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Listen
CHAPTER 7 Leadership and direction
We evaluated the leadership of the social work service as weak - having important weaknesses.
The vision for social work services was not well understood by some staff and resulted in some lack of clarity for the staff group. However staff were generally optimistic about the future and believed that the restructuring and proposed reconfiguration of the service would bring benefits. Apart from those with a direct involvement, elected members, did not appear to have invested time and interest ensuring that there was a clear direction and scrutiny of social work performance. Lack of action from elected members in modernising some services at an earlier stage, despite senior officer advice had resulted in a restricted capacity for meeting needs particularly in older people's services. Some staff and key stakeholders conveyed a low level of confidence in political leaders and senior managers, in their capacity to change and effectively manage improvement. More recent support in taking forward the recommendations of the Scrutiny Review may result in a more positive response. Inspectors were unclear as to the priority given to social work within the council.
The dissolution of Argyll and Clyde Health Board and transfer to NHS Highland had created difficulties in progressing some areas of joint working. There were encouraging signs of some basic building blocks being put in place. For example routine performance reporting was being introduced, and a dedicated manager had been appointed to oversee change implementation but there was a significant agenda facing senior managers. A positive start had been made, with new partnership structures put in place, supported by some enthusiastic elected members, and senior officers. Nevertheless the partnership had a considerable way to go in jointly addressing and planning for the health and social care needs of the people of Argyll and Bute.
Vision, values and aims
A strategy which set out vision, values, challenges and strategic goals for its social work services had recently been developed.
Staff in focus groups and surveys, particularly those affected by significant change were unable to describe what the vision for their service was and seemed very keen that there should be a clear and unambiguous statement from senior staff and elected members about the direction of social work within the council.
We met the leader of the council, appointed in May 2007, who was the previous spokesperson for social work services, as well as his successor. The council leader conveyed a sound knowledge of social work, a detailed understanding of budgetary issues and a clear commitment to taking the service forward. Due to the timing of the fieldwork immediately after the election other elected members were not interviewed.
There were, however, consistent messages from staff and stakeholders that there were serious reservations about the strength of political and corporate leadership of the council's social work services. Only two of the 16 stakeholder respondents agreed that elected members were well informed and engaged with the work of the service. Five respondents agreed that the aims of social work were promoted by the local authority as a whole, and none of the stakeholder respondents thought there was clear political leadership for social work services. This is considered in more detail in chapter 4.
Frontline staff and middle managers also made negative comments about elected members showing little interest in social work. Senior staff, however, were of the unanimous view that members and in particular, the new leader of the council, had been supportive of social work.
The opportunities presented by a new council, and the detailed induction training being provided for elected members, had allowed for some of these issues to be addressed at political level. We were encouraged to see that there was a strong focus in their induction programme on important and cross cutting issues often considered to be the responsibility of social work alone - such as corporate parenting and child and adult protection.
The director and new leader of the council demonstrated a very close working relationship. There was in place an unusual arrangement whereby the social services spokesperson (and other relevant spokespersons) attended the senior management team meetings of the department of community services. This arrangement had been in place for a few years, but did not apply in other council departments. All parties were clear that this was an effective way of obtaining a political perspective on important issues and that it enhanced communications at senior level. Whilst these points are acknowledged and the process appeared to be well established, it would be important at the start of a new political administration to be vigilant that boundaries between officer and member accountabilities and responsibilities were clearly understood, to avoid any potential conflict of interest.
There was no doubt that senior elected members were committed to the proposed changes in the configuration of social work services and adequate means of political scrutiny appeared to be in place though we were unclear how well they had been used in the past. We had some concerns that so many staff at different levels thought that members simply were not "interested" in social work. With the new administration, there was, of course, scope for a different approach to be adopted.
There was a strong commitment on the part of the chief executive, director and leader of the council to the value of the role of chief social work officer ( CSWO) and useful steps had been taken to put that commitment into practice. Arrangements were in place for formal, regular meetings between the CSWO and the chief executive. The chief executive himself had taken a personal involvement in proposals to strengthen the role in the context of the new organisational structure. This included the decision that the CSWO had to present an Annual Report to the council. A CSWO newsletter had also been initiated, to be circulated on a quarterly basis.
The director had expressed his keenness that the professional leadership aspect of the role of the CSWO should be developed, giving the incumbent a heightened profile, and ensuring that staff knew that there was a 'champion' for the profession at the highest level in the organisation. He saw this as an important aspect of implementing the Changing Lives36.agenda.
The chief executive was clear that social work was an important council service which should be given visible support at the highest level. We heard from frontline staff that the chief executive himself had attended events which directly involved people who use services and that his presence had been much appreciated.
Several focus groups of frontline staff and managers spoke positively about the future in contrast to a somewhat negative view of how things had been in the past where they had felt unsupported and unable to exercise their own initiative. According to some the moratorium on spending, although it enabled the council to begin to address some targets, for example reduction of delayed discharge, had led to a reduced capacity for finding imaginative solutions at a local level. Financial decision making became ever more centralised and, in some cases, very bureaucratic. This was a strong concern amongst community care staff and much less so in children's services. Managers needed to be clearer in their communication with staff as we found discrepancy of views on how resource requests were dealt with.
