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Short Reviews of Social Work Services in Scottish Local Authorities

Glasgow City Council

Overview

Glasgow undoubtedly faces the biggest social and economic challenges of any authority in Scotland, indeed some of the most challenging in Europe. It has to cope with a gradually reducing and ageing population and predicted increases among some of the most vulnerable age groups (in particular, people aged 85 and over) which are likely to greatly increase the demand for services. Added to this are the problems created by high concentrations of poverty and deprivation, the high rate of drug and alcohol misuse and its effect on children and families.

Although staff numbers are increasing across all services, the Council's ability to meet its responsibilities to children and young people who are looked after has been affected by high vacancy rates. At the same time, its work in early intervention and family support and its approaches to helping vulnerable young people to live independently show its ability to lead the development of innovative services. This makes Glasgow one of the most exciting and challenging places for a social worker to start their career.

Glasgow's achievements include:

• reducing the rate of older people in residential care, at the same time as increasing the rate of those helped to continue living at home with more than 20 hours support a week;
• extending the coverage of community care services to older people and others with disabilities;
• introducing Free Personal Care smoothly;
• promoting early intervention with children, extending respite care and strengthening family support in order to limit the number of children which the Council would otherwise have to look after;
• introducing initiatives to help young people who have been looked after by the Council to live independently, especially in helping them to find work, training, further education and suitable living accommodation;
• undertaking a wide range of activities over the past year to engage and develop staff; and
• producing a strategy for equal access to employment, aimed at getting permanent, paid work for a wide range of service users.

Glasgow City Council needs to take urgent action to:

• continue work on making sure all children and young people who are looked after have an allocated worker and a care plan;
• improve the educational attainment of all looked after children;
• make sure all young people who are looked after have an educational support plan and are in full-time education; and
• provide information on performance in relation to all time interval standards required for Children's Hearings and meet the targets as soon as possible.

The authority should also give priority to:

• putting into practice the recommendations of the completed day care review of equipment, care at home service and longer hours to improve community care for older people;
• renewing efforts to link local authority and NHS information systems to help improve services for people with learning disabilities;
• preparing to put the new Mental Health Act into practice by making early decisions about Mental Health Officers, and about recruiting and keeping them;
• working with SCRA to make sure that information available on young people referred because of an offence is transferred to social work information systems to keep an accurate audit of their needs;
• preparing a training strategy aimed at providing consistently high quality training for all staff and setting standards to be reached; and
• providing staff with access to the internet and websites related to effective professional practice.

Community Care

Services for older people

Between 2001 and 2002, the number of older people in residential care homes reduced, but the number in private nursing homes and in special needs housing increased. There was a decrease in the overall number receiving home care, but a massive increase in the number receiving 20 hours or more a week (395 people in 2002 compared with 46 in 2000).

Two rapid response teams serve two acute trusts in helping older people to leave hospital. They deal with 170 referrals a month on average. Major service developments include:

• more intensive home care packages (150 people receive a service seven days a week compared with 30 previously, (the target is 200 to 250 people receiving this level of service);
• the average hours of home care provided a week increased from 4.7 to 8.6 (preparations are being made to extend home care to people under 60 and those with physical disability);
• spending over 1 million on short breaks for older people in 2001-2002 (about 50% of this was for people with dementia);
• extending home-based respite care from July 2003 (10,300 hours have been allocated, with the independent sector tendering for this service); and
• setting up a carers' centre in each area team involving them in to local planning and giving access to other services.

Demand for designated respite care beds is in competition with the demand arising from the delayed discharge strategy for helping older people to leave hospital as soon as they can.

The Council introduced Free Personal Care in July 2002. To help prepare for this change older people were made aware of new arrangements through home care providers, community groups and forums. A helpline was also set up to answer questions on Free Personal Care. A survey of potential clients suggested there was a high level of awareness.

The view of the authority is that the introduction of Free Personal Care went well but it now needs to tie in more closely with the community care systems.

