner reviewing this each week. Customers and referrers are advised in writing of the likely timing. The Occupational Therapy Team Manager has management responsibility for the equipment and adaptations budget and authority for spending up to 4,000. Occupational Therapy staff can order equipment and minor adaptations of up to 200 for a single item through the joint store for community nursing and local authority social care equipment, for the Greater Glasgow area. Customers can see all items working.

People with sensory impairment

The Council estimates that 1,450 hearing impaired people and 100 deaf-blind people receive a service. It is commissioning Deaf Blind Scotland to do specific work with deaf-blind people.
22 deaf-blind people are receiving a service at the moment. A resource centre is being set up at Lenzie for people who are deaf-blind.

Services for people with mental health difficulties

A high rate of people receive a service for mental health problems and numbers have increased from 291 in 2000 to 416 in 2002.

Under a joint draft investment plan, the Council and the Health Board are developing services using the Mental Health Framework. They have a joint mental health team which is well funded. New funding is used for joint developments, for example, intermediate mental health services and single management. They have good day services which they want to expand. They do not yet have a plan to put the new Mental Health Act into practice. This should be in place soon.

Tackling substance misuse

The Council provides services through outreach in areas with a high level of substance misuse. It is jointly developing addiction services with the Health Board. The core of addiction workers has recently been expanded. Multi-agency drug and alcohol action groups plan services, with links to the Drug Action Team.

Residential rehabilitation is based on assessment of needs. With greater opportunities for community rehabilitation, residential placements are only used for clients with a number of needs. Partners have agreed the criteria for referring people for rehabilitation. They have also agreed protocols for assessment, treatment and support.

The Family and Carers Support Group offers support for families and carers. Routes of referral have been reviewed to take account of the needs of children and young people. Procedures are in place to allocate cases on a continuing assessment process. Common policies and protocols need to be developed.

Addiction staff attended drug and alcohol training in 2002 from a variety of sources, including STRADA, Health Board and university courses. Personal Development Plans are drawn up with service priorities and individual training needs.

Joining up community care services with health

Progress in improved joint working is measured through the Joint Performance Information and Assessment Framework (JPIAF), which has been agreed by SWSI, Audit Scotland and NHS Scotland. Annual evaluation statements were issued by the Scottish Executive and Audit Scotland to each local partnership in June 2003 and covered progress in 5 areas: joint management, joint governance, human resources, joint resourcing and Single Shared Assessment. The joint arrangements for these 5 areas, as documented in the Local Partnership Agreement, can be summarised as insufficiently evidenced or progressed, although subsequent information has indicated that there are now significant developments. It was recommended that the local partners:

• Agree and implement the proposals for joint management arrangements, as set out in the full Local Partnership Agreement.
• Agree and implement joint governance arrangements for corporate and political governance and accountability, with clear arrangements for delegated powers and duties.
• Agree and implement joint service and clinical governance arrangements for joint services.
• Include a statement of intent for joint human resource arrangements.
• Include details of the membership of remit of the Joint Staff Forum in the Local Partnership Agreement.
• Identify specific areas of training and include timescales.
• Develop financial management arrangements (both strategic and operational).
• Develop financial protocols (both strategic and operational).
• Agree a statement of total service strategic financial envelope for older people's services.
• Agree a statement of joint resourcing strategic financial envelope for older people's services.
• Agree a statement of joint resourcing operational budget for older people's services.
• Agree an action plan, with timescales, for steps to be taken towards the implementation of Single Shared Assessment during 2003-04.
• Agree and implement a plan for joint training of appropriate staff in social work, health and housing.
• Develop and agree a protocol for sharing information between local partner agencies.

On the ground, joint services include a learning disability team located together with a single manager, and multi-disciplinary mental health teams with single managers from health. Joint services for older people and for people with disabilities are less well developed. The JOTS project continues to show how health and local authority occupational therapy roles can come together inside the developing framework for joint services.

A protocol is being prepared for sharing information.

