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Chapter 8 Capacity for improvement
We found that capacity for improvement was good, with important strengths and some areas for improvement.
The analogy of having been on a journey was a fitting one to describe the development of services and the improvements that have taken place in this authority over the last ten years. We found that the pace had only really quickened since 2005/06 but the distance travelled since then had been significant. There was more systematic mapping out of milestones and goals, and clearer leadership direction.
Important lessons in strategic positioning, performance management and effective partnership working in child care and child protection, should be learned in community care and adult protection.
Criminal justice services was performing well in meeting national standards and the inter-authority criminal justice partnership had provided good systems and support for continuous improvement.
The elected members and the chief executive supported the forward momentum in the improvement agenda in social work services. Key partners in health, education, the police and the voluntary sector were positive about the manner in which social work were joining with them to plan for improvement and development. Performance outcomes for many care groups had improved over the last two years. There has been a growth spurt in performance management planning and activity over this period. The introduction of the performance improvement framework across all services had clear support from senior management and input from a range of staff.
Improving outcomes
We found planned and supported improvement over time in relation to national performance indicators in child care. In areas like child protection the service had taken remedial action to address performance concerns. The was appropriate regard for the training and development needs of staff in order to achieve identified improvements. We also found a focused approach taken by social work and education with regard to addressing concerns about the educational attainment of looked after and accommodated children. The turn-around of staff morale in residential child care, built on improvement activity which kept staff involvement as the central principle, was also very positive.
Services for children affected by disability, and more support for through-care and young carers, needed concerted action.
We were concerned that spend on older people's services had been so much lower than the GAE over a long period. While there had been improvements on some measures and there were jointly commissioned services coming on stream, there was other evidence to show that services for older people have not had the level of attention or investment needed.
There were signs that health and social work were coming together more effectively to look at how they should respond to significant demographic challenges. There was increasing planning harmonisation and better joint working between health and social work, which had both adopted services for older people as their key priority for the coming years. We considered that the proposed single entry point to health and social care services; the realisation of service developments currently on the drawing-board, and the good performance on capacity building in relation to dementia and rehabilitation, were promising building blocks towards achieving better services for older people.
The new-build Integrated Care Centre presented an opportunity to improve the experience of service users and carers who have cross-cutting health and social care needs. Social work were taking steps to address inefficiencies and were working closely with health, to ensure that this important initiative gets off to the best possible start.
The service users we met and who responded to our survey were generally positive about receiving social work services in East Dunbartonshire. Carers were also positive, especially those caring for an older person. Many younger service users said that they would like support to be more enabling, particularly in relation to overcoming barriers to employability and going out socially.
Carer involvement in strategic and operational planning processes was well-established. While the same could not be said for user involvement across all care groups, there had been positive developments and plans to adopt a more systematic and inclusive approach were well-advanced.
Quality assurance arrangements
As outlined earlier in the report we considered that quality assurance measures in criminal justice and child protection were well-developed and it was good that managers were refining these on an ongoing basis. Other parts of social work could learn from their example, particularly regarding the links from trend analysis to staff training needs.
Social work had taken some time to embrace quality assurance and appreciate the value of it. However, the processes for recognising, recording and addressing complaints was on a better footing since procedures were overhauled and staff had received mandatory training in their use. Last year was the first year they had been able to produce a reliable report setting out complaints, comments and suggestions.
While there was more work to be done on quality assurance and performance management we did find evidence that performance management links between corporate services and social work had strengthened. Senior officials from the former told us how impressed they had been with the level of enthusiasm shown by social work senior management regarding the introduction of the performance improvement framework.
We concluded that social work should consolidate this improved position and plan how to strengthen quality assurance across the service.
Leadership
We found good leadership of social work services in East Dunbartonshire. The head of social work had the confidence of corporate superiors and elected members, as well as that of his own management team. While we have identified areas for improvement and made recommendations accordingly, our general finding is that the head of social work has presided over a service which had improved in recent years and was continuing to improve.
An important achievement following the structural and strategic positioning of the children and young people's themed partnership has been the main-streaming of child protection as 'everyone's priority'. Together with the inclusive approach to developing the children's services plan and evidence of more effective joint working across a range of issues - child protection, parental substance misuse and parental mental health problems - we considered that capacity for improvement in child care had solid partnership foundations.
Partners from across statutory, private and voluntary agencies were also generally positive about strategic and operational relationships in community care. Our view was that there have been improvements, such as the establishment of a community care forum and the self-reported 're-invigoration' of planning and working with health since the advent of the CHP. We thought that much remained to be done on services for older people and on adult protection.
We also felt that the joint planning and performance groups will limit capacity for improvement unless they can all be made to match the pace and productivity of the strongest performer. We have recommended a review of these groups in order to test their capacity to fulfil their remit. We also considered that the least developed of these could learn from those where partnership and productivity were better, such as the older people's group and attendant sub-groups.
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