Scottish Government

Short Reviews of Social Work Services in Scottish Local Authorities

Aberdeen City

Overview

Aberdeen is revolutionising the way in which it is delivering and managing local services, and social work services are at the leading edge of these developments. The main aim is to bring services closer to people and communities and make them more responsive to local hopes. While many neighbourhoods reflect general wealth and the benefits of good economic and employment conditions, others have significant deprivation and unemployment.There are fairly high crime and drug misuse rates.

The Council's achievements include:

• involving users and carers more in designing services;
• a rapid response team which handles a growing number of referrals and reaches its targets;
• increased short break provision for older people;
• successfully introducing free personal care;
• an excellent new residential development for people with Huntington's and other nervous conditions that get gradually worse; and
• better support for children who have been looked after, including new accommodation.

Aberdeen City Council needs to:

• take urgent action to improve its very poor performance in relation to the lateness of most of its reports to Children's Panels (over 70% are late);
• make sure it meets the 75% target as soon as possible; and
• make sure that all children and young people looked after are in full-time education.

The authority should also give priority to:

• recruiting and keeping foster carers;
• developing flexible services for people with learning disabilities (including a database);
• improving the way it recruits and keeps staff; and
• driving up the educational attainment of looked after children.

Community Care

Services for older people

The impact that Aberdeen's overall strategic changes have had on services for older people is far from clear. The number of older people receiving a community care service leapt from just over 5,000 in 1999-2000 to well over 6,000 in 2001. It then fell back to some 5,500 in 2002. Fewer older people receive care or support from the local authority and there is mixed evidence about how many receive intensive care at home. Fewer older people get a care service at home (3,383 in 1999-2000, only 2,380 in 2002-2003) and fewer get intensive care at home (84 in 1999-2000, only 32 in 2002-2003). Fewer are supported in care homes (1,288 in 1999-2000 reducing to 1,196 in 2002-2003). The number of older people in special needs housing also reduced (from 4,261 to 4,027).

These changes have been brought about as the authority found new methods to control its spending on services for older people, an important achievement. What now is the strategy? A commissioning strategy is being developed that will decide the level of services to be provided. There is an agreed Grampian Strategy for Older People and an Aberdeen Action Plan to introduce it locally. This also links to the Joint Future Operational Team with overall responsibility. How many older people does the authority plan to provide care services for? Aberdeen's new arrangements for local consultation are the best way for the Council to take forward these questions.

The multi-disciplinary rapid response team is well established. Most referrals (which have increased 12% in the past year to 923) prevent people going into hospital, and this is to everyone's benefit. The fact that the target for responding to referrals within 24 hours is generally met is the key to this success.

Shopping and household maintenance are some of the services provided through Aberdeen's mixed economy approach. Home care and independent contractors cover domestic tasks. The voluntary sector provides Care and Repair, with support funding from the local authority. A home technician will do electrical checks, minor repairs and make recommendations on any further work which is needed.

Important factors in Aberdeen's strategy are the significant increase in the number of people provided with short breaks (up from 8,500 to 12,000) and increases in non-residential breaks and in the home-based service from Crossroads. The average cost for each case has also increased.

Demand for Free Personal Care has been higher than expected but there has been no rationing. The Council has diverted resources from home care services and from the funds intended for training care staff. There is concern about future funding as demand may increase and costs may transfer when people move from long-term health care to local authority care.

Services for people with learning disabilities

A low rate of people receive a service for learning disabilities, with the number of people receiving services falling from 321 in 2000 to 2001 to 185 in 2001 to 2002. The authority will have to review with more precision its plans for future levels of community support and services. However, these numbers do not include people who:

• were placed through the Community Placement Team;
• received services from the providers in the voluntary sector; or
• received services outside the Council's own day care services.

However, the hospital closure programme is on target for 2005.

Currently 23 people are waiting in hospital to be resettled into the community. All have clearly identified plans for future placement. Accommodation has been commissioned, to be newly built. Service providers are in place and funding packages agreed. Developments underway are:

• a new NHS facility for 12 assessment and treatment beds and 12 close supervision beds; and
• newly-built accommodation planned for long-stay residents, so that they can move into purpose-built single and two person flats.