Working with carers

Services for carers are concentrated on supporting carers' networks. The local Council for Voluntary Service provides support to carers' organisations for all user groups. In assessments for community care, staff are expected to advise carers on their right to a separate assessment and provide separate assessment of needs where this is wanted. No figures are available for separate carers' assessments.

Children and Young People

Looked after children

The number of children and young people who are looked after continues to reduce and the Council had the lowest rate of children and young people looked after in 2002. However, corrected information shows that the reduction was smaller than the given statistics suggest. The reduction in numbers is said to be due to a decrease in statutory orders and an increase in voluntary supervision.

Despite statistics, it has been shown that the number of children and young people who are looked after and living with kinship carers did not change between 2000 and 2002.

The number of children in residential schools increased from nine in 2000 to 14 in 2001 and reduced to 12 in 2002.

Not all children and young people who are looked after have care plans. A member of staff has been seconded to review care plans. The information system does not give the details of care plans for children and young people who are looked after so the Council does not know how many do not have a care plan.

Fostering and adoption

The Council had the lowest rate of children living with foster carers and prospective adoptive parents in 2002. There is no emergency fostering scheme and most fostering is arranged by outside agencies. At the moment, fewer than five children are placed within East Dunbartonshire and six children are placed outwith the Council. A new family support service is to have lead responsibility for recruiting and developing new foster carers. A review of residential accommodation suggested that a number of children who are currently looked after and accommodated in residential units could be fostered.

The Council gets many requests from prospective adoptive parents and refers most of these to Glasgow (to whom they are linked through the West of Scotland Consortium). The Council works with British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering to review specific cases, and a member of staff carries out adoption assessments.

Educational attainment

Half of the 16 to 17 year olds who stopped being looked after in East Dunbartonshire in
2001-2002 had attained Maths and English standard grade. This performance is better than in many other authorities but falls short of the 100% target outlined by the Scottish Executive in 1999 and compares with 94% of the S4 cohort in the authority attaining these grades. The Council has adopted a number of initiatives to improve performance. These include

• appointing a teacher to attend to the needs of children and young people who are looked after;
• installing 'Success-maker' software for accommodated young people, to make sure that everything needed to improve educational performance and attainment is delivered in a responsive way; and
• creating a 'virtual school' to co-ordinate the education of and improve services for children and young people who are looked after who are not attending school.

A small number of accommodated young people are currently not getting any education. The position of young people who live at home is not clear. Priority has at first been given to the educational attainment and attendance of young people who are accommodated, but the Looked After Children (LAC) teacher is increasingly focusing on all children and young people who are looked after.

Throughcare and aftercare

Not all care leavers have an aftercare plan. 12 young people have key workers and 17 still need to have them allocated. Staffing problems are said to have made it difficult to track care leavers, but the Council now keeps a register of young people.

Mental health

The 'Open Door' initiative has links with residential units and foster provision. Open Door staff train residential workers and foster carers to recognise and handle children with mental health problems and provide consultation to fieldwork teams. There is a plan to roll out multi-disciplinary work with children and young people who are looked after with mental health problems across the Glasgow City Council area, and the 'Open Door' project will become part of that development.

Child protection

The number of referrals, the number of children subject to a case conference and the number on the register increased in 2001-2002, but rates remain low compared with other authorities.

A multi-agency working group is preparing a response to the recommendations of the Child Protection Review. Initiatives taken include:

• reviewing the duties of the Chief Social Work Officer;
• appointing a child protection co-ordinator who will report to the Child Protection Committee on service performance and areas needing development or improvement; and
• child protection training for all criminal justice staff and awareness training for other Council staff who do not work directly with children.

Children with disabilities

Children receive residential care, shared care and home respite according to their needs. A network of young carers also provides support and assistance to young carers. There is a shortage of family-based respite carers. The family support team offers extra services in this area.

The Council is carrying out an audit of children with and affected by a disability to help shape service delivery and planning. Initial figures suggest that there are more than 600 children either with or affected by a disability.

Children and families social workers do not attend all future needs assessments due to staff shortages. The Council has appointed an agency team leader to co-ordinate work with future needs assessments and prioritise them.

