INTRODUCTION
BY THE CHIEF SOCIAL WORK INSPECTOR
 |
Alexis Jay
Chief Social Work Inspector & Chief Executive |
This annual report and accounts for the period from 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2007 is our second as an executive agency and my second as Chief Inspector and Chief Executive. Last year, I reported substantial progress on our plans for independent, properly resourced and systematic inspection of social work services to ensure consistent delivery of the best possible services to the highest standard across Scotland. This year, we have carried out performance inspections of 14 local authorities and published 12 reports.
We now are singularly placed to provide informed comment on the state of social work services in Scotland. A detailed commentary on what we have concluded to date follows this introduction.
I previously referred to the importance of a continuing positive response by local authority social work services staff and other key stakeholders to our work. A year on, I have been impressed by the genuine commitment to drive improvement in services on the part of councils to deliver better outcomes for the people they serve.
The Social Work Inspection Agency ( SWIA) was established to work with others to continually improve social work services, so that they meet people's needs and the public has confidence in them. We do this by identifying areas for improvement and disseminating best practice. We evaluate the quality of social work services in Scotland through inspection or review and advise the First Minister of the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Executive about social work services. We are committed to delivering a full review of all 32 Scottish local authorities by 2009.
Our performance inspection methodology, piloted across three local authorities in 2005-06 and refined following consultation, has been rolled out across a further 11 local authorities in 2006-07. Already, SWIA inspectors are working with inspected councils to ensure that their resulting action plans are implemented and, for the three pilot authorities, follow-up inspections are underway. Performance inspections of the remaining 18 authorities have been scheduled.
Our performance inspections of 14 local authorities to date have enabled us to gather a unique, already substantial and increasing body of evidence. We are actively looking at innovative ways to disseminate this information and to promote good practice. Central to this strategy is the restructuring of our website into an interactive resource for social work practitioners, academics and other stakeholders.
The current programme of inspections of criminal justice social work was concluded with published reports on Dumfries & Galloway, Eilean Siar, the Northern Partnership and Orkney. Publication of the Ayrshire and Shetland reports will follow, giving an overview of the key issues emerging from the whole inspection programme of criminal justice social work and also looking to future activity in this area. A summary report will be produced in 2007.
Multi-agency inspection methodologies have been developed and applied on inspections of learning disability services across three Ayrshire local authorities and NHS Ayrshire & Arran; substance misuse services in NHS Grampian and its local authorities; and older people's services in the NHS Tayside area and its local authorities. The learning disabilities inspection reported in March 2007, the older people's inspection reported in May 2007, and the substance misuse report will be published in August.
Over the year, our inspectors have continued to contribute to the development of policy relating to criminal justice, community care and services to children and families. This activity represents a significant part of our workload.
Looking ahead
Our schedule is unrelenting. During 2007-08, we plan to deliver a further eight performance inspections with the remainder of the first round of full inspections to be completed the following year. The first round of inspections has, of necessity, to be rigorous and comprehensive in order to establish the "baseline" of quality of local authority social work services. A second round of inspections would be prudent to consolidate improvement. The decision on whether these should be full or more targeted inspections will be informed by, amongst other considerations, the overall quality of the first round.
Additionally, we will undertake further multi-agency inspections together with specific individual inspections of criminal justice through care services, services for high-risk offenders in the community, youth justice services and a voluntary sector provider's governance systems. We further plan to use the increasing body of inspection derived knowledge to enable us to connect policy development with current practice and to disseminate both raw data and detailed analyses of evaluation evidence.
Professor Crerar's scrutiny review interim report to Ministers pointed to the opportunity to improve the structure, processes and outcomes of external scrutiny within the context of public service reform. We await his full findings with interest and continue to strive to work with scrutiny partners to deliver maximum impact through the lightest possible touch.
Our clear focus in all of this activity is the improvement of the quality of social work services and the promotion of good practice. We remain firmly committed to placing people who use services at the heart of the inspection process, and have gone some way towards achieving this by involving users and carers as lay inspectors.
Already, our evaluations have shown that whilst there is clear scope for significant improvement in the quality of social work services, there is much good practice to be nurtured and celebrated.
Alexis Jay
Chief Social Work Inspector & Chief Executive
5 June 2007