Leadership of people
The size and geography of Argyll and Bute posed particular challenges for communication with staff, from managers and from elected members. The inspection team observed a very mixed picture of staff perception of communications within the social work service and found some workers to be negative about their own experiences. In staff and stakeholder surveys, there was clear evidence that leadership was seen as remote with some senior managers lacking visibility. Following from the chief social work officer visits in 2006 senior managers had recently begun a programme of briefing meetings with frontline staff on the progress of the scrutiny review. The director of community services had a wide remit embracing education, social work, community regeneration and planning and performance and had not been involved in these meetings.
There was an absence of consistent, reliable communication. Some viewed the leadership styles as 'traditional and old fashioned' with little regular face to face contact between senior managers and frontline teams. Focus group discussions confirmed this perception. Equally some staff did not feel involved, consulted or informed of reasons behind key decisions. It was too early at the time of the inspection to assess if moves to improve communication and consultation through staff briefings had improved this perception by staff. Senior managers' efforts to convey the vision for social work across the organisation were welcomed but for some staff there was still not a clear understanding and ownership of the future direction for the service. Despite this, staff were generally optimistic about the future and many stated their belief that the restructuring of the service was necessary and welcome.
Involvement in significant changes, e.g. implementation of the Scrutiny Review and moratorium on spend, appeared from our surveys and focus groups to have been patchy both in the process of communication and the involvement of key stakeholders. Several staff talked about being undervalued and uninvolved in the process, often expressing views that consultation was on an 'after the event' basis. Recent developments, including the introduction of newsletters, staff bulletins and a higher profile for the role of the CSWO were a step in the right direction but it was too early to conclude that this had made an appreciable impact on how communications might be improved in the future.
The responses of community care staff to issues of senior management communication were more negative than those in children's services. Some described terse and abrupt correspondence with little explanation of why a particular decision or course of action was being taken. They articulated a strong sense of needing to "mind their backs" over individual case management. In contrast, children's services' staff described positive and supportive senior management.
Recommendation 24
Senior managers should improve their communications with staff at all levels in the organisation to ensure they sustain the current commitment to change.
Such strategy should actively seek to secure staff commitment to the implementation of the vision for planning, delivery and continuous improvement of services across Argyll and Bute, particularly with frontline staff.
Leadership of change and improvement
At the time of the inspection the social work service faced significant change in a number of different dimensions - in the structure of the organisation, reshaping of services such as home care, the implementation of the pay and grading model and new partnership developments with the CHP, to name a few. The strengthening of partnership arrangements was key to the delivery of services. We heard that key stakeholders had been omitted from providing evidence or consultation on the revised structures. A more joined up approach was beginning to develop although in key service areas such as mental health this was still at a very early stage. The continued development and reporting on performance against agreed outcomes should move this agenda forward.
The proposed changes were positive, but some were being put in place very late in the day compared to other local authorities. Only a third of staff agreed that there was effective leadership of change within the service. This level of agreement was similar to other councils inspected to date. The level of disagreement was highest among fieldwork staff and frontline managers.
Inspectors were keen to identify evidence around two key areas in respect of leadership of change and improvement. One concerned whether or not the current agenda would have been pursued without significant external drivers such as political pressures, as well as, the key internal driver of budget pressures which led to the commissioning of the scrutiny review. The scrutiny review and the subsequent implementation action plan provided the social work service with a clearer basis for delivering change and although some service redesign had continued, during the review period, for example, the development of the progressive care unit in Jura. The review consolidated some previous planning. There was a clear political commitment. It was seen by some senior staff as the key catalyst for change.
The other key area concerned the leadership capacity of the social work service to implement the necessary changes in the ambitious timescales that they had set for themselves. We were encouraged that delivering the agenda for change was reported to the departmental management team and overseen by a specified manager although this role was time limited. We were concerned that sufficient measures were not in place to continue management of the process in the future.
It is difficult to see that change and improvement would have been generated from within the council as part of a systematic and routine process, though changes had clearly been planned in some aspects of children's services. An example of this was that the plans for integration managers to be converted to a different role - and the consequential change to children's services organisational structure - was planned some time ago. In community care some initiatives had been piloted (one for more than five years) with a view to rolling these out across the area but we did not see these being incorporated into a planned strategy for review and implementation.
In summary the social work service had begun to more vigorously respond to the many challenges of modernising services and we saw the beginning of a changed approach to addressing performance and joint strategic planning. Nevertheless we were aware of significant levels of unmet need particularly in 2006-2007 which had caused distress to some individuals and their carers. Service development had been limited in some areas. Spend on children's services was cross-subsidised from older people's services, although the overall spend compared to GAE allocation was just above. The problem was compounded by the failure on the part of the council to tackle the high cost of council residential care for older people, despite a Best Value report, presented to members in February 2000, and subsequent reports to members, clearly advising them of the implications of continuing this form of care without change. This had contributed to the under investment in home care services as compared to GAE allocation by just under £4m in 2007/08.
Had some of the necessary modernisation of services been tackled by the council at a much earlier stage, some of the impact of the financial pressures experienced last year would have been lessened.
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