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Short Reviews of Social Work Services in Scottish Local Authorities

South Lanarkshire

Overview

South Lanarkshire Council covers a large area, which includes large towns and significant rural areas, so it has to consider a variety of local conditions and needs in providing a modern range of services. It has responded well to that challenge, by building up a strong partnership with Health and increasing the number of people from all community care client groups receiving a service. It has further to go in aspects of its care of children and young people who are looked after. The award of Investors in People to the Social Services Department shows their strong commitment to developing and supporting their staff.

The Council's achievements include:

• making good progress in joining up community care services with health;
• increasing the number of people receiving a service in all community care client groups;
• greatly increasing the number of older people receiving an intensive home care service;
• with partner agencies, investing in and developing a range of services for tackling alcohol and drug misuse;
• making good progress in tackling the mental health needs of children and young people who are looked after;
• successfully introducing Free Personal Care;
• making significant capital investment in a programme for refurbishing, in addition to building new residential and day care units; and
• achieving the Investors in People award for Social Work Resources.

South Lanarkshire needs to take urgent action to:

• make sure that all children and young people have the opportunity to be in full-time education;
• improve the educational attainment of children and young people who are looked after;
• improve its very poor performance in relation to the lateness of most of its reports to children's panels (86% are submitted late and South Lanarkshire are one of the five lowest performing authorities), and collect accurate information on and monitor performance in relation to the proportion of children's panel requirements actioned within 15 days and the number of referrals made within five days of the case conference; and
• solve the financial difficulties with health partners to make sure the hospital closure programme for people with learning disabilities and for community-based services for people with mental health problems moves forward.

The authority should also give priority to:

• developing ways to show the effect of the pilot project to increase access to equipment and adaptations, extending access to community nursing staff; and also opening up the service to other assessors in various organisations;
• recruiting and keeping foster carers;
• working with housing partners to develop a range of options for young people who have been looked after, to prevent them having to move to Glasgow; and
• tackling high absence rates in staff, particularly long-term absences.

Community Care

Older people

The Council has made significant investments of 6.4 million in two residential and two day care facilities and 250,000 in refurbishing a day care facility. Also, 300 new day care places have been provided, offering more flexibility of morning, evening and weekend care.

The number of older people receiving a community care service increased from 9,889 in 2001 to 12,135 in 2002. Although the number of people who receive a home care service dropped between 2000 and 2002, there was a big increase in the number receiving an intensive service (from 30 in 2000 to 136 in 2001).

As a result of Supporting People moves, home care services have seen an increase in service delivery by 5,000 hours a week. Home care provides more than 23,000 hours a week in total.

South Lanarkshire has recruited an extra 300 home carers to meet the needs of people who use the services.

The Council provides a comprehensive shopping service through home care staff who only do this work. The staff have transport fitted with storage containers to keep food at the right temperature. Over 600 people now receive this service each week.

A total of 444 people now receive Free Personal Care. The Council aims to respond to requests within 28 days. South Lanarkshire is using the centrally-developed contracting model for Free Personal Care. There have been no significant complaints and no difficulties reported in introducing the scheme. The policy is now part of standard services and the central funding is sufficient for meeting current demand, with no future shortfall expected.

Services for people with learning disabilities

There was a large increase in the number of people receiving a service for learning disabilities (from 329 in 2000-2001 to 830 in 2001-2002).

The programme for closing hospitals for people with learning disabilities should be finished by 2005. By then, 200 patients will have been discharged from hospital and 85 people from four hostels. At the moment, there are still about 30 people in the long-stay hospital. The joint financial framework is being reviewed and NHS Lanarkshire has provided capital funding but not start-up costs. Unless agreement can be reached, the plans for resettling people into the community may be delayed.

Some people have been discharged to care homes, largely because of their need for high levels of medical or nursing care. With regular care reviews and changing public attitudes, more people will be able to move to independent living arrangements. Of the 30 people currently in hospital, 23 will have their own tenancies within a supported living model. The Council still has to agree on a housing solution for the other seven people.