A day care review looked at property stock, care at home service and longer hours.

Services for people with a learning disability

The number of people receiving a service for learning disabilities increased between 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 (from 1,658 to 2,230).

After Lennox Castle closed, the Council resettled 500 people into the community. There are now around 1,000 people with learning disabilities in Glasgow in supported living arrangements with their own tenancies, this is out of a total estimated population of 3,500 adults with learning disabilities. An additional 20 million from Health resource transfer along with 10 million from Supporting People has now been incorporated into the learning disability commitment.

People who need or want care management will have it by the end of 2003. The Council is redesigning day services around the nine localities, each with its own joint team. Only 16 admission beds are available and these are due to reduce to eight in two years. There is no Mental Health Officer routinely available in learning disability teams. A primary care liaison team carries out assessments of health needs (for example, to look at hearing needs, dental needs, community nursing needs and health promotion). 50% of people with learning difficulties have been shown to have a hearing need. There are 10 forensic beds and four medium secure beds in a unit in the mental health campus.

Services for people with a physical disability

The number of people receiving a service for physical disability increased a great deal from 5,921 in 1999-2000 to 8,570 in 2000-2001, then fell back to 6,655 in 2001-2002.

Seventeen recipients are on a pilot Direct Payments scheme and the Council has appointed a principal officer for Direct Payments to develop the service. The Council has agreed support from Disability Alliance for people using Direct Payments. Demand for people with a learning disability or a physical disability could be as high as 4 million, but only 1 million is likely to be available to meet the greatest needs and the Council may need to close other services to meet the need. The changes needed to release resources for services through Direct Payments are challenging. The Council will introduce a way of recording people waiting for a Direct Payment and the services they require, to help develop the service.

Teams manage the budgets for equipment and temporary adaptations, with frontline staff authorising 95% of requests. 30% of equipment is re-used.

IT systems and a joint equipment store with joint budgets from social work and community nursing have been set up. Objectives have been set (for example, to deliver equipment within four days). Waiting times for adaptations are not clear, but appear to be in order of priority.

The Council plans to carry out a Best Value review of permanent adaptations during 2005, to identify ways to improve the efficiency and quality of services.

Staff use assessment clinics and a wider staff group is being trained to deal with 'simple' equipment. Clients can also get some direct access through self-assessment. The Council is also looking at the possible effect of bringing together occupational therapy resources across health and social care.

People with Sensory Impairment

Figures in Glasgow City Joint Community Plan 2001-2004 suggest that there are around 11,000 severe and 45,000 moderate hearing impaired people. No figures for other client groups were available at the time of the annual report visit.

The 'visual impairment awareness pack', developed in response to recommendation six of 'Sensing Progress' had raised awareness, and will be followed up with level 1 sign language training.

Services for people with mental health difficulties

Two long-stay hospitals have been closed and the Council has commissioned the Sainsbury Centre to make radical proposals for services, building on the major changes already made in structure. The operation of mental health services across primary and secondary care, and nine social work localities are being reviewed. The aim is to move away from a medical model to a single managed network, which meets the needs of people who do not have severe and enduring conditions. This will help people to find jobs and to join in social and leisure activities - all important in reducing isolation.

The Council employs 23 specialist Mental Health Officers (MHOs) and another 54 staff offering specialist services. There is a users' network for people with mental health problems to help people take part locally and also in the planning stages. Protocols are in place for offenders who may be a risk to others and to include mentally disordered offenders in the local care programme approach.

Tackling substance misuse

The number of people receiving a service for drug or alcohol misuse increased between
2000-2001 and 2001-2002 (4,349 - 5,048). A study of substance misuse locally has indicated that 14,000 to 16,000 people misuse drugs. Plans are in place for community addiction teams, for which single managers will be appointed. They will provide the first ever direct access to a combined community service.

