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CHAPTER 2 Context
Introduction
The inspection of East Lothian Council's social work services took place between May and September 2007. Our inspection team consisted of Social Work Inspection Agency ( SWIA) inspectors, a carer inspector, two sessional inspectors, an associate inspector and a carer inspector.
During the inspection we read a wide selection of material about the local authority and the social work service that it provided or commissioned. We analysed questionnaires received from staff, carers, people who used services and partners and stakeholders. Team members, together with some social work staff from East Lothian, spent four days examining case files. We then spent a further two weeks in East Lothian looking at services as part of a fieldwork exercise.
During the fieldwork, we spoke to people who used services, their carers and people who were responsible for delivering or arranging services. We met with representatives from a range of organisations and groups as well as elected members and other stakeholders. We visited places where social work provided services. We also visited places providing social work services and people's homes when they got services there. As a result, we collected an extensive range of evidence that informed the content, evaluation and recommendations contained in this report.
This report is not a detailed description of all the social work services in East Lothian. It gives an overview and concentrates on the work being done with people who need assistance and the areas where improvements are needed. It does not duplicate the inspection of services which are regulated by the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care (Care commission) and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education ( HMIe). In order to achieve this, the Care Commission and HMIe provided us with information about their inspection reports from East Lothian. A Care Commission officer attended a small number of our inspection activities as part of the Care Commission's inspection of East Lothian's adoption and fostering services.
The inspection did not examine the authorities criminal justice services. SWIA inspected these services in 2005 as part of its national programme of inspections of criminal justice services. 1
Area profile
The population of East Lothian is 92,830. 2 More than half the population live in its western sector, the main towns here being Musselburgh, (population 21,900), Prestonpans, (7,070), Tranent, (8,940) and Cockenzie/Port Seton (5,640). The principal towns in the east are Haddington (8,750), North Berwick (6,380) and Dunbar (6,940) (all 3). Haddington is the administrative centre for East Lothian Council.
Since 1996 East Lothian has been Scotland's second fastest-growing area. The council's population has increased by 6.7% in the last decade, thirteen times the Scottish rate of plus 0.5%. The structure plan, which details new build in East Lothian, has specified 9,000 new homes will be built by 2015, many of these will be family accommodation. By 2015 there will be an estimated 20,000 more people living in East Lothian.
The most recent projections for East Lothian suggest that the area's population will grow by a further 11,000 (12%) by 2024. Allied to this population growth, there are significant changes to the demographic profile, with the 60+ years population growing from 22.7% to 28.8% (an increase of 6,500).
The employment rate is 78%; 4 this is higher than the Scotland average of 76%. The claimant count unemployment rate is 1.4%; this is lower than Scotland as a whole.
There are few areas of multiple deprivation in East Lothian. There is only one data zone in the lowest 15%, and a further two in the lowest 20% according to the 2006 version of the Scottish index of multiple deprivation.
The Council's main offices are in Haddington. There are also area offices in all the main towns.
Organisation of social work services
East Lothian Council provides its social work services through the Department of Education and Children's Services, for children services and the Department of Community Services, for adult social care and criminal justice services. The criminal justice service is a member of the Lothian and Borders community justice authority. The other divisions in community services, are community housing and property management and community wellbeing.
Appendix 1.1 and 1.2 contain diagrams of the management structure of the departments providing social work.
Staff
The council employs the following staff in the delivery of social work services in the departments of Community Services and Education and Children's Services:
- Adult Care Services - 660
- Children Services - 167
Political structure
Until May 2007 East Lothian Council had a majority Labour administration. The political make up of the Council changed after the May 2007 elections. It is as follows:
- Scottish Labour Party - 7
- Scottish National Party ( SNP) - 7
- Scottish Liberal Democrat - 6
- Scottish Conservative Party - 2
- Independent - 1
The council is now run by a Scottish National Party, Scottish Liberal Democrat coalition.
Inspection methodology and process
The structure of the report is based on the SWIA performance inspection model, which asks six key questions:
1. What key outcomes have we achieved?
2. What impact have we had on people who use our services and other stakeholders?
3. How good is the delivery of our key processes?
4. How good is our operational management?
5. How good is our strategic leadership?
6. What is our capacity for improvement?
The following chapters address each of these questions in turn.
A more detailed description of the inspection methodology and the way in which we carried out our inspection are included in Appendix 2.
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