Development of more community care services depends on NHS Lanarkshire's financial position. The Council is developing five new day centres (two of which are built). Plans are in hand for the other three centres. These day centres are dual-purpose, integrated facilities, and the Council has developed an approach to delivering services based on the principle of social inclusion. It intends to deliver respite care through these centres.

A database has been agreed in principle, but its design is to be prepared by the Scottish Learning Disability Consortium. South Lanarkshire is one of four pilot areas for setting up a local integrated database for people with a learning disability.

Services for people with physical disabilities

The number of people receiving a service for physical disabilities increased significantly from 2,589 in 2000-2001 to 3,727 in 2001-2002.

South Lanarkshire has provided investment in a new day care facility for people with a physical disability.

The Council is introducing a Direct Payments scheme, which is open to all groups of community care service users. It has arranged widespread publicity as well as training for staff. A user-led support organisation provides independent advice, support and training for people who receive Independent Living Services (for example, on choosing a care provider, becoming an employer and managing a care plan). A support structure is being developed within South Lanarkshire to support people receiving Direct Payment.

Senior occupational therapists monitor the time it takes to assess and provide equipment and adaptations, because current systems do not record this effectively. The Council almost always meets the 28-day target for assessing for and providing equipment and adaptations, except where outside contractors, architects or manufacturers may be involved.

In theory, Social Work Resources' budget of 2.6 million for equipment and adaptations is devolved to senior occupational therapists, who can authorise up to 6,500 in a single transaction. Service practitioners have direct access to stock items up to a value of 230. If equipment has any level of risk (for example, involving transfers and mobility) staff will show clients how it works (unless specialist contractors do this, in which case staff will follow up later to check on it).

A scheme with primary health and acute health occupational therapy staff to provide equipment jointly has been in place since 1996. In June 2002, a pilot scheme was introduced in Hairmyres Hospital to access more complex equipment and introduce access to simple adaptations. Future developments in this area will continue to extend the range of both equipment and adaptations. Discussions with community nursing colleagues are an extension of the Hairmyres project and should extend the joint equipment service protocols with Health colleagues.

People with sensory impairment

An independent study commissioned from Deafblind Scotland identified 61 deaf-blind people, who all receive services. There were seven deaf-blind service users who got Supporting People funds to the value of 118,690. Locally, there are about 1,700 people aged 16 and over with a severe hearing impairment and, in 2002, the Council provided services for 568 people with moderate or severe hearing impairments.

A multi-agency group and three task groups (each for a specific group of service users) are helping to put the recommendations of 'Sensing Progress' into practice. The individual groups have identified service priorities and developed work plans for services for people with sensory impairments.

Services for people with mental health difficulties

Recent major developments in mental health services include:

• expanding Mental Health Officer training;
• running down the use of hostel accommodation, with adults moving to individual tenancies; and
• extending day services.

There has also been a major investment from NHS Greater Glasgow of 400,000 over three years for community mental health services, although this is not matched by NHS Lanarkshire because of its financial position.

The Council is assessing the services it needs to meet the needs of the new Mental Health Act. Training is a priority. Mental Health Officers may move from community care teams to specialist teams.

All developments in South Lanarkshire for adult services take place in a multi-disciplinary context. An implementation group has 'scoped' the closure of Hartwood Hill Psychiatric Hospital but no agreement has been reached on transferring funding. The Council's policy is to promote community-based services, especially for long-term problems such as dementia, and to develop managed care networks at the locality and Local Health Care Co-operative level. There are two strategic plans for mental health services, because two NHS Boards are involved.

Tackling substance misuse

The number of people receiving a service for substance misuse problems increased from 478 in 2000-2001 to 679 in 2001-2002.