Glasgow expressed concern about the number of people, especially those from the areas of highest deprivation, repeatedly coming back to the service. This reflects their underlying problems such as poor mental and physical health and homelessness. Locality mainstream services are being developed across all community care groups that include health for the first time.

Glasgow is carrying out a major review of the use of residential rehabilitation services. This will:

• examine ways of developing services which fit between highly structured residential services and community services;
• tackle the links between the abuse of drugs and alcohol and homelessness; and
• tackle the current communication problems between health and social care (for example, GPs direct admissions to residential rehabilitation without reference to social work services.)

The Council has appointed 18 new addiction worker posts with a specific criminal justice role in area teams to help link criminal justice services to the wider range of addiction services.

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. Recent evaluation of the partnership's progress in the 5 areas of joint management, joint governance, human resources, joint resourcing and single shared assessment suggest that the joint arrangements are well progressed and overall, satisfactory.

The local partners were recommended to:

• produce an explicit statement of the delegation given to the joint committee on community care i.e. whether delegation is to officers, members etc.;
• provide further information on the scheme of delegation referred to in the LPA;
• develop joint policies for service/clinical governance for existing joint services and for those that will be created under the LPIGs, and on the handling of complaints;
• provide a Statement of Intent;
• provide a remit for and details of the membership of the Joint Staff Forum;
• provide copies of the Joint Training Plan and the draft OD plan;
• provide evidence of the scheme of delegation referred to in the LPA;
• develop further financial management arrangements to address operational arrangements and financial protocols for operational arrangements;
• 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; and
• include appropriate housing staff in arrangements for accessing services.

On the ground, although dedicated resources have helped organisations to adopt Single Shared Assessments, boundaries between them cause practical complications. Progress has been made on:

• appointing a single service manager for learning disabilities and nine teams under single managers and setting up a single out-of-hours service;
• consulting on proposals for the joint management of older people's services; and
• appointing single managers of specialist services in certain local areas.

Proposals are being prepared for a single manager of discharge processes.

Work with carers

The Council estimates that 62,000 people in Glasgow provide informal care for friends or relatives. The Council, West of Scotland Carers Forum, the Princess Royal Trust for Carers and NHS Greater Glasgow have devised a Joint Carers' Strategy for 2002-2005.

Stakeholders were widely consulted about the joint strategy, which sets out the planning partners' vision for carers' support between now and 2005. The strategy identifies a number of priorities, including:

• identifying carers and assessing their needs;
• creating financial security and job opportunities;
• developing carer centres and projects; and
• promoting choice and control for carers.

Glasgow's Joint Community Care Committee was set up in April 2002. From the start, members have been determined that the committee should operate a policy of including stakeholders.

The committee hosted its first Equal Partnership conference for service users and carers in October 2003. Around 150 delegates heard how funding for carers' support services in the city had more than doubled since 2001. The conference identified opportunities for greater involvement of users and carers in planning and developing services, and made a commitment to develop an action plan to take forward the issues raised.

Children and Young People

Looked after children

The rate of local children looked after in 2002 was twice the national average and the numbers increased to 2,585 in 2002. Factors contributing to this increase were:

• children staying looked after for a longer time;
• backlogs in the children's hearings system resulting in some children being subject to orders for longer than planned; and
• an increase in substance misuse (it is estimated that 75 to 80% of children come from families affected by substance misuse).

Emphasis on early intervention reduced numbers slightly to 2,422 in March 2003. The Council makes wide use of short term respite care for children and young people over eight, which in many cases prevents them from becoming looked after. A family support programme has been successful in this, too.

Though Glasgow has the highest rate of children in residential accommodation, the number of all children and young people looked after who are in residential accommodation is reducing. There were 344 children in residential accommodation in 2002, half in residential schools. The number of young people in secure accommodation is reducing. The young women's support project has diverted a number of young women from secure accommodation.

Glasgow had the highest rate of children looked after by relatives or friends in 2002 (2.8 children for every 1,000 aged 0 to 17). The high rate is due to high levels of parents who misuse drug and alcohol.

