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CHAPTER 7 Leadership

We thought performance in this area was adequate, with strengths just outweighing weaknesses.

East Lothian was recovering from a difficult period. Audit Scotland reported about the redundancy arrangements for the previous chief executive. It described them as, "falling a long way short of the standards expected of public bodies".

Following elections in May 2007 the composition of the council had changed. The new coalition administration had set out its priorities but a future corporate agenda had yet to be agreed. Staff and partner agencies were optimistic about working with the new administration.

There were a number of areas for improvement. Progress developing integrated services had been slow. Plans for a more integrated community health partnership ( CHP) had not been agreed.

Vision, values and aims

Different strategic plans for East Lothian included objectives for adult social care and children's services. We could not find an overarching statement setting out the vision, values and key objectives for social work services in East Lothian.

Staff told us that the vision for adult social care had not yet been agreed and was being developed for the next round of business plans. Providers recognised there was a developing vision in the council. The head of adult social care told us her vision for the future of adult social care was the same as the principals of Changing Lives¹³. She said she wanted service users to have more control over the services they got.

Adult social care was just starting to improve communication with staff. A communications officer had just been appointed. A newsletter told staff about our inspection process. It was hoped the newsletter would continue. The director of community services thought that reaching front line staff was a challenge.

The chief social work officer ( CSWO) said his vision was about protecting and promoting the well being, welfare and inclusion of all children. Another senior member of staff said, "the biggest shift in education, is learning and teaching policy based on a notion of unconditional positive regard". The integrated children's services plan For East Lothian's Children set out future policy and service direction. Senior managers wanted to build a collective vision for children's services that had a focus on wellbeing. There needed to be better links between the children's services plan and the community plan. The CSWO acknowledged that the communication of the vision for children's services, "had not been good". He had tackled this with an annual conference for staff, a newsletter and weekly meetings to which all children's services staff were invited. We attended one of these short informal meetings. We thought it was a very good example of building good management and staff relationships. It had improved the visibility and approachability of senior managers in children's services.

The director of community services had a very wide remit. She had been in post for a year. The new community services department had only had a director for a few months before he retired. The department then had no director for 18 months before the current director started. When she arrived some people did not know what department they were in. The absence of a director had meant that adult social care struggled to influence corporate policy.

Following elections in May 2007 and the arrival of a new administration, the council leader had set out details of the administration's new priorities in the publication Our Contract with the People. This was presented by the council leader as a statement of priorities for the term of office 2007-11. It would inform the new corporate plan to be written before the end of 2007. It was based on four key principles:

• "Vision-driven strategy - we will express a clear vision for East Lothian and its residents which will inform all key decisions taken on behalf of residents.
• Democratic accountability - we will endeavour to discuss and decide all key matters in public after consulting with those people most affected.
• Community orientation - we will devolve decision making down to the ward level as far as it makes economic and managerial sense.
• Resource maximisation - we will seek out and engage financial and human resources both within and outside of the council that can help deliver and maintain the superior quality of life that residents enjoy in East Lothian".

We were impressed by the new administration's enthusiasm and their desire to drive improvements in children's services and adult social care. They wanted to involve the wider community in the council's decision making. They also wanted to consult with the council's staff. Social work managers were upbeat about the new administrations desire to improve things. All agreed the councillors, who made up the administration, were inexperienced. Only the provost and the leader of the council had been councillors before.

There was a move to involve newly elected members more in strategic groups such as chief officers groups. Managers had set up monthly meetings with the conveners of council committees.

In our survey (which was conducted in the period covering the changeover in administrations) 35% of staff who responded agreed that social work was highly valued by elected members, while 49% neither agreed nor disagreed and 17% disagreed.

The previous chief executive had led a drive for continuous improvement. There was a standard reporting system for all services and departments. They all had to produce yearly business plans. These plans were described as the "bedrock for monitoring continuous improvement". The status of business plans for 2007-08 was uncertain. They were on hold, awaiting the outcome of the new administrations decisions about priorities and spending. One senior manager said that the council plans had never been well costed.

Recommendation 17
The council should develop a short statement and sets out the overarching vision, values and aims for social work in the council. It should consult with service users and carers and other stakeholders before the statement is agreed.

Leadership of people

In early 2007 the council had made a decision to merge departments and appoint a new chief executive. It decided to make the then chief executive redundant. An Audit Scotland investigation found the this process did not meet the standards expected of good governance and best value. The episode attracted a lot of bad media reports.