In 2002-2003, 38 people have been discharged to five new services and existing community provision. Three specialist, purpose-built nursing home facilities provide for two groups of people under the age of 50, who have complex physical health needs. Parents and service users receive support, so that they can contribute to the commissioning process and they are active in decision-making.

The Council has developed a broad range of living and support options and mainstream services. The Community Learning Disability Team provides specialist services, including clinical, nursing and therapy input. The Council and Aberdeenshire Council pay for an advisory, assessment and short-term intervention service from the Scottish Society for Autism.

Services for people with physical disabilities

The authority has revamped its Direct Payments scheme but still finds that uptake is slow. According to staff, this is because people are satisfied with their current care packages. Cornerstone continues to provide the support service.

The Council monitors waiting times for equipment each week and actively manages the waiting list, with priority bands. This is carried out by the three teams of occupational therapy staff. Ways of speeding up access to services have included bathing clinics, fast-track fitting of handrails outside and direct access for other staff groups (for example, physiotherapists and NHS occupational therapy staff). Occupational therapy staff can spend up to 500. Aberdeen has still not set up a joint equipment store with the Health Board and is some way off a single staff team of occupational therapists.

People with sensory impairment

Aberdeen and North East Deaf Society (ANEDS), Grampian Society for the Blind (GSB) and Deafblind Scotland provide most of the services for people with a sensory impairment. Specialist services have adopted, as far as possible, the Scottish Best Practice Standards.

Services for people with mental health difficulties

Aberdeen staff are rightly proud that their development of new services has led to the closure of a hospital ward through their new flats, run by SAMH and nursing staff from the Primary Care Trust. Moreover an admission ward and a psycho-geriatric ward have been closed and the funding used to develop community services. Particularly important is a development for people with Huntington's, with five, four-person houses, a family house, Internet café, hydrotherapy pool and respite service. This is an expensive but quality service. Joint working is well established, with nine multi-disciplinary mental health teams linked to GP practices, three old-age psychiatry teams and an assertive outreach team. The planning for the service is complicated as it involves a partnership, issues groups and sub-groups which should be simplified.

Tackling substance misuse

Following an increase in the number of people receiving a service for substance misuse problems in 2000-2001, the number fell in 2001-2002 and the rate is now low compared with other authorities. This is surprising since Aberdeen has the third highest drugs misuse rate of any authority in Scotland.

However, 1,000 clients are currently in community-based treatment services, mainly health specialist drug services. The Council has led the development of a community rehabilitation service for users who have been medically stabilised. This is in line with the latest guidance and evidence that residential rehabilitation is not as effective as community-based support linked to prescribing substitutes for other drugs.

The Positive Change Initiative provides:

• ante and postnatal support to drug users;
• support to mothers of young children; and
• interventions for children and young people who are looked after who are using or at risk of using drugs.

Further expanding the initiative is a real possibility.

An ongoing problem for treatment services is lack of capacity and relatively high levels of resources going to criminal justice initiatives. As a result, this is increasing the demand for treatment (for example, Drug Testing and Treatment Orders). Main services are being stretched beyond capacity. Three-quarters of the Drug Testing and Treatment Orders were successful.

Joining up community care services with health

Progress in improved joint working is measured through the Joint Performance Information and Assessment Framework (JPIAF), which has been agreed by SWSI, Audit Scotland and NHS Scotland. Recent evaluation of the partnership's progress in the 5 areas of joint management, joint governance, human resources, joint resourcing and Single Shared Assessment suggest that the joint arrangements are well progressed and overall, satisfactory. The local partners were recommended to:

• develop a scheme of delegation that describes the level of decision-making that will be appropriate to each level of the joint structure as outlined in the Local Partnership Agreement;
• consider a more holistic approach to clinical/service governance which supports the development and operation of joint services at the front line;
• include appropriate housing staff in training for Single Shared Assessment;
• implement the protocol for access to services across agencies;
• implement all elements of the agreed process for assessment of other people;
• complete a clear and explicit timetable for implementing the full joint management structure; and
• review the completeness and appropriateness of their joint resourcing arrangements.

On the ground, all community care services have been re-structured on a neighbourhood basis and health and social care services are associated with broader community planning _ expressed in the 'aberdeen futures' plan. This has strengthened joint working. The National Health Service have included joint teams for older people, mental health and learning disability and another is being set up for substance misuse. A joint discharge co-ordination team operates at the Royal Infirmary, where a multi-disciplinary rapid response team has been running for three years. Rehabilitation projects in very sheltered flats are being used to tackle delayed discharge. Housing associations provide 14 blocks of very sheltered housing (483 units) and there is joint working with the independent sector on the Care Home Improvement Programme to improve care and avoid the need for people to move on. A Grampian-wide Information Sharing Protocol has been agreed.