Services are now 50% for alcohol problems and 50% for drug misuse. The Substance Misuse Team (SMT) works closely with the health service, and there is a low rate of deaths through drug misuse. The Harm Reduction Team focuses on newly-released prisoners and has produced a range of resource materials to make the public more aware of the issues. There is also close joint working with children and families teams. The Council has asked Phoenix House, a voluntary organisation, to provide a choice of services from the independent sector to support and stabilise people.

Residential rehabilitation services have been used quite often and Phoenix provides community-based services, which should also let people who still need a service come back earlier into the community. The substance misuse team follows up everyone within three weeks of going into residential care. Their joint service standard is to respond to requests for assessment and services within seven days, in order to reduce inappropriate admissions to hospital.

The partners have developed joint protocols (for example, on sharing information and management. There is a close relationship with the Council's housing service (for example, they have placed 20 people with substance misuse problems in the community) and there is a bid for four supported temporary tenancies over four years.

The Council has invested a lot in training (for example, on cocaine misuse, since this is a growing problem). There are close links with STRADA and Lanarkshire Alcohol and Drug Action Teams piloted a national leadership training module.

The Council is still planning to achieve its target of developing accommodation services for offenders who misuse substances. The Criminal Justice system works effectively with the Alcohol and Drug Action Teams over a range of issues, especially the Drug Testing and Treatment Orders scheme.

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 being well progressed and are, overall, satisfactory. It was recommended that the local partners:

• progress agreement about locality joint management agreements, e.g. for specific services for older people at a local level;
• develop locality governance and accountability arrangements, which will be developed involving Local Care Partnerships, and in response to the White Paper's recommendations on Community Health Partnerships;
• develop joint service and local governance arrangements as appropriate for joint services;
• develop financial management arrangements (both strategic and operational);
• develop financial protocols (both strategic and operational);
• develop an agreed statement of a joint resourcing operational budget for older people's services;
• include housing services in all aspects of the implementation of Single Shared Assessment; and
• provide joint training to all appropriate staff in social work, housing and health.

On the ground, with the assurance of an established partnership with the health service, the Council now focuses on:

• building on existing good practice;
• gradually developing services; and
• improving front-line services.

There is now better joint working among staff in all organisations. The Home Care Service has been significantly extended, with 250 new home care staff working alongside nursing staff. The service now provides extended personal care, which staff have specific training for. Targets have been met in tackling delayed discharges. The Clydesdale Integrated Care Project is supporting vulnerable and isolated people in their own homes, to prevent unnecessary stays in care or in hospital and to allow people to leave hospital sooner.

There is Single Shared Assessment for all care groups.

Working with carers

The Council jointly funds the Lanarkshire Community Care Forum and the Princess Royal Trust and provides the main funding for the South Lanarkshire Carers' Network. Carers are involved at the strategic planning level (for example, there is a Carers' Liaison Group and carer representatives on the Health and Care Partnership Group). Carers with an agreed funding package can have direct access to a short breaks bureau and services. To increase the number of carers' assessments, the SWiSPlus system has been developed to make sure the question of carers' assessments is not missed out on the SSA form.

Children and Young People

Looked after children

The number of children and young people who are looked after increased from 411 in 2001 to 453 in 2002. Statutory home supervision has increased and voluntary supervision reduced. This is because panel members are increasingly opting for compulsory supervision as a way of making sure that the child has an allocated social worker. Young people are spending longer periods on supervision, particularly where there is neglect as a result of parents misusing substances.

Statistics suggest that the number of children in residential accommodation increased from 72 in 2001 to 89 in 2002, but the 72 in 2001 did not seem to include those in residential schools. There has been an increasing number of children under 12 in residential accommodation over the past 10 years as a result of increasingly challenging behaviour and complex family problems, and the Council needs to tackle this. In 2002, there were 10 children under 12 in residential accommodation. However, the Council has successfully reduced the number of children in residential schools over a number of years.

Despite the statistics they supplied, the Council says that the number of children in kinship placements remained virtually constant between 2001 and 2002. There are currently 45 to 50 link carers. Payment to kinship carers is being reviewed by the courts.