Working of children's hearings

All referrals were made within five working days of the case conference in 2001-2002 (standard 2).

53% of reports were submitted within 15 working days of the date of request (standard 3). Most reports are said to be days rather than weeks late. Staff shortages are given as the main reason for delay.

No information is available on performance on standard 15 for 2001-2002 (the local authority to give effect to supervision requirements with no condition of residence within 15 working days of the date of issue by the children's hearings) but performance was thought to be similar to that in 2000-2001 when 94% of supervision requirements met the target. From September, a performance management steering group will sample all case types against set standards for performance.

Youth justice

Youth justice workers are being located in children and families services and in criminal justice and one is in addictions. A youth justice co-ordinator and a multi-disciplinary team are to be appointed to deliver services.

Intensive support and mentoring is provided by Includem. The service is for persistent offenders with chaotic lifestyles. The Council purchases five places for support work and four for work that focuses on the offence.

The Council commissions a mediation and reparation service from SACRO. This is targeted at diverting lower tariff young offenders.

Criminal Justice

Structure

Argyll and Bute, West Dunbartonshire and East Dunbartonshire operate as a partnership for delivery of criminal justice services. Management direction for the partnership is provided by a partnership manager accountable to the heads of service for the three authorities. They in turn are responsible to their respective directors who are accountable to a joint committee with fully delegated powers from each of the three authorities. The three Heads of Operation from each authority meet with the partnership manager on a quarterly basis. A strategic group meets monthly and a management group comprising the senior criminal justice staff across the partnership meets bi-monthly. A systems officer has been appointed, responsible for updating the partnership plan on a regular basis and highlighting progress.

Workload

There has been a significant increase in demand for core service across the partnership, with social enquiry reports increasing by 34%, probation orders by 31 %, and community service orders by 40%. There are variations across the constituent authorities with Argyll and East Dunbartonshire experiencing the highest percentage increases particularly in SERs. Staff have been re-deployed across the grouping to support areas of pressure. Despite pressures, performance has remained at a very high level.

Effective practice

The partnership uses the risk assessment tools, LSI-R, and the Scottish Executive's risk guidance framework to determine the risk/needs of the offender and appropriate levels of intervention. Those on probation or licence are then matched to a package of modules from the partnership's structured offence-focused programme, Constructs, which was recently submitted for accreditation. Initial evaluation carried out by the Social Work Research Centre at Stirling University suggests some encouraging outcome data in that offenders in the control group who received prison sentences were 25% more likely that those who had completed their probation order to have been reconvicted within 12 months. The programme contains specific modules for women offenders and those who misuse substances. A youth version is available for persistent young offenders. A 1-1 pack is being developed to reflect the differing service needs in Argyll and Bute.

A bail information service has been available since May 2002 to Dumbarton Sheriff Court, which covers the jurisdiction of over 50% of the partnership population. Four bail supervision orders have been made. A review of all court services throughout the partnership is to be completed by March 2005.

Recent developments in the partnership include an employment strategy which incorporates a detailed employment assessment and production of an individual action plan. The partnership has also appointed an employment officer who helps offenders access training and employment. In addition, a skills accreditation scheme has been established involving assessment of painting and decorating work carried out by those on community service to count towards a basic SVQ qualification.

Public protection

Services to sex offenders within the partnership are overseen by a high risk offenders' senior who reviews and approves all case management plans. The partnership is adopting Tayprep 30 to assess the risk presented by sex offenders and adoption of a sex offender practice pack is under review. The committed protection protocol is being reviewed in consultation with the
two Police Divisions, and other departments of the three councils. It has also been approved by the Joint Committee. Protocols for working with mentally disordered offenders will be established once the Forensic Teams are operational.

Quality assurance

A partnership wide Best Value review was completed in 2002-2003. It noted that measures of quality in terms of positive outcomes as opposed to inputs and outputs were not systematically available or applied. This is a major focus of the work of the management group. A review of monitoring and evaluation systems has been completed and a standardised format is in place supported by the Carejust database. A Single Integrated Information system has been implemented.