Working with carers

A Carers' Strategy budget has funded a number of initiatives. These are:

• buying increased respite care (mainly for weekends) through Crossroads;
• helping to fund Brain Injury Grampian (carers' support group);
• funding a carers' help group (mental health);
• funding a small repairs service for carers through Castlehill Housing Association;
• funding a part-time respite co-ordinator post through Voluntary Service Aberdeen (VSA);
• funding a carers' counselling service through VSA;
• funding a welfare rights worker for carers through VSA;
• funding a carer information worker to supply and maintain information at health locations;
• partly funding the Care Linkline Worker (mental health);
• funding to develop a respite care strategy through the Respite Special Interest Group; and
• funding extra admin support at the VSA Carers' Centre.

The number of separate carers' assessments is very low. Many carers have their views of needs written into the user's assessment. A carers' self assessment form is now in use with three choices over how it is completed and help available to do this.

Involving service users and carers when planning and evaluating services has high priority. Carers are represented on all strategy groups and consultation continues with a number of carers' organisations. Users' and carers' representations have led to a number of service developments, for example, more podiatry (foot care) services through training home care staff in basic nail clipping.

Children and Young People

Looked after children

Figures for 2002-2003 provided by the Council and still to be confirmed indicate a rise in numbers following a steady decline since 1999-2000. This may be due to increasing numbers of children affected by parents' substance misuse and the breakdown of complicated family relationships.

Fostering and adoption

In Aberdeen, 39 children are waiting for a foster placement (including temporary or respite placement). The Council has had salaried foster carers for two years and there are five children in specialist placements. In 2002, the Council approved a 'payment for skills' programme with three levels of payment, and it will introduce this in October 2003. Foster carers have access to the full range of training offered to staff. They are offered up to 28 days respite in payment for skills. Of the 39 children still waiting, 14 are waiting for permanent placements (with eight of these children going through the matching process at the moment). There are 25 children waiting for temporary or respite placements. Of these children, 11 are in the community and the other 14 are in other foster or residential care placements. There are 11 children without a resource and 20 children who are in placements but who need alternative ones.

Delays that the local authority cannot control often affect children most damagingly. In Aberdeen, seven children aged between five months and four years are waiting for adoption. A small number of these are in the process of being matched. There have been delays for some children because of medical issues and a small number because of legal reasons.

Educational attainment

Half of 16 to 17 year olds who stopped being looked after in Aberdeen City attained Maths and English standard grade in 2001-2002. This is the sixth highest rate in Scotland. It is still well below the 100% target set by the Scottish Executive in 1999 and well below the 94% for the full S4 cohort in the authority achieving these Standard grades.

The Council has put in place a number of measures to improve educational attainment and should build on these:

• 32 foster carers got PCs and are being given Internet access.
• Children who are looked after at home on supervision were given PCs to improve their educational attainment. There was also a significant amount of other non-computer equipment and training provided for children.
• The Acorn project provides tutoring, including tutoring in English and Maths, for young people looked after away from home (seven young people sat 13 standard grade exams and all passed, six in English and seven in maths).
• Joint professional development training has been commissioned and foster carers are included in this.
• There is a multi-agency pupil support group _ health, education and social work.
• A staff member has been identified in each residential unit to take responsibility for education.

However, 13 young people looked after away from home and 10 young people on home supervision do not have full-time education.

Throughcare and aftercare

The Council has good information, including employment and accommodation, on the 92 young people supported by the throughcare team. There is a tracking system and the team make contact with another 22 young people who are not receiving a service.

A joint project with housing provides accommodation to 60 vulnerable young people across the city and there is a residential unit for about 10 young people which also provides outreach to another 12 young people. There are also supported lodgings and Foyer accommodation.

Mental health

Mental health services are split into those for under 13s and over 13s. The specialist looked after children team provides 10 hours a week consultation to social workers, residential workers and foster carers. For chidren aged 13 and under, there is a waiting period of up to 31 weeks, and for young people aged 14 and over, there is a waiting period of up to nine weeks. Most looked after children and young people are seen within four weeks. A community psychiatric nurse visits the children's units and school nurses are aware of children and young people who are looked after.