Fostering and adoption

No children are waiting for a temporary foster placement, but 18 children in a temporary placement are waiting for a permanent place (including six pairs of brothers and sisters). The Council has recruited 19 new carers over the last four years and over the same period, five carers withdrew because of retirement or ill health. It has proved difficult to place children over 10 and carers are stretched in terms of numbers and accommodation. The Council is reviewing the fostering allowance scheme and rates. It estimates that it needs a further 10 carers to provide temporary placements.

11 children are waiting for adoption.

Educational attainment

28% of 16 to 17 year olds who stopped being looked after in South Lanarkshire attained Maths and English standard grade in 2001-2002 - this is the seventh lowest figure in Scotland and is unacceptably low. It is well below the 100% target set by the Scottish Executive in 1999 and far below the 94% for the full S4 cohort in the authority achieving these grades. The Council says that there has been a significant improvement since 2001-2002 - 60% of 16 to 17 year olds who stopped being looked after in 2002-2003 attained Maths and English. There are joint guidelines for Education and Social Work on raising the attainment of children and young people who are looked after and the Council is introducing a number of initiatives.

• A principal teacher has been appointed to work in partnership with all families and Council and non-Council agencies to review and further develop joint working practices, in order to achieve the best educational outcomes.
• There is an action plan for introducing the recommendations of 'Learning with Care'.
• There is a children's rights officer for educational issues.
• Children and young people who are looked after away from home have Educational Support Plans which outline strategies and targets for raising achievement. These targets are reviewed and evaluated.
• The Council is extending the existing care plan for young people who live at home - the new care plan includes a fuller section on education to be completed by Social Work and Education.

An unacceptable number of young people are not in full-time education. A further 25 to 30 young people are not in mainstream school or have only part-time arrangements in place.

The opportunity for full-time education is shared with Education Resources, and systems have been put in place to tackle the issue of educational achievement of looked after children.

Throughcare and aftercare

The throughcare team supports 79 young people. The Council works with Youthstart and Careers Scotland who track young people and provide figures every three months.

Eight young people from South Lanarkshire live in Glasgow and East Renfrewshire because accommodation could not be found for them. However, the throughcare team is working with colleagues in Housing to identify gaps in the system and accommodation is being reviewed.

Youthstart provides career and employment opportunities for young people who have been accommodated and those who are homeless.

Mental health

There have been major developments in mental health services, including:

• health visitors and social workers identifying mental health issues in new community schools and family centres (high levels of depression were identified in 13 to 14 year old boys and work was done to address positive mental health and wellbeing; and signs of self-harm were found among young girls and drop-in sessions were arranged with school nurses);
• the Reachout project working on a one-to-one basis to develop self-esteem and emphasising non-clinical interventions;
• 171 referrals to the counselling service last year from Education and Health;
• buying in services from NCH for victims of sexual abuse;
• reviewing Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, giving high priority to children and young people who are looked after; and
• involving health visitors in picking up mental health issues in residential units.

Child protection

The Council was able to reduce the length of time children spent on the register through its family support strategy, links with education and health, and three-monthly reviews of child protection cases. In 2002, the percentage of children taken off the register after less than six months was the highest in Scotland. The number of children on the register has increased in the last two years. There has been an increase in cases of physical neglect, particularly due to substance misuse.

The Council's wide range of child protection initiatives includes:

• the 'Vulnerable Infant' project which identifies pregnant mums and works with babies and mums with addiction problems;
• a focus on prevention and early intervention through family support;
• child protection support officers being appointed to provide administrative support for case conferences;
• a new post of child protection co-ordinator to work on public information and joint training;
• a counselling service being developed with Health and Education for victims of abuse;
• a service for sexually-aggressive young people;
• a review of the membership of the Child Protection Committee;
• child protection training for all new social work staff; and
• information on offenders who are a risk being automatically shared between criminal justice and childcare workers.