Fostering and adoption

Over 380 foster carers provide placements for 770 children, as well as 32 places bought in from the independent sector. 72% of Glasgow's looked after and accommodated children are fostered. An ageing carer population is resulting in more carers being lost each year than are being recruited. Many carers have more placements than they were approved for and the Council cannot always provide them with breaks between placements. 75 children are waiting for a foster placement.

From the four payment levels for foster carers, most carers are paid at level one or three. Level two is for specialised carers who provide emergency placements and placements for disabled children. Level four is for carers who provide placements for children with exceptional needs. The Council is using the Children's Fund to provide an extra 24 placements at level four.

55 children are waiting to be adopted, but only 12 of these are at the end of the adoption process and actively looking for a placement. At the moment, there are 53 children needing adoption. In addition, 34 children aged eight and under and 26 children aged nine and over need permanent fostering. Work is underway to target the children who are identified as needing permanent placements.

Care plans

Severe problems in recruiting staff have led to a situation where 121 (11%) of looked after and accommodated children do not have an allocated worker. 56 of these are over 18 and are supported through services for leaving care. The others do not have a named social worker but have a care package which is managed by a community support senior social worker. All children on the Child Protection Register have a named social worker. 26% of all children and young people who are looked after do not have an allocated worker.

Around 50-60% of all children and young people who are looked after now have a care plan. This is an improvement on last year when only one-third had a care plan. 80% of accommodated children have a care plan. The proportion of children who have care plans varies across the different teams in the city. It must now be a priority for Glasgow to make sure that all children and young people who are looked after have care plans and an allocated worker.

Educational attainment

In Glasgow, just over a fifth of young people who stopped being looked after achieved Standard Grade Maths and English in 2002, far below the 100% target set by the Scottish Executive in 1999 and the 93% of the total S4 cohort in the authority. The Council is taking steps to improve the educational attainment of children and young people who are looked after, including:

• since May 2003, an educational support plan for all looked after and accommodated children ;
• from September, a link between the CareFirst system and the education information system for closely monitoring attendance and exclusion; and
• operational guidance for teachers and social workers.

Looked after children who are living in the community do not all have educational support plans. 128 young people on home supervision orders are excluded from mainstream education and 360 (25-30%) do not attend school regularly. The Council has launched an Education and Social Work Services joint protocol to tackle all the issues to do with educational attainment of looked after children.

Throughcare and aftercare

In 2002, 420 young people received support from the Leaving Care Services (LCS) Team. The number of young people receiving support from the LCS Team in 2003 is expected to rise to 483. The team is located in the city centre, but plans are in hand to make staff and services available at locality level. The leaving care service provides assessment and care planning. Services to young people include:

• support with accommodation;
• employment and training;
• health;
• leisure; and
• family support.

The LCS Team has health and mental health staff on site, and the Albion Street office provides a centre for jobs, training and careers services, with Careers and LCS staff working together.

In spite of the difficulties in this area, the Council reports an increase in the levels of looked after children going on to further and higher education in the last year.

Initiatives for young people who are moving to independence have had most marked success with employment and education. The initiatives include:

• launching 'Positive Futures' as a leaving care service for young people and carers which provides a careers assessment;
• five accommodated young people finishing an apprentice scheme;
• offering 50 places in the Schools Corporate Vocational Training Programme, which allows pupils entering third year to study for a vocational qualification along with their other standard grades. This has received very positive feedback from the young people involved; and
• setting up partnerships with further education colleges which discriminate in favour of young people who are or have been looked after.

In addition, the Council has taken a range of accommodation initiatives for young people leaving care, including:

• 55 live-in supported carers offering care and support to young people, including those with addiction problems (the number of supported carers will increase over the next two years); and
• after a review of hostel accommodation, developing a 'core and cluster' type of accommodation where nine young people live in supported flats.

Mental health

To meet the mental health needs of children and young people looked after, the Council has worked on several projects.

