CHAPTER 7 Leadership
We conclude that overall performance in this area is adequate - with strengths just outweighing weaknesses.Our assessment of strategic leadership has to balance the good leadership provided by the two heads of service and their management team against the absence of corporate leadership.
Inverclyde Council is in the middle of a major recovery exercise. Social work services have been poorly served at corporate level in recent years. The council should not have allowed the director of social work to retire without any proper plan to cover the responsibilities of that post. However, the service has performed well and continued to deliver good quality services despite the lack of leadership at the highest level. The current senior management team, operating without the support of a director, has sustained service delivery. It has maintained effective working relationships throughout social work services and with key partner agencies.
The clear commitment of senior managers was evident throughout social work services. Staff at all levels spoke positively about the high level of management support they get. Staff remained motivated in the face of significant uncertainty, poor working environments and lack of corporate leadership. The continued commitment of the staff group and the good joint working at operational level are evidence of effective leadership within the social work service.
However, there remain significant weaknesses, many of which are set out in this report. These include the lack of a clear vision and direction; absence of effective resource and performance management systems; and sustained uncertainty for staff. It is not satisfactory that management arrangements designed for a few months were left in place for almost two years. The social work service had been allowed to drift through a lack of leadership at political and corporate levels.
Nevertheless given the good leadership within the service, the sense of cohesion and the strongly committed and effective staff group there is significant room for optimism and good potential for improvement.
Vision, values and aims
Elected members we spoke to expressed a vision for the social work service. It is of a service that enables those currently excluded from contributing to the economy and to community well-being to be included, and where vulnerable people are valued, protected and cared for.
This vision is not effectively communicated, nor owned by the service as a whole. It remains a set of underlying assumptions. For example, only 44% of staff who responded to our survey agreed there was a clear vision for social work in the authority and many social work staff were not clear about where social work fitted in to the overall priorities of the council. Further down the line, a sense of overall direction weakens. For example, feedback from operational staff was that while they were clear about expectations in relation to their own part of the service, they had little awareness of the priorities of the council or the social work service as a whole.
There is evidence that the council is developing a more corporate crosscutting approach to planning and delivering services. The elected members we met were more positive about developing a corporate approach than the recent history of the council might have led us to expect. In social work, there is evidence of improved levels of contact and information flow between senior officers and elected members. For example, recent changes such as the establishment of pre-agenda meetings before committee meetings has improved the decision-making process by preparing elected members and giving them a stronger sense of involvement.
Within the council, key partners are positive about the social work service and its contribution to crosscutting work. For example, the director of education described the senior management in social work as able to sustain the service in the face of significant capacity deficits. Social work was seen to be committed to an integrated approach. Senior officers from other services spoke positively about recent developments, including the impact of the new chief executive who has expressed a clear direction toward corporate working.
The absence of a director has meant that social work has had limited opportunity to contribute to corporate priorities. It is commendable that social work services have tried to influence the corporate agenda. For example, they submitted proposals for a corporate performance management system. These were rejected. In recent months the position has improved and the chief social work officer now routinely attends the corporate management team. There is still some way to go. For example this has not yet had any significant impact on the major issues of capital spend or IT development.
Recommendation 16
The council should develop a clear vision for the social work service of the future, setting out clear aims and objectives for the service. This should be understood by all social work staff, partner agencies and people who use social work services.
Leadership of people
We found examples of effective leadership at all levels in social work services. The senior management team have maintained and taken forward the service and have retained the confidence and commitment of most staff. The service managers have worked together effectively to keep a strong grip on day-to-day operations.
A feature of the service was the good level of morale in the staff group. Most staff felt valued and supported. For example, social workers were clear they were able to seek out and receive high levels of support from managers and peers. While some staff reported that they struggled with heavy caseloads, most staff felt supported by their managers. While the authority had significant numbers of newly qualified social workers they were well supported by committed and experienced staff. Also, some staff had been actively involved in service development, for example, playing an active role in the development of home care services. We also found that staff and managers working in integrated projects had a clear sense of their roles and responsibilities. They spoke positively about the benefits of working in joint teams for both staff and people who use services.
There was less clarity within the staff group about the overall objectives of the social work service or its direction of travel. Staff had some anxieties about the forthcoming changes. One impact of the longstanding interim arrangements is that for very large numbers of staff the future changes will be significant. As one senior social worker put it - "the question for everyone is what will happen to my job, how will it change, will it still be there?" A key challenge for senior management will be to continue to both value and challenge staff, to bring about necessary change without de-moralising a committed staff group.
Elected members told us they believed the social work services provided a good service to vulnerable people in Inverclyde and that they were committed to the improvement of the service. They spoke highly of the commitment and capabilities of the senior social work management team. Recent changes have had an impact. For example, an experienced social worker spoke positively about a recent visit from the new chief executive of the council - the first in 16 years.
A key role has been played by the service managers (many of whom are in temporary roles), who have had direct control of planning and operations functions. In addition to their management functions, they have provided effective leadership to team leaders and social workers - encouraging professional development, providing regular consultation and modelling an ethos of mutual support, and commitment to service users.
Reducing the number of temporary responsibility arrangements should now be a priority.
Leadership of change and improvement
Engagement with elected members and wider policy-making processes for social work is underdeveloped in respect of the information provided in committee reports. For example we found financial reports to the health and social care committee did not provide sufficient information to enable elected members to gain a full understanding of the main factors affecting the social work budget.
In the absence for nearly two years of full representation for social work at a corporate level, investment and commitment to the service has remained stable.
Elected members have taken on the issue of developing the community health partnership and are committed to some form of integrated model. And there is evidence of the development of shared objectives with the NHS board.
Over the past two years the key objectives of the social work senior management team had been "to keep things going". Despite this, the management team had made progress in developing the service. For example, the significant inroads into late discharge figures and the expansion of the fostering service. However, there needs to be a shift toward a culture of performance management and quality assurance.
There were deficits in key processes such as risk assessment, care management, delegation of decision making and financial accountability. Effective leadership and direction will be necessary to remedy this. For example we were concerned about a persistent underspend in the social work budget. Clear priorities should now be set for planning and service development.
Significant changes to create the necessary capacity for change and improvement are now coming on stream. These can build on some demonstrable strengths. For example, there was a strong commitment to the development of staff. Also, the social work service has led the council in customer involvement and consultation strategy with good practice evident from carers and learning disability services.
There is still some considerable way to go. The planned staff appraisal system is not yet in place. Significant findings from our staff survey were:
- 51% of all staff agree or strongly agree senior managers communicate well with staff. 43% of fieldworkers who responded disagree or strongly disagree with this statement
- 38% of all staff agree or strongly agree there is effective leadership of change in the social work service. Twenty five percent of managers and 25% of fieldworkers in Inverclyde who responded disagree or strongly disagree with this statement.