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PERFORMANCE INSPECTION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE SOCIAL WORK SERVICES
Report on Argyll, Bute and the Dunbartonshires' Criminal Justice Social Work Partnership

6. ORGANISATION AND MANAGEMENT

The joint committee

6.1 In April 2002 Argyll and Bute, West Dunbartonshire and East Dunbartonshire implemented an agreement, formulated in the terms of a memorandum, to constitute a joint committee 'with decision making powers' to administer criminal justice social work services across the partnership. The memorandum deals with membership (including 2 political representatives from each authority), financial, and management arrangements and states clearly that the three authorities have 'combined together to continue to secure the delivery of local authority criminal justice social work services'. The committee must meet at least quarterly and receives reports on all aspects of the work of the service. The committee represents a substantial investment of time and resources on the part of the three councils to make the partnership work and has developed policy and raised the profile of the service.

Management arrangements

6.2 A single manager (the service manager for West Dunbartonshire) now manages criminal justice social work services across the partnership and line manages the service managers in Argyll and Bute and East Dunbartonshire. All 3 managers, and their staff, continue to be employed by their own authorities. They are accountable to heads of service within their authorities who meet quarterly to review the work of the partnership, and go over all the committee papers. In recognition of her council's lead role in and commitment to the partnership, the director of social work for West Dunbartonshire attends the joint committee.

6.3 The 3 service managers (and their heads of service) remain accountable for criminal justice social work services in their areas, but, increasingly, elements of this accountability are pooled. For example, the new throughcare initiative, managed by the service manager in East Dunbartonshire, is partnership wide, with other staff in the team based in the other two authorities. At the financial level, resources that become freed up are beginning to be deployed across the partnership where the need is greatest, with the full sanction of the joint committee. One example is the recent transfer of one social work post and an administrative post from West Dunbartonshire to Argyll and Bute. Another is the delivery of services in Helensburgh (part of Argyll and Bute) by West Dunbartonshire staff, because it makes logistical sense. In total the partnership now has 7 posts with a partnership wide remit.

6.4 Initiatives of this kind are examples of the readiness of the partnership to 'bite the bullet' of greater integration. Establishing the joint committee and appointing a single manager has provided a platform for developing a more consistent approach to service delivery across the partnership. Nevertheless, managing a service where staff are employed by three different authorities gives rise to some anomalies (staff carrying out the same tasks may be on different pay scales), makes redeployment of staff across the partnership in response to changing service requirements difficult, raises some complex issues of accountability (which have not as yet been fully tested), and requires a considerable investment of time to make it work.

6.5 Since its inception in April 2002, the partnership has made significant progress in implementing more integrated management structures. However attention needs to be given to the deployment of management resources across the partnership. East Dunbartonshire is currently well resourced in management terms for the size of its service, whilst the partnership manager also has to manage the service in West Dunbartonshire, the largest single staff group in the partnership.

Assessment and risk management

6.6 Assessment, including the assessment of risk, is the foundation of all work with offenders and it is critical that this is done thoroughly. It is therefore wholly appropriate that structured assessment tools (LSI-R and RAGF) are used across the partnership. However, the inspection evidenced that these tools appeared not always to inform subsequent reports and supervision plans, particularly in relation to assessment of risk of harm. Risk assessment is a live and on-going activity and staff must be alert to the potential risks posed by a significant number of the offenders they supervise in all areas of their work, including community service. Managers should ensure that all staff keep this aspect of their work continually in mind and make the necessary training opportunities (including refresher courses) available.

Effective practice

6.7 A significant number of management objectives in the 2002 strategic plan were about developing and delivering services based more on effective practice principles. The plan identified the 'Constructs' programme as the main vehicle to take this forward, and the local development of this programme shows that service managers have taken the effective practice agenda seriously. That the programme has been subject to external evaluation, and submitted to the newly created accreditation panel is further evidence of this commitment.

6.8 'Constructs' is however still some way from being accredited and should not be the only vehicle for delivering effective practice. The primary method of work across the partnership is one-to -one and is likely to remain so given the remoteness and rural nature of much of the area. At present, staff are using a range of methods and approaches in their one-to-one work and there needs to be greater consistency and more attention to effective practice principles in how this work is carried out.

6.9 The file-reading exercise raised issues about compliance with National Standards, which remains an important element of effective practice. Ensuring compliance is a shared responsibility. Practitioners must know what the Standards are and strive to meet and record them. Managers have a responsibility for setting a clear framework of expectations, for establishing appropriate monitoring systems, and for using this information proactively in their work with staff.