• 60 young people and more than 60 foster carers and residential workers have used the LACES project in the east of the city. The project will be extended across the city.
• The number of staff in the CAMHS team is increasing from three and a half (WTE) to 10 and a single access system is being developed so that social workers can refer young people directly to CAMHS without having to go through a GP.
• A Children's Services Centre is being set up in West Glasgow to combine mental health, a child development centre and social work services.
• Mental health awareness training has been extended to staff in social work, education, and health.

Child protection

A reduction in child protection registrations in 2000-2001 was due to early intervention which made some registrations unnecessary. However, the number of registrations increased in
2001-2002.

Measures to improve child protection include:

• preparing an action plan with set timescales to introduce the recommendations of the Child Protection Review and the Laming Report;
• producing an inter-agency protocol on substance misuse and an action plan for putting 'Getting our priorities right' into practice. (43 posts in addiction services focus on young people and children's issues); and
• introducing Glasgow Child Protection Committee's Inter-Agency Procedural Guidance for Alcohol and/or Drugs and Pregnancy (published in November 2002, this complements the child protection procedures and inter-agency child protection guidance; these documents provide the operational framework in which key agencies will work together to protect children).

Children with disabilities

605 young people receiving a social work service are recorded as having a disability. Of these young people:

• 95 receive respite through shared care or shared care plus;
• 79 are in foster care;
• 180 receive residential respite; and
• 61 receive community respite care of 42 days or more a year.

Most children are referred from Child Development Centres. Extra medical staff have been recruited into child development centres, funded from the Children's Change Fund. There are four specialist resource teams in the city, plus area team workers who give priority to working with children with disabilities. Some staff deal only with disability.

Children and family social workers attend future needs assessments but this is affected by vacancy levels.

Working of children's hearings

No information was available on performance in relation to Standard 2 of the Time Intervals Report (referral within five working days of case conference). Time interval information is to be introduced into the Council's CareFirst system. It is estimated that 40% of reports meet Standard 3 (reports submitted within 20 working days of request) but children's reporters suggest that an unacceptably low figure of 10% of reports are sent in within that time. At the moment, social work services and the Reporter are reviewing how the figures are different, and they are confident that they can resolve these differences in time for the next return. The Council is setting up a 'Blitz' team to reduce the backlog of reports. Some workers will receive overtime payments and the Council is employing part-time and retired staff and staff who are not currently working in fieldwork on a sessional basis. 60% of supervision requirements with no condition of residence are given effect within 15 working days of the date of issue by the children's hearing (standard 15).

Youth justice

Two pilot youth justice teams work with persistent offenders aged 14 to 18. At the moment, management information solutions are being developed as part of the service's CareFirst system. These are beginning to provide a range of data that will help in planning, monitoring and evaluating services. In addition, an exercise has started to share data. This can report on and identify persistent young offenders. It is based on a protocol developed by the Council and proposed for agreement by the police and the Reporter.

The youth justice teams work with community support teams offering early intervention work and intensive support for more persistent offenders. YLS and information on Carefirst will be used to monitor the work of the community support teams. New monitoring arrangements have been set up for the Intensive Community Support teams.

All community support, intensive community support and youth justice team staff have been trained in the assessment tool, YLS. No-one uses a 'risk of harm' tool.

A restorative justice scheme was set up in April 2003. This is a partnership between the Council, police, SCRA and the hearing system, aimed at:

• reducing rates of youth crime;
• preventing re-offending; and
• getting young people involved again with services in the city.

Strathclyde police are leading on the cautioning element.

Criminal Justice

Structure

Glasgow is not in a criminal justice grouping with any other authority. Criminal Justice services are located in 9 area teams, and a number of central resource teams. While the Head of Criminal Justice manages the centralised services, the majority of the criminal justice workforce are based in, and managed by, the area teams.