This affair was still a major source of embarrassment for many of the staff and managers we met. Some managers were anxious that the unfortunate circumstances of the chief executive's departure should not adversely reflect on the good work their frontline staff were doing. Some departmental heads claimed they had been acting as good leaders in the absence of a lead from the centre. Middle managers cited examples of effective leadership and said this cascaded down throughout the department. Senior managers who "walked the patch" were highly valued. Our staff survey confirmed that most staff felt valued and supported. A majority of staff who responded to our survey (65%) said that they felt valued by their managers in carrying out their day-to-day job.

The acting chief executive had started monthly leadership meetings with senior managers in the council. The council's partners were also invited. A directors group met once a week. The new administration had not been in power long enough for staff to have an informed view of their leadership. The new administration wanted to be seen as different and to have a visible profile. They wanted to visit services and meet staff. They recognised that single status would be an issue affecting staff.

The single status negotiations had led to tension with some groups of staff. The trade union view was that the council could have communicated better with some staff, particularly those at lower grades. Many lower grade staff did not have access to email or the internet.

The head of children's services had been the CSWO since 2003. He said that the role had had limited corporate support. He had met with the former chief executive but these meetings had not been as frequent as he would have liked. It was hoped the acting chief executive would take CSWO role more seriously. We thought the CSWO's professional leadership role had not been given sufficient status by the council.

The director of community services (arrived August 2006) was a qualified social worker. There were plans to review the functions and possible location of the CSWO role. The reason given for this was that the CSWO should be a first tier senior manager. It had nothing to do with the way the current CSWO had done the job. The director of community services was keen to make social care issues "more of a visible presence in the council". The director of community services and the CSWO met regularly. We were not clear how the CSWO had given professional leadership to adult social care, or how the CSWO had exercised his statutory responsibilities in adult social care.

Recommendation 18
The council should agree a clear remit for the chief social work officer ( CSWO). This remit should set out the CSWO's role as the professional leader for social work in the council. It should say what the statutory responsibilities of the CSWO are and how the CSWO will exercise these responsibilities in adult social care and children's services.

Leadership of change and improvement

East Lothian's political decision making structure was a cabinet system. There were formal committees and four performance and review panels ( PRP's) one each for:

• the environment
• corporate governance
• education and children's services
• community services which included adult social services.

Overall, children's services was more advanced than adult social care on regular performance reporting and monitoring. Children's services and adult social care submitted regular performance information to its performance panel. We confirmed that a performance framework for adult social care services was in draft and currently out for consultation with staff. The proposed implementation date was 2008.

We were concerned about the number of groups charged with contributing to the change and improvement agenda in the council. There were directors meetings and leaders meetings and two chief officers groups (one for children's services and one for adult social care). There were five working groups reporting to the children's chief officers group ( i.e. family support, protecting children, children with additional support needs, transition towards independence, and corporate parenting). Each working group had one or more task groups. There were so many groups that they were doing a mapping exercise for all of this activity. Adult social care also had a lot of groups that reported to the chief officers group. Given the acknowledged capacity issues in children's services and adult social care we thought this situation should be looked at.

In our survey significantly less than half of the staff who responded agreed there was effective leadership of change in social work services (36%) and 21% disagreed. East Lothian's result was comparable with the results achieved in the other 15 authorities we have inspected.

We found no evidence of financial planning supporting long-term strategic planning. The spending on children's services was always within its budget. There was a projected overspend of £300k (for 2007-08) in adult social care.

Progress with the joint future agenda had been mixed. Adult social care and its partners had made progress reducing the numbers of older people waiting to be discharged from hospital but they had recently gone up again. The pattern seemed to be for numbers to reduce at the time of the census and then rise again afterwards.

The draft East Lothian CHP extended partnership agreement said that the CHP will be a more integrated organisation by 2010. The draft agreement said, "all designated health and social care services will be planned, procured, managed and delivered on a joint basis". We heard from NHS Lothian of plans for a joint East Lothian,Midlothian CHP. The NHS Lothian chief executive thought this offered "critical mass" savings. The previous council administration had not wanted an integrated CHP. The new administration was broadly supportive of a more integrated CHP model.

The acting chief executive and senior managers in adult social care needed to promote corporate parenting better. A senior member of staff said there was not a wide understanding of what it meant to be a corporate parent. We think council should renew its commitment to corporate parenting. All officers in all council services should know what is expected of them as corporate parents.

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