Ten social workers have psychotherapeutic training provided. Some social workers and health workers are receiving training in family therapy from Barnardo's.

Child protection

Aberdeen City has high rates of referral, high rates of children subject to a case conference and high rates of children on the Child Protection register. Numbers increased in 2001-2002.

A range of child protection initiatives have been or are being put in place, including:

• introducing a new assessment framework which stresses the importance of using a timeframe;
• producing leaflets for families and letters for people who make referrals;
• printing a standards document, updated following the results of a case file audit of 20 cases earlier in the year to assess whether the standards were being met;
• reviewing the role of the North East Scotland Child Protection Committee (NESCPC);
• carrying out an independent Child Protection Committee review into the death of a child;
• introducing a full-time training officer and a training plan (a lot of training involves more than one agency);
• appointing a full-time NESCPC development officer to join the full-time training officer;
• extra guidelines on substance misuse to be added to the child protection guidelines;
• carrying out training for criminal justice and community care staff on a rolling programme; and
• holding joint childcare and criminal justice meetings and joint case discussions.

Children with disabilities

Some of the features of services which already exist for children affected by disability are that:

• six family centres work with a high number of children who are affected by disability;
• 52 children receive a service by benefiting from the respite service their sibling is getting;
• children are offered a home care package when they are affected by their parent's disability;
• a number of children who are affected by the disability of a parent or brother or sister receive a service; and
• Voluntary Service Aberdeen (VSA) provides a service to 93 young carers, offering individual counselling and activities.

Social workers go to all future needs assessments where children are known to the children and families team. If children are accommodated, the team keeps the case up to the child's 18th birthday, when adult services take over. A working group is looking at the transition period between children's services and adults' services.

The Council is developing an assessment framework for children with the most complex needs. A user survey by the Aberdeen Childcare Partnership highlighted gaps in services. Parents said they wanted children to take part in ordinary activities. There is now a range of services and a website provides information. Other developments introduced include:

• commissioning care in the home;
• playschemes in school holidays;
• voluntary agencies using link workers to include children in mainstream activities such as Brownies;
• offering after-school care and a fun club run by VSA after school;
• training five supported childminders to provide a service to children with disabilities in emergency placements;
• the Church of Scotland providing residential respite; and
• commissioning a foster care service from Barnardo's _ 26 carers provide a service to 33 children and seven children receive a befriending service.

153 children get a social work service and others get a service from the assessment centre. A senior social worker manages cases of children who do not have an allocated worker. Children wait two or three weeks for an assessment.

Working of children's hearings

All referrals were made within five working days of the case conference in 2001-2002 (standard 2).

Staff submitted 25% of reports within 20 working days of the date of request in 2001-2002 (Standard 3). 27% of reports met the target in 2002-03. Poor performance is due to staffing shortages and reports arriving in batches. A local action plan is being introduced to improve performance. The authority is adopting a tiered approach to reports, with shorter reports completed on cases assessed as lower risk. The new assessment framework may lead to improved performance. More preventative work with young people who offend should reduce the number of reports the Reporter asks for. Fieldwork services are changing so that special youth justice and child protection teams will give more time to complete reports and family support worker posts are being introduced.

95% of supervision requirements with no condition of residence were given effect within 15 working days of date of issue by the children's hearing in 2001-2002. The figure is 93% this year but in some months the Council met 100% target. Performance is linked with staff vacancies.

Youth Justice

Barnardo's New Directions project has worked with 42 young people aged 14 to 17 and a half who are persistent offenders or at risk of secure accommodation.

SACRO's youth justice service works with first and second-time offenders between the ages of nine and 17 who are referred by the Reporter. 50% of young people who are referred to the hearing for an offence receive this restorative justice programme. The service carries out a mini Asset assessment before the programme and six months later to evaluate the impact of the service.

The Youth Offenders Initiative operates through the Princes Trust volunteer programme which focuses on personal development of 16 to 25 year olds who are referred from the police, APEX, criminal justice and SPS. There is a before and after evaluation using the Richter scale.

A police tracking system reports offences committed by young people who have taken part in selected intervention programmes for up to two years after they left the programme.