Children with disabilities

There are 190 children with (or affected by) disabilities receiving a service. This number has steadily increased from 166 in 2000. Children receive the following range of services.

• Glasgow Health Board provides 'Home is Where the Help is' for children with complex medical needs.
• Shared care provides respite care in family settings.
• Out-of-school care and weekend respite play schemes are provided for autistic children and those with Aspergers Syndrome.
• Home carers have been trained to provide home-based support to children and young people with complex disabilities.
• Some 59 young carers receive a service through Universal Connections, and the Reachout project works with children whose parents have an acute mental health problem.

The Council is focusing services on earlier intervention. There are 138 Pre-Scat meetings a year to identify pre-school children with disabilities.

The Child and Family Disability Resource Team co-ordinates the process of assessing future needs and provides 113 reports a year.

Working of children's hearings

Information is not available on how many referrals are made within five working days of the case conference (Standard 2).

The Council acknowledged the need to improve its performance in relation to late reports to the children's panel, but commented that this also depends on other factors in relation to partner agencies. Social Work Resources work in partnership with agencies to improve performance, partly through trying to target appropriate report writing in relation to the most vulnerable children and those for whom offending is a serious issue. Through the Youth Justice Strategy Group, they will also aim to develop more diversionary activity at an early stage, to try to prevent difficulties getting worse. They will review the issue about the referral of all domestic violence situations to the Reporter. The Council has put an action plan in place to tackle the issues raised in the Youth Justice audit.

Only 16% of reports were submitted within 20 working days of the date of request (standard 3) in 2001-2002. This poor performance is said to be due to staffing problems and the complexity of the reports.

No return was made on Standard 15 (the local authority to give effect to supervision requirements with no condition of residence within 15 working days of date of issue by the children's hearings), due to information problems.

Youth Justice

The Council is piloting a youth court, with the Scottish Executive, for 16 and 17 year olds.

There is a range of youth justice services, including:

• Family Mediation Scotland (for early intervention);
• Family Group Conferencing;
• a reparation and mediation service provided by SACRO for low tariff offenders;
• an intensive support service provided 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by Includem, for serious persistent offenders aged 16 to 18 (there is also a mentoring service and a 24-hour helpline to support families and carers);
• 12 members of staff trained to deliver the offending behaviour programme 'Pathways' (two programmes are about to start for the 16 to 18 age range - YLS assessment is carried out at the start and end of each session to see if there is any difference in scoring); and
• a protocol with the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration (SCRA) giving youth justice social workers early access to information that would allow early intervention with young people aged 14 and over who are most at risk of re-offending.

Criminal Justice

Structure

North and South Lanarkshire operate as a partnership for delivery of criminal justice social work services. Service developments for the partnership are overseen by a Criminal Justice Joint Planning Forum which meets bi-annually. The Chair is rotated between the Council's on a bi-annual basis. Developments are implemented through 4 weekly meetings of criminal justice managers. Lead officers have been identified to develop joint approaches to service development and to ensure consistency of practice.

Workload

Demand for services has risen over the past year, with social enquiry reports increasing by 29% in North Lanarkshire and 11% in South Lanarkshire, while probation orders have increased by 11% and 50%, and Community Service orders by 12% and 19% respectively. The reasons for the increases are complex, in part reflecting the national upward trend. Performance in relation to social enquiry reports remains high with a noticeable increase for North Lanarkshire However, there are costs in other areas. As well as increases in volume the grouping is experiencing significant qualitative increases in the complexity of the cases they are working with.

Effective practice

The pace of change has been particularly significant in youth justice services with the establishment, in June 2003, of a Youth Court pilot in the jurisdiction of Hamilton Sheriff Court. The Court aims to fast-track 16-18 year old persistent or serious offenders and direct, where appropriate, to community based programmes to support change in behaviour. Both councils have adopted an assessment tool, YLS/CMI, to assist them identify the risk and needs presented by young offenders and deliver in North and South Lanarkshire respectively, the personal change programmes, "Offending Is Not The Only Choice" and "Pathways".