6.10 There are real management and practice challenges in achieving a more consistent approach to service delivery across such a large area with a scattered population. In addressing this challenge managers must be able to think flexibly. Possible options might be to deploy more peripatetic staff, to explore the use of video-conferencing facilities for work with offenders, to try computer generated approaches (for example software packages which address particular problems/behaviours).

Finance

6.11 This inspection did not set out to consider funding arrangements or value for money in any detail. However, these issues are integral to service delivery and some articulation of the funding arrangements for Argyll and Bute and the Dunbartonshires is therefore appropriate.

6.12 Allocation between groupings/unitary authorities of available funds for delivering core services is determined by a funding formula agreed between the former Scottish Office and COSLA in January 1999 and reviewed by the Scottish Executive and COSLA/ADSW in late 2000. The formula is derived both from historical workload patterns and a range of needs factors. The workload component is calculated on the basis of agreed workload measures multiplied by the number of orders/reports undertaken (averaged over a 3 year period). Once the calculation has been arrived at for those services considered to be 'core,' the allocation between individual groupings / authorities is determined on the basis of their percentage share of the national workload. The needs factors comprise 3 data sets based on the percentage population aged between 15 and 29, the percentage population of unemployed males and the proportion of Sheriff Court business. Using these 3 data sets, each authority's proportion of the national figure for each indice is arrived at and a weighting applied. The final calculation is to apply a two thirds workload and one third needs factor weighting to produce an overall allocation for each individual authority.

6.13 The total initial allocations across the partnership for 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 are set out in table 17 below:

Table 17: Financial Allocations

6.14 These figure include funding for all core services including supervised attendance orders, voluntary throughcare, bail and Airborne/Fairbridge, as well as funding for non-core services which accounted for 326,362 in 2001-2002 and 223,544 in 2002-2003. The complexity of the funding formula makes analysis difficult. However, the figures show that funding has been steady over the last two years apart from a slight uplift for inflation. Because the formula is based on retrospective figures there are clearly difficulties when there are significant rapid increases in demand such as experienced by Argyll and Bute in 2002-2003. However, the partnership arrangement has enabled West Dunbartonshire to provide additional support to Argyll and Bute, particularly in undertaking social enquiry reports. It should also be noted that the Executive has recently made available additional funding nationally to meet the upsurge in demand for core services across Scotland during 2002-2003.

6.15 The funding formula recognises the range of complex issues that affect demand in an area. However, the smaller the unit of service delivery, the more difficulty there is in coping with either sudden increases in demand or staff shortages. This inspection has highlighted some disparity in levels of service delivery across the partnership, due mainly to the logistical problems associated with the delivering a service in Argyll and Bute. The partnership arrangement is beginning to address this but the extent to which it will prove possible to redirect resources remains to be seen.

Links with other agencies

6.16 The partnership has a formal service level agreement with SACRO (Scottish Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders) for the provision of reparation and mediation and bail services and has recently negotiated an agreement with Hope for a worker as part of the new throughcare initiative. There are no other formal agreements. However, the partnership works closely with other agencies, particularly in the field of addictions. Presently drugs problems are dealt with primarily by referral to other agencies. The partnership manager considered there was scope for the partnership to look more closely at how criminal justice social work services and addictions services combined to deliver a better integrated and more focused service.

6.17 Other agencies make a substantial contribution to the work undertaken with offenders across the partnership. However the scale of this contribution is not quantified and there appear to be few protocols which spell out how the services should work together. The partnership manager acknowledges the need to do more work to pull these threads together better to focus and tie in the contribution of these services.

6.18 Close working relationships have been established with the police within the 'Committed Protection' policy framework discussed earlier. A protocol covers the contribution of local authority housing services to local risk management strategies and a paper covering the contribution of housing associations is in draft and will be approved shortly. The partnership is represented on the group preparing a protocol for working with the newly created forensic mental health team brought together under the auspices of the Argyll and Clyde NHS Board. The partnership also works with the Greater Glasgow Health Board.

Staffing

6.19 At the beginning of October 2003 there was a social worker vacancy in West Dunbartonshire (transferring to Argyll and Bute) and a social worker vacancy in East Dunbartonshire. 2 social workers, 1 in East and 1 in West Dunbartonshire team were on maternity leave.

6.20 The partnership manager pointed up the difficulties of relying on singleton criminal justice social workers to deliver services in Argyll and Bute but did not think there were currently any other options. He said these staff benefited from the bases they shared with other local authority social work staff and thought that, without these bases, costs would be significantly higher. He underlined the particular difficulties of providing a service to the islands.

Staff development

6.21 In line with the requirements of the code of practice of the Scottish Social Services Council, the partnership has completed an audit of staff skills and is piloting annual personal development reviews for all staff. The aim is to get as good a 'fit' as possible between the training needs staff themselves identify and the requirements of the service. The intention is to use the information collected through personal development reviews to inform future training plans. Practitioners said that they had benefited from a range of training opportunities arising from discussions with their line managers. The partnership has taken this agenda forward ahead of arrangements for other social work staff in 2 of the 3 authorities.

