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Short Reviews of Social Work Services in Scottish Local Authorities

West Dunbartonshire Council

Overview

West Dunbartonshire has continued to make progress with its children's services and achieved excellent results for some children who are looked after (for example, in adoption). The Council has to plan and provide services against a background of unemployment and related social problems, and considerable deprivation in certain areas. These conditions, along with higher than average crime and drug misuse rates, have a big effect on social work services. The Council's ability to respond with a range of services to meet local needs is reduced by persistent staff vacancies in parts of social work.

The Council's achievements include:

• a successful rapid response service;
• excellent progress on joining up community care services with Health;
• successfully resettling into the community people with learning disabilities who were previously in hospital;
• a high rate of people receiving services to help with problems of drug and alcohol misuse; and
• successfully introducing Free Personal Care.

West Dunbartonshire needs to take urgent action to:

• make sure that all children and young people who are looked after receive full-time education (at the time of the inspection, a small number out of 122 looked after children and young people were not in education);
• build on the excellent joint working that already exists between services, to improve the educational attainment of children and young people who are looked after; and
• improve its very poor performance in relation to the lateness of reports to Children's Panels (more than three-quarters of reports are submitted late) and to make sure that 75% of reports are submitted on time.

The authority should also give priority to:

• completing a plan for introducing the Mental Health Act;
• drawing up policies and protocols for dealing effectively with families who misuse drugs, as a basis for planning services;
• working with colleagues in the two NHS Boards to make health and mental health services for children more consistent throughout the authority;
• further developing throughcare and aftercare services; and
• continuing the effective measures taken to reduce levels of absence across all areas of the workforce.

Community Care

Services for older people

The number of older people receiving a service continued to increase from 2,948 in 1999-2000 to 4,071 in 2001-2002. There was a large increase in the number of people in private nursing homes from 144 in 2000 to 335 in 2001, but numbers remained stable in 2002. The number of people receiving 20 or more hours of home care a week increased gradually between 2000 and 2002.

Two comprehensive rapid response services have been up and running since 2002. Between July 2002 and March 2003, there were 294 people referred to the services, resulting in services being started for 266 people. The Council estimated that these services saved 69 people from having to go into hospital.

A comprehensive shopping service supports 935 people. Care and Repair deliver household maintenance services and 820 people received this service during 2002-2003. In the same year, about 363 people received intensive home care packages of 10 hours or more a week from the mainstream home care service. Private and or voluntary providers brought the total to 427 people - an increase of 99 from 2001-2002. In 2001-2002, clients in residential and non-residential settings and at home received short break services.

The Council introduced Free Personal Care by separating personal and non-personal care tasks with existing clients so it could identify clients who would not have to pay for services or who would pay a reduced rate for non-personal care. The Council designed local leaflets for Free Personal Care at home and in care homes, ran a helpline and issued press releases with full details on assessment.

The Council is planning to meet future demand by:

• investing in greater levels of enhanced personal care;
• investing in training for staff;
• taking on extra home help organisers and administrative support;
• extending the out-of-hours cover and support; and
• an increase in the rapid response service.

Services for people with learning disabilities

The number of people receiving a service for learning disabilities increased from 244 in 1999-2000 to 287 in 2001-2002.

The hospital closure programme was completed in March 2002, with 52 people resettled. Their care plans are based on personal assessment and preferences and most clients or their families expressed a wish or a choice for shared accommodation. Apart from a few older people who went to care homes, clients were given full access to mainstream housing and support. The Council and health partners have created a single primary health care service, with joint financing.

The local authority has funded a specialist nurse post to support people with challenging behaviour, their carers and service providers. Everyone with learning disabilities is currently undergoing health checks. Services for assessing and treating adults and children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) need to be developed between the local authority and NHS partners.

An information needs assessment worker was appointed in April 2003 to develop a database for assessing the health, social care and education needs of everyone with learning disabilities.

Services for people with physical disabilities

The number of people receiving a service for a physical disability fell in 2001-2002, but it is still higher than it was in 1999-2000 (951 compared with 811).

The Council introduced a Direct Payments scheme for all client groups in 2003. A development worker was appointed and a Direct Payments implementation group was responsible for introducing the scheme. The Council is using the Glasgow Centre for Independent Living to support clients. Policy and procedures are at a final stage and a staff training scheme is in place.