The grouping has devised an assessment pack to ensure consistency. This incorporates LSI (R), the Scottish Executive risk of harm assessment framework and an alcohol assessment tool are used where appropriate. MATRIX 2000 is used to assess sex offenders. Development of consistent programmes to challenge offending behaviour is a priority for the coming year. A pilot programme for women offenders has already been devised and is being delivered with an evaluation due in September 2003. Both authorities are also currently running separate programmes for perpetrators of domestic abuse, with starting times staggered to accommodate referrals from both areas. The grouping is also considering the potential to introduce a low level contact service following evaluation of a pilot in North Lanarkshire.

The grouping is in the process of auditing available Community Service placements and will be developing resources that can meet the needs of female offenders and those with a substance misuse problem. During the course of the next year, the grouping will also be introducing Drug Treatment and Testing orders across Lanarkshire. Other developments include full implementation of integrated court services across the grouping and the introduction of a court forensic service. A joint bail service has already been established in partnership with SACRO. A steering group has also been established for organisations representing victims, survivors and families.

Public protection

Services to sex offenders are being considered by a multi-agency group across the partnership though the authorities retain their individual responsibility for the management of sex offenders on a day to day basis. Some staff have been trained to pilot the Community Sex Offender Groupwork Programme currently being prepared for accreditation. Both authorities are also progressing work with young people who display sexually aggressive behaviour and programmes for sex offenders with learning difficulties.

Future developments include development of a strategy for mentally disordered offenders and implementation of the joint Throughcare strategic plan.

Quality assurance

The grouping has established a monitoring and evaluation sub group to consider appropriate performance measures for services and processes across the grouping and will continue to develop these.

Human Resource

Structure of the workforce

Between 2000 and 2002, there was a slight increase in the number of whole time equivalent fieldwork staff and a substantial increase in services for adults. There was a substantial increase in vacancies for whole time equivalent fieldwork staff across all services except generic services which showed a slight decline. The Council says that the rise in vacancies is due mainly to new posts being created, including child care and youth justice. In common with many other authorities, staff working in Children's Services are under most pressure, and lose staff to newly-funded initiatives.

In the same period, the number of whole time equivalent social work staff stayed much the same, but there was a substantial rise in vacancies across all services.

The 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 253, compared with 207 in October 2002, and that the number of social work vacancies was 40, compared with 44 in October 2003.

Nearly half of the social services workforce is aged over 50, the majority of whom are employed in home care and residential and day care services. The Council realises that this might be a problem and has introduced a Modern Apprenticeship Scheme in Social Care for school leavers. The Council runs a number of ESF projects to recruit people into social care.

Support for staff

Policies and procedures adopted by the Council include:

• personal development plans for all staff;
• Performance and Development Review;
• Competence Initiative;
• induction courses (both for joining the Council and for Social Work);
• reviews being held after the induction programmes;
• practice teachers acting as named mentors;
• a bigger programme for registered managers;
• practical services, such as physiotherapy, aromatherapy and counselling; and
• appointing seven lifelong learning advisors to help and identify the training needs of home care workers.

Absence rates are high, but lower than the national average for social work, and have been reducing over 2002-2003. Rates within social services are still about 1% higher than for the Council overall. In March 2003, 61% of absences were long term. Absences are most common among home care staff and residential care staff, with absences for psychological reasons being most common.

The Council has a system in place to manage absences. The system features:

• preventative healthcare strategies;
• an employee support officer;
• a counselling service;
• a committee to monitor absences and present findings to the corporate management team;
• physiotherapy services; and
• free alternative therapy services.

Working towards a more highly qualified workforce

The Council has made a considerable commitment to training its staff, with Social Work Resources receiving formal Investors in People recognition.