Staff supervision

6.22 Staff supervision is undertaken across the partnership with the twin aims of providing oversight and support. East Dunbartonshire has developed a policy and practice framework for all its staff (not just criminal justice social work). The partnership has yet to develop a framework for criminal justice social workers.

Race and Ethnicity

6.23 The partnership monitors the numbers of ethnic minority offenders which is, proportionately very small (3% East Dunbartonshire, 0.79% Argyll and Bute, 0.47% West Dunbartonshire.) The 3 partner authorities are formally committed to implementing the Race Relations Act

Strategic planning and performance review

6.24 The partnership's first strategic plan was published in January 2002 and covers the years 2002-2005. It sets out what it terms 'key principles' for planning, delivering, monitoring and assuring the quality of services across the partnership.

6.25 The plan proposes 'a single system for evaluation and monitoring performance'. This is to be delivered primarily by adopting a uniform client database across the partnership (OLM Carejust), and by introducing 6-monthly service plan reviews of key service areas 'to identify that the planned performance improvements within the service plan have been achieved'. Quality assurance is to be addressed by adopting the Performance Management and Planning (PMP) process which, over the period of the plan, will be applied to all criminal justice services.

6.26 The plan includes a related action plan and specific performance measures. These have been updated in an annual follow up report on progress completed in March 2003.

External reviews

6.27 During 2001-2002 West Dunbartonshire (the biggest service provider in the partnership) was the subject of a Performance Management Planning review by Audit Scotland and a follow up audit of progress was carried out in 2002-2003. The report confirmed that the authority was on course in some areas they considered important to quality assurance, including the completion of a training needs audit, maintaining a record of individual staff training needs, and a review of arrangements for undertaking a Best Value service review across the partnership. However the audit found slippage in some areas including the implementation of the proposed performance development review system for staff.

Progress in monitoring performance

6.28 The strategic plan set out clear objectives and targets and drew on some basic information about levels of demand for service. However it lacked more sophisticated information about service performance because no uniform systems existed to collect it. The plan acknowledged this and identified the development of information systems as a priority.

6.29 Since then (January 2002) the partnership has made relatively slow progress. In one authority inspectors found comparatively little routine monitoring of standards. In the other two, monitoring reflected more the initiative of local service managers than adherence to any clearly specified corporate policies and practices. However, a series of templates designed to monitor key national standards has recently been adopted and is in the process of being rolled out across the partnership.

6.30 The Carejust client database that West Dunbartonshire has operated for the past 2 years has only recently been introduced in the 2 other authorities. Staff expressed some reservations about what it could deliver. They described it as unwieldy, and reported that it was difficult both to enter and to extract the required information. This response may in part be explained by the major cultural shift required. The partnership is, as yet, the only grouping in Scotland with a single data system and the appointment of a systems development officer has undoubtedly facilitated this process.

Conclusions and areas for improvement

6.31 The partnership is to be commended on the approach it has taken to working together as a grouping. The inspection has evidenced the many positive steps taken to move the integrated service and effective practice agendas forward. A number of initiatives which should strengthen overall performance are planned and some are on the point of being implementation. Key strengths of the arrangements are:

• the appointment of a single manager for the partnership;
• evident commitment from senior management across the three local authorities to work in partnership;
• strong commitment and a substantial increase in involvement of elected representatives from the three Councils in the delivery of criminal justice social work;
• evidence of a commitment to transfer resources across the authority boundaries to areas of need;
• evidence of achievement in many areas of the current plan;
• positive working relationships with the police and other agencies;

6.32 Some of the changes required to deliver a fully integrated service across the partnership will inevitably take time to achieve. The inspection evidenced the planning that is being progressed to achieve this. Areas for particular attention in this respect are:

• consideration should be given to releasing the partnership manager from the day-to-day responsibility of managing services in West Dunbartonshire so that he can give his full attention to managing services across the partnership;
• a programme of on-going training in risk assessment and management should be introduced to ensure that all workers maintain currency in this critical area;
• managers should give priority to improving the capacity of the organisation to monitor and evaluate performance systematically across the partnership;
• the information requirements for the service should be brought together into one document which should also set out clear responsibilities for delivery against a timeline. Staff across the partnership should be consulted about the document to ensure staff 'buy in';
• staff should be encouraged to think laterally in developing ways to overcome the problems identified in delivering focused supervision in rural areas;
• steps should be taken to introduce an agreed policy for staff supervision across the partnership.

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