Workload

There has been an increase in workload over the last year, with the volume of social enquiry reports rising by 6.6%, the number of probation orders by 2.7% and number of community service orders by 5.7%. However, there has been a fluctuation in demand over recent years with some dips, and the overall increase is not significant. The authority has performed relatively well in relation to prompt submission of social enquiry reports.

Effective practice

The authority uses the assessment tool LSI-R, to measure the risk/needs presented by offenders and the level of intervention appropriate in each case. This is establishing itself as a core component of the centralised prison throughcare and specialist probation programmes. Wider use of the tool by area team staff remains below 50% against a target of 80%. The authority will be able to monitor this more closely when the Carejust IT system is fully implemented in summer 2003. All staff have been trained in the structured offence focused programme, "Offending is not the Only Choice". The core programme is delivered only in a minority of area teams though additional modules, for sex offenders, perpetrators of domestic violence and women offenders run by the specialist centralised projects, are at full capacity and have high levels of attendance. The priority is to re-focus on the core programme so that the core and modular development process are linked.

The authority has continued to develop its Community Service scheme. There has been a 200% increase in individual placements, including 7 for ethnic minorities, and also women only and light duties teams for those with health problems. A standard mandatory induction programme for Community Service clients was designed, using video and Powerpoint presentations, and introduced in April 2003.

The Drug Treatment and Testing Orders/Drug Court development has provided evidence of effective work with drug misusing offenders, the initial evaluation proving positive. The planning group will be reconvened in summer 2003 to consider future growth development beyond completion of the pilot stage in October 2003.

Future service developments include the opening of the "Time Out" facility, a residential and day programme for women in the criminal justice system incorporating the functions of "Turnaround" and will include development of a court escort service.

Public Protection

Additional funding will also allow for the continued expansion of dedicated throughcare teams. The teams are required to assess the risk of harm posed by offenders through use of the Scottish Executive's risk of harm framework, though use here and in area teams is patchy. A training programme for all staff is scheduled for later in 2003 to address this. Sexual offenders are assessed by staff of the Clyde Quay sex offender project using the specialist Matrix 2000 and Hogue Goal Attainment scaling. The project is piloting the Community Sex Offender groupwork programme currently being prepared for accreditation. Joint protocols with Police and Housing for dealing with these and other high risk offenders have been reviewed and updated.

Development of joint protocols for multi agency information exchange and joint risk assessment in relation to mentally disordered offenders has been identified as a priority. The Access project continues to offer support to area team services through their work with this group of offenders and the joint health/social work Court based mental health assessment/intervention service is well established and working effectively. The process of consultation and planning in respect of the 70 bedded medium secure facility in Glasgow is now completed and the authority aims to ensure an appropriate level of social work involvement in the service.

Quality assurance

The authority has established an infrastructure of implementation groups to progress development of their action plan for the future. This includes use of Carejust to report on performance quality and compliance with National Standards and regular research on key performance aspects.

Human Resource

Structure of the Workforce

Between 2000 and 2002, there were large increases in both numbers of whole time equivalent staff and in vacancies across both fieldwork and social work staff in all services except generic services (which show a reversal of this trend because of the recent restructuring). Vacancy figures for social workers in services for offenders also showed a slight decrease.

Latest figures provided by the Council but not yet confirmed suggest that, at the end of June 2003, the social worker establishment (whole time equivalent including vacancies) was 661 compared with 647 in October 2002 and that the number of social work vacancies was 116 compared with 131 in October 2002.

It is clear that Glasgow's vacancy rate - though reducing slightly according to the latest figures is still very high and is having a major effect on their ability to deliver services.

• The problem is particularly severe within children and families service and the addiction service.
• Some shortages are localised, with posts in the north and east of the city harder to fill than the south.
• Local staff are continually being attracted by other authorities offering better employment packages.
• A large number of the workforce in social services are in their 40s and 50s.
• Over half of all Glasgow's social workers are at the top of the pay scale, so medium-term loss of expertise could be substantial.
• Pressure on staff due to high vacancy levels has led to work being prioritised, with statutory work dealt with first, followed by reports linked to finance

Since the annual report meeting in March 2003, Glasgow has introduced a range of measures, including a financial incentive scheme and a programme targeting higher education students to encourage them to work in Glasgow.