The waiting list for low priority help with equipment and adaptations has been reduced from three years to under one year over the past 12 months. This achievement has been helped by:

• employing extra temporary staff (including five temporary occupational therapy assistant posts that may now be made permanent);
• fully introducing self-assessment;
• delegating responsibility for funding decisions; and
• recruiting a paediatric occupational therapist.

The Council is still considering the possible benefits of joining with the joint community nursing and social care equipment store in Glasgow.

People with sensory impairment

The Council is working with Deafblind Scotland and Greater Glasgow Health Board to conduct a survey on the number of deaf-blind people and people with significant hearing impairment. A development worker for sensory impairment has been appointed to work with the different groups.

Services for people with mental health difficulties

The number of people receiving a service for mental health problems fell from 300 in 2000-2001 to 204 in 2001-2002.

The approach to mental health services is led by the need to fill current gaps in services, to modernise and to introduce the new Mental Health Act. At present, a specialist post has been created to oversee training and introduction. Staff have received training in the requirements of the Act. The Council has taken special measures to recruit and keep Mental Health Officers (MHOs) and has recruited seven extra MHOs. Money has been ring-fenced for advocacy work. Good joint planning structures are in place for work with Health.

Tackling substance misuse

The number of people receiving a service for drug and alcohol problems continued to increase from 128 in 1999-2000 to 292 in 2001-02.

The Council works with two Drug and Alcohol Action Teams and two different health boards. It has 117 staff for addiction work, and also buys in services from the voluntary sector. A group has been set up to put policy on addictions into practice.

Residential rehabilitation is used as part of the packages put together by community services to meet clients' needs. There is an accommodation support team to support clients to get and keep tenancies.

Services are provided for families who misuse substances, but there are no protocols or policies to back them. An audit is being carried out of what is happening to families who misuse substances. The children's services strategy group is considering a protocol for pregnant drug users. Since 2002, the authority has had 7.5 new posts in place for families who misuse substances. A joint seminar has been held with NHS Drug Action Team and Alcohol Action Team and the Child Protection Committee, to take these aims forward.

STRADA has provided most training, but the Council is introducing local training.

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 meeting the JPIAF requirements and are, overall, very satisfactory. It was recommended that the local partners:

• take positive steps to address the matters identified in their full Local Partnership Arrangement;
• develop an agreed statement of a joint resourcing strategic financial envelope for older people's services;
• develop an agreed statement of a joint resourcing operational budget for older people's services; and
• roll out access to resources from pilot area and widen categories of resources available for single shared assessment.

Building on a long tradition of joint working with the NHS, the Council has an integrated service for older people which includes, for example, district nurses having access to the home care service. In mental health services, there is very close joint working, with social work, health and the voluntary sector located in the one centre.

Practical examples of joint working include:

• augmented home care teams; and
• Clydebank community older people's team (COPT), which is co-located and jointly-managed (and which includes rapid response, community rehabilitation, community support and full access to a benefits service).

Priority areas for joint working during 2003-2004 are services for people with learning disabilities and addiction services.

Working with Carers

A carers' support project is in place, with funding of 280,000. Through the carer strategy group, carers have control over how this funding is used. Services are delivered largely through the carers' centre and run by Quarriers (which serves 50 families) and the Princess Royal Trust. The Council has recently developed carers' support plans and so far there has not been a great deal of response. Carers were involved in developing their own assessment and there are reminders for staff about it in the Single Shared Assessment framework. A welfare rights campaign targeted 3,000 carers to let them know about their right to an assessment. The carers strategy group ties together carers' interests across all services.

Children and Young People

Looked after children

The number of children and young people who are looked after increased from 262 in 2001 to 289 in 2002 The increase was due to a rise in the number of young people on home supervision, which was caused by:

• more addiction issues;
• unmet needs identified through early intervention; and
• young people in foster care and in residential units staying looked after longer, often because of family problems.

The number of children and young people who are looked after has dropped back to 269 in 2003.

Fostering and adoption

No children are waiting for a foster placement, but six young people with very challenging behaviour are in residential units because individual placements cannot be found for them. The number of carers has increased by 40% since 1996, but difficulties have emerged over placing groups of brothers and sisters. Carers receive allowances with entitlements, as well as a 50 one-off payment when a child is placed with them. The Council has helped carers with moving house so that they could foster more children.

