CHAPTER 7
Strategic leadership
Overall we found strategic leadership in Highland to be adequate.
Strategic leadership is a joint responsibility. Elected members and senior officers with responsibility for the social work service were committed to improving services. They expressed pride in what worked well and a strong desire to see improvements where these were needed. However, the challenges they faced were the result of a failure to develop substantial parts of the social work service, particularly services for older people, in a strategic way.
The impact of the devolved structure of the Council, in particular the priority elected members gave to local considerations over pan-Highland ones and the inability of senior officers to sufficiently influence elected members to take a more strategic approach, has left a legacy of inefficient spending and underdeveloped services in some areas.
More recently leadership from office bearing elected members and senior officers has led the Council to take a number of critical decisions to improve the range of services. The introduction of multi-member wards and the establishment of three larger operational areas should provide a platform for more effective decision-making in the future.
Vision, values and aims
Elected members described a vision for a social work service that was more visible and had the trust of the communities it served; a service that took account of changes in demography and was based on joint working.
'Social Work Matters in Highland', the service plan for 2006-2009, set out the aims and objectives of the service specifying in the service improvement action plan where actions fit with six key corporate themes. The vision articulated was that of Changing Lives, the national review of social work. The service plan was endorsed by the Housing and Social Work Committee.
At the re-organisation of Scottish councils in 1996 the new Highland Council retained eight administrative districts based on the boundaries of the former District Council authorities. This created barriers to the development of strategic pan-Highland approaches. One senior manager described a "significant logjam" in developments as a result of this "historical accident". Senior officers across the Council described a conservative, community-based political environment, exemplified by a resistance to any change that may be perceived negatively in local constituencies. This presented major obstacles to modernising services, for example addressing the balance of care between residential care homes and care at home services. This challenge was summarised by the Chief Executive who stated that the Council was now trying to find efficiencies in a service that had not developed in a strategic way.
The evidence from our inspection suggests that the structure of the Council militated against strategic development of services. For example, it had proved hard to shift the community care budget from its historic investment position. As one senior officer said, "community politics has brought inertia to community care." However, it is our view that senior officers could have done more to drive a modernising agenda, educating and influencing elected members of the need for a more strategic approach.
Joint committees were in place for children and families services and community care. The two-speed nature of service development was reflected in the respective roles of these committees. The children and families committee had a pooled budget, including a small contribution from NHS Highland. The Community Care committee had no such shared budget and as the responsible elected member stated, "we are making very slow progress on joint future." There was evidence of a corporate, cross-cutting approach to social work in some areas, for example in the development of children's services planning and the delivery of the objectives of For Highland's Children. The Director of Social Work was a member of the Council's senior management team and senior staff from the social work service were involved in the development of policy and strategies across the Council.
Social work contributed effectively to the Council's corporate agenda in some relevant areas but not others. It had led the way in joint planning of children's services but had failed to achieve the same priority for the development of community care. Children's services were leading a national initiative, taking forward in Inverness a pathfinder project for Getting It Right For Every Child. This required significant commitment to joint working. There was good liaison at senior level between housing and social work services, for example the Director of Housing expressed commitment to supporting the delivery of 600 houses for supported living irrespective of the outcome of the recent stock transfer vote. The Chief Executive was actively involved in key areas of social work, leading quarterly performance reviews and contributing to the care home re-provisioning project group.
The dividends from the joint Housing and Social Work Committee appear to be limited to the strategic level. The Directors described the import of a more performance-orientated culture to social work from housing and a good understanding between the respective directors. Generally the Committee agenda was social work led. There was less evidence of a dividend on the ground, for example young people leaving care placements were overly reliant on bed and breakfast accommodation. Similarly, in respect of Getting It Right For Every Child, the Director of Education acknowledged that the partners had still to address the key issue of taking forward changes in operational responsibilities.
While there is evidence that in recent months social work services and in particular community care services, were becoming more of a priority for the Council, there were increases in demand for both children's and adult services. The Council now faces the double challenge of modernising services while finding substantial financial savings.
Leadership of people
The size and geography of Highland presents particular challenges for communication with staff. Senior managers used a variety of formats and media to cascade information. For example, in 2005 the Director of Social Work instigated a series of dialogue meetings with staff across the service and the Council intranet was an increasingly used vehicle for dissemination of key developments and events. The dialogue meetings scheduled for summer 2006 did not take place due to the ill health of the Director.
While there was evidence of principles, aims and objectives for the social work service in the new service plan these were not well understood throughout the organisation. Staff surveys and focus groups conducted by SWIA indicated that senior managers were seen as remote. For example, a significant proportion of respondents to our staff survey indicated that senior managers did not communicate well with staff. While staff believed that senior managers worked well together they also told us more could have been done to improve communication. The social work service has adopted the Council's communication standards. The Director believed that some aspirations expressed may be unrealistic given the geography of the area. It may be that in part there is a job to do to manage the expectations of the wider staff group of what is possible.
The Highland Council plans to shed 700 jobs over the coming 3 years. This and the forthcoming major changes to organisational structures meant there were significant degrees of uncertainty for staff about their future roles and responsibilities. This is likely to have had an impact on our findings of low morale in surveys and some focus groups. For example, less than half of respondents to our staff survey agreed there was effective leadership of change in the social work service. Elected members and senior managers were aware that at this time of significant change and financial re-structuring staff were concerned about their own future positions. One member acknowledged, "we are not good at communicating with people about Highland Council business." Though this was a common finding it was not universal, for example children's services managers were positive and proud of their achievements over the past five years and optimistic about future developments.