Criminal Justice

Structure

Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Moray and Highland operate as a partnership for delivering criminal justice social work services. A Joint Committee oversees management of services, supported by a Joint Officer's group. Operational managers, who meet regularly, have responsibility for all aspects of service delivery and individual lead role responsibility for developing particular aspects of policy and practice. The group also operates within the wider umbrella of community planning which includes representation from Police, Procurators Fiscal, Sheriffs, NHS as well as the island authorities.

The partnership has benefited from funding as one of the Scottish Executive's 'Pathfinder Initiative' areas. This helped authorities to merge as a partnership, delivered high quality training, and contributed towards a learning culture among staff.

Workload

Over the past year, there has been a small increase (4%) in the demand for core services across the partnership as a whole, although some authorities have experienced significant rises. Aberdeen has seen an 18% increase in social enquiry reports (SERs) and a 21% rise in probation orders, while Highland's probation orders have grown by 43% and community service orders by 17%. In spite of increases in workload, performance has generally stayed high, although there are evidently areas of pressure. Moray has seen an improvement to 100% of SERs submitted on time during 2003 (data as yet unpublished). However, a reduction in staff in some areas coupled with an increase both in the amount and the complexity of the workload has had an effect.

Effective practice

The Scottish Executive risk assessment framework is in use across the partnership. Other available risk assessment tools have been reviewed and the partnership is keen to see agreement to a national approach to this. Further initiatives include being involved in developing the structured, offence-focused programme, Constructs, for the accreditation panel. Aberdeen has also updated its pack for use in work with people who misuse substances and this will be introduced across the partnership. The partnership has also successfully submitted a bid in partnership with Tayside for funding to develop a programme for women offenders to accreditation standard. In support of these developments, training in case management and cognitive behavioural interventions has been delivered to social workers.

Reflecting the particular needs of female offenders, the partnership has also developed individually-tailored packages for people subject to community service or supervised attendance orders. Pro-social modelling training has been delivered to Community Service staff across the partnership.

Services to young offenders have been developed individually in each council area reflecting the Joint Committee's emphasis on the need for inter-agency working and cutting across council services. In Aberdeenshire, young offenders, women offenders and people with mental health problems will be targeted as part of a social inclusion pilot.

The Drug Treatment and Testing order scheme has just finished its first operational year and is now well established. Although there has been a large uptake, numbers seemed to have levelled out, and this may reflect recent staff vacancies.

Work on domestic abuse has been funded by two authorities, and the plan is to extend this across the partnerships.

Public protection

Services to sex offenders are provided through the partnership's joint sex offender project. The Scottish Executive's risk assessment framework is now used across the council areas and project staff and staff at the social work unit at Peterhead have also undergone training with Northern and Grampian Police in using the assessment tool Tayprep 30. A bid has been submitted to the Executive, in collaboration with Tayside and Dumfries & Galloway, to have the Joint Sex Offender Project programme prepared for accreditation.

Quality assurance

Ways of monitoring and evaluating quality continue to develop. The partnership reviewed the suitability of the quality assurance system as part of the Pathfinder Initiative and submitted the findings to the Scottish Executive. The partnership has continued the development of quality assurance systems e.g. SERs, through the work of a Pathfinder Practice Development Group.

Human Resource

Structure of the workforce

Between 2000 and 2002, the numbers of whole time equivalent fieldwork staff reduced slightly in services for adults and children and increased for work with offenders and generic staff. Vacancies increased slightly across all services.

In the same period, numbers of whole time equivalent social work staff reduced slightly in services for children but otherwise stayed the same. Vacancies increased slightly overall but most significantly in services for children. The total number of staff in post has fallen over the same period _ particularly those working in children and families. This was due to the closure of three residential units. There has been a large reduction in home care staff, due to early retirement and voluntary severance.

Latest figures provided by the Council but not yet confirmed suggest that, at the end of June 2003, the social worker establishment (whole time equivalent including vacancies) was 172.2 compared with 185 in October 2002 and that the number of social work vacancies was 28.7 as compared with 18 in October 2002.

Current pressure points include:

• high vacancies in childcare services and residential childcare in particular (staff turnover is an extra problem); and
• competition from other employers _ Aberdeen is an area of high employment, and other employers (including supermarkets) can offer higher wages than home care staff get (these problems affect private and voluntary sector care providers as well as the local authority).