There are 14 children with adoption plans and they have all been placed with adoptive families. Eight children are waiting to be presented to the adoption panel. There are special problems finding adopters for children over eight, groups of brothers and sisters, and children with special needs.

Educational attainment

In West Dunbartonshire, 39% of 16 to 17 year olds who stopped being looked after attained Maths and English standard grade in 2001-2002. This is a very low figure, falling well short of the 100% target set by the Scottish Executive in 1999, and it is far below the 92% of the full S4 cohort in the authority attaining these standard grades. The Council has adopted some initiatives to improve educational attainment, including:

• a home-link teacher supporting young people in residential units (another has been recruited for children in foster care);
• laptop computers and educational materials being provided in each residential unit;
• extra tuition being provided for some young people;
• joint training sessions being held with school staff who are involved and unit managers;
• co-ordinators tracking and monitoring the progress of children and young people who are looked after; and
• school reports to the children's panel now including information on educational attainment.

However, the Council needs to build on these initiatives if it is to improve educational attainment.

Fewer than five young people are in part-time education because they are waiting for placements in residential schools. All children in foster care are receiving full-time education. The position of the children and young people on home supervision is not known.

Throughcare and aftercare

Young people who have been looked after at home are offered advice and guidance, but they are not actually provided with support (although some will get a service for young homeless people). The Council is working with over 90 young people who are no longer looked after. It has information on all their jobs and accommodation. There are 11 young people in further education.

A residential unit prepares young people for independent living and 23 supported lodging placements provide 37 young people with accommodation. All young people who are given a tenancy get extra support. Those young people who misuse drugs and alcohol get extra support.

Mental Health

A survey of accommodated young people found that 56% were suffering from some form of emotional or behavioural problem, that their mental health problems had been identified by the local psychiatric service, but that there is a need for more effective interventions (for example, fast-track access to mental health services). There is also a general issue of achieving a consistently high level of service from the two health boards.

Health issues are covered in the children and young people looked after review system. The Council does a limited amount of family therapy but cannot provide intensive input to individual children and has to refer them to Glasgow.

Child protection

The number of children referred for child protection increased gradually between 1999-2000 and 2001-2002. (A referral is only counted after discussions to establish it as a child protection case). Though child protection enquiries may not be pursued, the Council prepares a care plan to protect the child and may provide intensive support (for example, short periods of foster care or support from the addictions homemaker).

Recent initiatives include:

• a new specialist post to provide and deliver multi-agency training across all voluntary and statutory agencies (the post also supports the Child Protection Committee in delivering Scottish Executive reforms);
• introducing multi-agency child protection procedures;
• the child protection system being quality assured; and
• a shared care scheme being in place for parents who misuse drugs.

Children with disabilities

198 children get a service from social work and another 40 from paediatric occupational therapy services. Emphasis is placed on providing mainstream services rather than specialist services, although some families also get a specialist service. A wide range of services are available, including:

• children with complex health needs get a service from the Home Is Project with Yorkhill Hospital and from Cancare;
• a home care service - befriending or personal care;
• a 'Share the care' service developed with Cornerstone;
• regular respite care outside West Dunbartonshire;
• integrated services developed by a respite and leisure co-ordinator;
• the 'Out and About' scheme run by Sense Scotland; and
• groups for parents whose children have autistic conditions.

A 'transitions worker' works with young people from 14 onwards (working with education, adult services, health and Careers Scotland).

Working of children's hearings

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

Only 23% of reports were submitted within 20 working days of the date of request (Standard 3). It is reported that about 40% of reports are submitted within 25 days. There is no departmental policy for prioritising reports. The reporter sends requests in batches, which leads to time lags. There has been an increase in the number of domestic abuse referrals because of the police policy of referring every case of domestic abuse where there is a child in the house.

100% of supervision requirements with no condition of residence are given effect within 15 working days of issue by the children's hearing (standard 15). The social worker who writes the report automatically picks up the supervision requirement. However, there may be unallocated cases for periods of time if social workers have left.

Youth Justice

The Council has drawn together a wide range of organisations to form its Youth Justice Strategy Group. These include all the relevant local authority departments (including criminal justice services), the police, health, and voluntary agencies.