Support for staff

The Council has adopted a set of schemes for supporting staff - for example, crisis intervention, Care First and speedy referral to occupational health therapists. Choices of flexible working, part-time working and change of job are offered to people returning to work from sick leave. The Council emphasises the support to newly-qualified staff, who are supervised and have a controlled caseload. Long-term sick leave has been greatly reduced through a policy of early intervention, but sickness levels within social services remain the highest in the Council.

Working towards a more highly qualified workforce

Glasgow has completed a Best Value review of training and has an improvement plan in place. The Staff Action Plan will introduce personal development plans for all staff and a programme of management training. Glasgow has a successful trainee scheme for the DipSW now involving 22 students.

According to Audit Scotland figures, Glasgow has the 20th and 27th worst level of qualification amongst residential childcare and community care. However, the Council says that this is improving and that they are working towards a target where all residential childcare staff have at least SVQ3 by 2008.

Preparing for registration

Training needs of staff have been identified through internal Best Value reviews. The new training team are planning to prepare staff for the SVQ and other qualifications necessary for registration with the Scottish Social Services Council.

Race Equality

5.4% of the local population are from a minority ethnic group compared with 2% for Scotland as a whole.

Glasgow has made considerable progress towards identifying and meeting the needs of minority ethnic groups, both as Council employees and as users of Council services.

Activities include:

• two workshops for staff from minority ethnic groups in the last year(these will run every year);
• a two-day Race Awareness course for all staff;
• a Race Equality forum which monitors the Race Equality plan and provides a way of reporting progress to stakeholders;
• meeting a massive increase in demand for translation and interpreting services between 2001 and 2003 through Glasgow Translation and Interpreting Service (which has a budget of 1.8m in the current year); and
• supporting the 'Equal' scheme, which provides information to asylum seekers on how to get services and jobs.

The Council has tried to recruit staff from asylum seekers and is waiting for Home Office approval to employ them.

Use of Information Communication Technology (ICT)

Social Services Department

After a delay, the use of ICT and the Internet has now started, with fieldwork staff targeted first. The Council plans to double the use of e-mail and the Internet within 12 months. A social work website has been designed. An IM&T strategy is in place and is part of the Council-wide strategy. A number of IT workshops have been run and around 180 managers have gone or are going through the training.

New recruits surveyed after six months said that poor IT systems were the main reason for any dissatisfaction with the job.

Partnerships

The Council has taken the lead in the Single Shared Assessment project in a consortium of 10 local authorities and three Health Trusts. The Children Services project is piloting a single assessment framework and personal care record. The first Leaving Care module is being assessed. Protocols for sharing information between social services and the Primary Care Trust, the GHA, the Street team, Barnardo's and Strathclyde police have been signed off and the first three have been approved. Some 'smart' technology is being used. 80,000 homes are wired up to digital system (GHA Silver Deal) The Council has set up information kiosks in libraries, Smartcards are being used and the Care Call scheme is now being tested.

Background Profile

While Glasgow's economic performance has improved over the last few years, there are still areas of significant deprivation throughout the city and Glasgow has the most serious problems of deprivation of local authorities in Scotland. Some of the worst areas of deprivation in Scotland lie within the city's boundaries, with drug and alcohol misuse on the increase. Deprivation imposes heavy and changing demands on local social services.

Spend for every person on social work in 2001-2002 was 383, well above the Scottish average of 267.

Expected population change

Community Care

In the period 1999-2002, Glasgow has committed increasing levels of expenditure to community care services, particularly in 2001-2002.

Children and Young People

In the period 1999-2002 children have attracted steady and significant expenditure increases.

Criminal Justice

Human Resources

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