• Home care staff have access to the Scottish Progression Award which allows them to link into the qualification structure of other client group services.
• Residential and day care services staff have a qualifications programme through SVQ 3.
• Every senior care worker has access to the registered manager programme.
• A succession programme is being introduced for fieldwork staff, building on practice teaching.
• A release scheme is available for staff wishing to take the DipSW.
• Leadership training is available.
• The Council has supported and funded staff to complete the DipSW through Open University and Caledonian University programmes.

Preparing for registration

In making staff aware of what is needed for registration with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), South Lanarkshire has carried out a training audit, run briefing sessions for managers, and provided presentations for managers to give to their staff. Employees have received and confirmed acceptance of the employment codes. Employees pay registration fees while the Council pays for disclosure checks.

The Council has adopted a policy that all employees who hold a DipSW qualification must register with the SSSC.

Race Equality

In South Lanarkshire, 1.1% of the local population is from a minority ethnic group, compared with 2% for Scotland as a whole. The Council was unable to identify the ethnic origin of half of the children and young people it looks after in 2002, because staff had not recorded this information.

South Lanarkshire re-launched its Race Equality scheme in November 2002. All Council areas have developed action plans, which have been included in the Race Equality Scheme. The corporate equal opportunities working group regularly monitors progress against the action plans.

A Lanarkshire ethnic community consultative forum (now known as the Lanarkshire Ethnic Action Group) has been set up to encourage involvement from all ethnic communities within the area. A Race Equality Lanarkshire partners group has been set up and is made up of South Lanarkshire Council, North Lanarkshire Council, NHS Lanarkshire, the Procurator Fiscal Office and other community planning partners.

Other developments include:

• using a language video to promote access to services;
• a work programme for the Race Equality Working Group; and
• making sure that training in assessment and care management includes recording of information on ethnic background.

Use of Information Communications Technology (ICT)

Social Services Department

A social work strategy for information systems and information technology development is being prepared. Computers are widely available to fieldwork staff, and at the moment access is being extended to all residential and day care units.

Access to email and the Internet is provided on a three-tier level throughout the organisation, in line with business needs. Also, Social Work has recently begun operational use of the SW Intranet.

The main Social Work Information System (SWiSPlus) is constantly being re-developed. The application has been re-launched, with the focus being a revised assessment and care management module. This module will be the basis of further IT work for Joint Futures, Single Shared Assessment and e-care.

The Senior Management Team is aware of the need to support staff in using technology, so it has set up a dedicated IT training suite and support section to design and deliver training for using SWiSPlus.

Partnerships

In partnership with North Lanarkshire and Lanarkshire Primary Health Care Trust, Social Work Resources are at the forefront of developments around e-care. They have successfully developed and delivered electronic sharing of information as part of the initial MGF 1 pilot project. This has included developing appropriate protocols for sharing information and consent. Further developments are underway to build on this success, to extend the scope of sharing data and to introduce the e-care solution across other care groups in support of Single Shared Assessment.

Social Work has also been selected to pilot the electronic development of the Resource Use Measure tool, and this has been successfully integrated into SWiSPlus.

Other current developments include:

• piloting PC-based SMS text messaging for home care staff, through mobile phones;
• investigating the use of technologies such as GPRS Remote Network Access and wireless networks and electronic hardware such as notebooks, tablets, PDAs and Blackberry 'always-on' devices;
• introducing a digital dictation and transcription solution for managers;
• piloting Internet access for service users in two day care centres; and
• installing trunked radios and vehicle tracking systems in social work vehicles.

Background Profile

South Lanarkshire is the fifth largest authority in terms of population, and it covers a large area with urban communities in the north west and large rural areas in the south. The local economy now depends more on the service sector, having experienced a 24% rise in employment between 1995 and 2001. Average earnings are 2% higher than those for Scotland as a whole.

Spending for every person on social work in 2001-2002 was 218, less than the figure of 267 for Scotland.

Expected population change

Community Care

Expenditure on community care services increased gradually between 1999 and 2002.

Children and Young People

Expenditure on children's services has risen gradually in the period 1999-2002.

Criminal Justice

Human Resources

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