To try to reduce these problems, the Council has:

• used the independent sector more, to meet the need for home care provision;
• moved away from fixed hours of working for home care workers;
• used out-of-area services to cover shortfalls in residential childcare in particular;
• created relief social worker posts, targeting staff returning to work after a career break;
• introduced a two-year post-qualifying deal for newly-qualified staff in Children's Services; and
• introduced a bursary scheme for final year DipSW students coming to work with Children's Services.

To reduce any possible lack of skills in its workforce the Council has removed its retirement age of 65 years.

Support for staff

The Council has drawn up an action plan which includes:

• dedicated e-mail contact addresses for all staff;
• a poster setting out the action plan for all teams; and
• courses in stress management, handling violence and managing change.

In 2002-2003, 31,553 days were lost due to sickness absence and 325 long term sickness absences recorded. The Council has not identified whether any service areas have higher sickness rates than others. The staff turnover was 11.5% in 2002-03. An absence management policy is in place. The Council has bought a purpose-built tool to produce regular monitoring reports and stronger information will be available from 2003.

Working towards a more highly qualified workforce

There is no corporate training plan at present. Annual audits check on team training needs. The Council also:

• has a regular programme that includes Mental Health Officer (MHO) training and child protection certificate;
• provides a supervision and mentoring programme;
• provides the registered manager award (initially those staff who need it for registration);
• organises training away-days; and
• encourages home care staff to gain SVQ qualifications.

Aberdeen also takes up around 10 places each year on the Dundee child protection course.

Preparing for registration

The Council has taken a number of steps to prepare its staff for registration with the Scottish Social Services Council and to make sure that they comply with the Codes of Conduct for Employers. In autumn 2002, the Council tested out a portfolio on continuous professional development. The portfolio is given to staff when they begin work and will be evaluated in autumn 2003.

The Council has actively encouraged career development, for example, through SVQs. It caters for career development through the Council's performance appraisal scheme.

Race Equality

Of the local population, 2.9% were from a minority ethnic group in 2001 compared with 2% for Scotland as a whole. The Council could not identify the ethnicity of 79% of children and young people looked after in 2002 because staff did not enter this information on the computerised records as they did not have to.

The Council's Race Equality Scheme includes 'A plan for Race Equality in Aberdeen'.

Along with key partners the Council has delivered training for staff on:

• the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000;
• the responsibilities of staff including use of the Racist Incident Monitoring form;
• introducing the document 'A Plan for Racial Equality in Aberdeen'; and
• the main implications of the Macpherson Report 1999.

Other specific action includes:

• developing a quality assurance process which looks at how an 'anti-racism' approach affects services and ultimately practice;
• training on racial awareness for early years services, which would include family carers; and
• training for staff to include procedures on 'case conferencing' within the Aberdeen Racist Partnership Forum.

Use of Information Communications Technology (ICT)

Social Services Department

Most teams have access to networked computers, including access to e-mail and the intranet. The directorate, heads of service, team managers and senior social workers have access to the Internet, as do information staff, research staff, some admin staff and some other specified members of staff, such as the out-of-hours service. However, this is far from full access to the Internet, which is currently prevented by the Council's Internet access strategy. Work is going on to increase access for staff in the network

The department is at present drafting an ICT strategy.

Partnerships

Aberdeen futures sets the context of changes _ with an emphasis on using technology to support services. There are protocols for sharing information on sex offenders and young runaways. The Council plans to extend these to other care groups. Two Modernising Government Funds (MGF) consortium projects are underway on single shared assessment information sharing and on children's services information.

Background Profile

Aberdeen is the third largest city in Scotland. It became a major centre for oil production and related industries in the later part of the 1900s. While unemployment in the area is comparatively low, there are a number of areas within the city where poverty poses significant social problems. The number of jobs in the production and construction industries has fallen by 15% from 1995 to 2001. Average earnings are 18% higher than those for Scotland as a whole.

A high rate of recorded crime is increasingly associated with a high rate of drug misuse.

Spend for every person on social work in 2001-2002 was 282, compared to 267 for Scotland as a whole.

Expected population change

Community Care

Expenditure on community care has risen steadily between 1999 and 2002.

Children and Young People

Expenditure on children's services has risen very gradually in the period 1999-2002.

Criminal Justice

Human Resources