Human Resource

Structure of the workforce

There was an increase of 40 in the number of field work posts between 2000 and 2002, with overall vacancies rising by five. The pattern is the same for social work posts with 11 more posts and three more vacancies. Most pressure is in the area of children and families where the combination of vacancies and absences can mean that, at times, teams are running at 50% capacity.

Other pressures include:

• the lack of a human resources management information system, which causes difficulties in workforce planning and control (the Council hopes to have a new system in operation for 2003-2004);
• 316 staff (40%) being over 40 (about 70% of older staff are within home care);
• future difficulties expected in home care - a change to an extended-hours service has had a bad effect on staff and the Council is to adopt more flexible working practices for home carers.

Latest figures provided by the Council and not yet confirmed suggest that the number of vacancies doubled between October 2002 and the end June 2003, rising from around 17% to just over 32% of social work posts.

Support for staff

The Council has policies to support frontline staff in managing stress at work, coping with violence in the workplace, making sure attendance is as high as possible, managing change and providing effective supervision. Policy development was notably collaborative and inclusive. The Council sought and got support from all stakeholders for directing policy and putting it into practice.

The Council follows family-friendly policies and is preparing a new policy on achieving a better work-life balance.

Absence rates are high (12.2% in 2002) but more recent figures suggest they have dropped to 9.1%. This fall may be due to the introduction in 2002 of the policy for making sure attendance is as high as possible. The highest absence levels are within home care, and a human resources advisor is currently working with human resources managers to reduce these levels. The Council's response to human resources issues was seen to be critical for the positive direction now being taken.

Working towards a more highly qualified workforce

108 staff working in social services have a range of qualifications.

Because of the current levels of vacancies and absences, the Council often finds it impossible to release staff for training. However, the Council:

• has an approved SVQ centre;
• undertakes reviews each year with staff to identify individual development needs; and
• has appointed a senior practitioner post to propose re-grading of posts specifically linked with qualifications.

Preparing for registration

The Council has identified the extent of the difference between its current position and what is needed for Scottish Social Services Council registration. Work has started to close this significant gap, but experienced staff are reluctant to aim for qualifications.

Race Equality

3.1% of the local population are from a minority ethnic group, significantly higher than the 2% figure for Scotland as a whole.

East Dunbartonshire Council published its Race Equality Scheme in November 2002. The plan covers a three-year period and includes an action plan.

The Council set up an Equality Development Group to fully develop and put into practice an equality framework and action plan. The group comprised representatives of all Council directorates and the Joint Trade Unions.

Data collection services across the Council varied, but it is rationalising the codes used to identify the ethnic origin of services users and employees. In the collection of data for services, the Council aims to cover the following:

• people who apply for services;
• service users;
• levels of use;
• satisfaction rates; and
• complaints.

Use of Information Communications Technology (ICT)

Social Services Department

Social workers have access to computers and the internet. Case recording is part manual, part electronic. The Council has a new corporate ICT strategy, which is to be followed by service strategies. The plan to put into practice the Care First information system in social work will become a strategy for ICT development for social work. Recent extra funding for introducing the Care First system have had a positive impact.

Partnerships

The Council and health service are preparing protocols for sharing information. The Single Shared Assessment is paper-based, but this will be replaced by electronic means with the introduction of the new system.

Background Profile

East Dunbartonshire is a mix of suburban and rural communities. Its local economy rests mainly in the services sector, although manufacturing jobs have increased by 32% between 1995 and 2001. There is a large commuter population which looks mainly to Glasgow.

There are few indicators of poverty but the area is one of economic contrasts, with pockets of significant wealth as well as of disadvantage.

Spend for each person on social work in 2001-2002 was 178, far less than the figure of 267 for Scotland as a whole.

Expected population change

Community Care

Expenditure on community care rose gradually in the period 1999-2002.

Children and Young People

Expenditure on children's services rose steadily in the period 1999-2002.

Criminal Justice

Human Resources

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