West Dunbarton's youth justice strategy has a number of sections which aim to deliver:

• a 'tiered' groupwork programme;
• a youth crime mentoring scheme;
• social inclusion, leisure and recreation, restorative justice and addictions initiatives; and
• intensive support packages.

The strategy aims to tackle young people's behaviour and needs in a gradual way, both by preventive work and intensive programmes and support for more persistent offenders.

There is no doubt that this is a comprehensive strategy and that all the relevant people seem to support it. Many of these services are at an early stage in their development. A particular issue has been attendance at groupwork programmes. When young people stay, they appear to do well, but the drop out rate is too high (47% to 50%). The services will need to be closely monitored to get real value from the large investment of funds.

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 3 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

In 2000-2002, there was an overall increase in the number of whole time equivalent fieldwork staff. The number of staff working with children and families and offenders stayed fairly constant, and those designated as working with adults reduced dramatically, but this was more than covered by those designated as generic workers. Social worker posts reduced by one, with a re-designation of staff from adult services to generic.

Overall in fieldwork staff, there was an increase of 35 posts, whilst vacancies rose by 29 to 36 whole time equivalent. Social worker post vacancies increased by three to 15. These were most acute amongst generic and children's workers.

The latest figures provided by the Council but not yet confirmed suggest that, between October 2002 and the end of June 2003, vacancy levels have increased (rising from 16% to nearly 23% of the social work posts - a rise from 15 to 21 whole time equivalent staff).

Support for staff

The Council has induction and supervision programmes in place. It has family-friendly policies, such as flexible working and job sharing.

The department is tackling absences by adopting an early intervention approach, with attendance review meetings, support through occupational health and referrals to the Council's medical advisor. The Council automatically takes action after 13 weeks' sick leave. The current absence rate is 11.5%, with the highest rates found in day centre staff working with older people (55%) and staff in day centres for people with learning disabilities (21%) .

Working towards a more highly qualified workforce

The Council is a member of a consortium for SVQ training. The Lomond Centre is expanding its role to include a wider range of vocational qualifications. Within the Council:

• a practice teacher is in place and acts as a champion for practice teacher training;
• unqualified staff are supported through the DipSW course; and
• at any time, 20 to 30 people are in training.

Preparing for registration

Regarding registration with the Scottish Social Services Council, West Dunbartonshire has yet to make a clear policy statement on raising the qualification level of departmental staff, based on knowledge of their current levels and to formulate a plan to achieve training targets.

Race Equality

In West Dunbartonshire, 0.7% of the local population are from a minority ethnic group, compared with 2% for Scotland as a whole.

The Council's Race Equality Scheme provides a framework for arrangements to meet the general and specific duties under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000. The Scheme is supported by an action plan.

The Race Strategy Group has responsibility for monitoring the introduction of the arrangements, which include using a Race Equality monitoring form with applications and complaints.

The Council has invested in relevant training for management and professional staff.

Use of Information Communications Technology (ICT)

Social Services Department

Except for home care staff, most staff have access to personal computers, the Intranet and e-mail. The department is covered by the Council-wide ICT strategy.

Partnerships

There are protocols for sharing information for adult services and youth justice, but not yet for children's services.

Partners can share all relevant information on the community care services that clients are assessed for. This is backed up by a protocol for sharing information involving health and housing. Sharing information electronically still has some way to go. Over 470 staff, including professionals from Health and Housing, are involved in an on-going programme of training on sharing information.

Background Profile

West Dunbartonshire is the fourth smallest Scottish local authority in terms of area, but it is in the middle in terms of population. It has many areas of scenic beauty, including a section of Scotland's first National Park, with the south end of Loch Lomond. However, as traditional industries declined, unemployment rose and left areas with very high rates of deprivation in the urban areas on the north bank of the Clyde. These contrast with relatively small well-off neighbourhoods on the edge of Glasgow.

Overall, the number of jobs in West Dunbartonshire fell by 10% between 1995 and 2001, while in Scotland as a whole they rose by 10%. This period saw a marked reduction in employment in the manufacturing, and transport and communications sectors. Many people now depend on jobs in the public and service sectors, which account for 81% of all employment.

Spending for every person on social work in 2001-2002 was 274, slightly above the figure of 267 for Scotland.

Expected population change

Community Care

Expenditure on community care rose after 1999-2000, then fell back in 2001-2002 to below that level.

Children and Young People

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

Criminal Justice

Human Resources

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