Evidence from surveys and focus groups was that many staff did not feel valued and supported by their senior managers. Senior managers challenged some of these perceptions, citing the dialogue meetings held by the Director and the Director's role in leading the ADSW Supporting Front Line staff initiative. However evidence from staff across the service was that these initiatives were not delivering the responses they felt were necessary. Some staff felt they were asked to contribute their views but most of those we spoke to or surveyed were less positive, describing a lack of communication. A significant number of middle and front-line managers were clear that senior managers did not hear or respond to their views. There was strong evidence that senior managers had created an environment for effective practice throughout the Council area. For example teams had clear plans, overall workloads were manageable and new workload management and supervision policies had been introduced with seminar events to launch them.
There was less evidence of a strategic approach to the recruitment, retention and development of the social services workforce. Given the particular challenges presented by the labour market in Highland, a more strategic approach could have been adopted. Corporately a draft HR strategy had been prepared but not taken forward. Issues related to the development of single status appear to have slowed service modernisation, for example home carers undertaking significant personal care tasks were still paid on manual grades. Support workers told us they were not offered accredited training and consequently felt undervalued. On the positive side the Council had significant success with in-house schemes to train social workers.
Recommendation 20
The social work service should continue to ensure that the Council's communication strategy delivers effective mechanisms for consulting and communicating with staff. It should ensure that managers and staff are appropriately involved in the development of the communication strategy.
Leadership of change and improvement
Political scrutiny was exercised primarily through the Housing and Social Work Committee which met monthly. The Joint Committee for Action on Community Care, the Joint Committee on Children, Young People and Families and the Northern Criminal Justice Partnership also provided scrutiny. All decisions were ratified by the full Council. The quality of reports to the Committee was generally good in that they were clear and provided for informed decision-making. Quarterly performance reports were presented to Committees. Officers were also accountable to eight district committees. This involved duplication of effort and took up significant amounts of senior officers' time. The fragmented nature of the Council meant a disproportionate amount of resources went on maintaining effective officer/member relations. The Council had recognised and addressed the inefficiencies of these processes and new arrangements will be in place following the elections in May 2007. The new arrangements, including a shift from eight to three operational areas and significant service re-design should bring efficiencies and allow for quicker decision-making.
Inspectors found evidence of service improvements and changing patterns of services but these tended to be opportunistic rather than strategic. They were rarely in response to joint plans. For example, significant changes to respite care were implemented without consultation with NHS Highland. Similarly, while the NHS head of operations is on the Care Home Project Board, there was little dialogue with NHS Highland on plans for care home re-provisioning. These represent missed opportunities for synergies in areas where there were both local hospitals and care homes that need to be upgraded.
There was evidence of changes resulting from joint planning in other areas, for example, the New Craigs re-provisioning and in the development of services for children with disabilities. Senior managers had led specific service improvements and supported innovative practices, for example the developments in Nairn.
Corporate strengths upon which social work can build suggest that capacity for improvement in the future is good. These include the enthusiasm and commitment of the relevant office holding elected members, the Chief Executive's and Director's commitment to management development and performance management at a corporate and departmental level. For example, all social work managers at principal officer level and above attended the annual two-day corporate management development programmes and eleven social work managers participated in the national Leading to Deliver programme.
System-wide service improvement was being addressed. The Council was taking steps to deliver a more strategic approach. For example it had engaged the Local Authority Improvement Service to help free resources from residential establishments. The Council had taken steps to increase leadership capacity for both business and professional management in social work and project management was used as the standard methodology to underpin service development, for example in the care home re-provisioning and 'social work change' programmes. Over the next year there will be a significant management restructuring exercise to speed up decision making and devolve responsibility. Work has been undertaken to maximise use of current resources, for example to make sure services previously available to children and families were available to other members of the community.
Elected members and senior officers acknowledged that there had been a failure to achieve a strategic approach to the commissioning of services. This was identified by senior managers as the single greatest risk for the service. For example the evidence from the Nairn project was that there was significant unmet need but little attempt had been made to date to determine the shape of spending to meet that need in the medium and longer term and how it would be delivered.
A major impediment to modernising community care services had been the lack of shared objectives and strategic joint planning between the Highland Council and NHS Highland. There were not as yet common boundaries between the Council's 3 new operational areas and the three community health partnerships ( CHPs). It was envisaged the boundaries would be co-terminus in future but we were given no timescale for when that would be achieved. CHP managers were concerned that the NHS was pressing ahead, implementing an anticipatory care model while, with the exception of the developments in Nairn, the Council was still delivering services based more on crisis management. As a starting point the director of social work was keen to establish a joint community care management group as a forum for joint planning and performance management.
Overall, there was not a strong culture of partnership between the Council and NHS Highland at a strategic level. For example the lack of consultation with NHS Highland on the implementation of Fair Access for All was seen by health managers as a missed opportunity that had an impact on health service delivery. Senior council officers felt that NHS Highland did not fully understand the contribution of social work services, for example that augmented home care was not just social care. However there were also areas of successful joint working on which to build, for example in the development of children's services and locally, we found good working relationships on the ground. For example jointly managed community mental health teams worked well and there were examples of positive use of co-location, such as the delivery of social work services from the GP surgery in Mallaig.
Recommendation 21
The Council should take steps to develop and maximise effective partnership working with NHS Highland. This will be necessary to address the significant challenge of modernising community care services and securing necessary efficiencies in the face of increasing demand.