CHAPTER 8
Capacity for improvement
Capacity for improvement was good, with some important strengths and some areas for improvement.
This evaluation was based on an assessment of three key factors:
- improvements in outcomes for people who use services and their experiences;
- effective leadership and management at all levels in social work services; and
- quality improvement and performance management.
Elected members across parties shared a consensus about the direction of travel in social work services, and were well briefed about social work issues. The chief executive impressed us with her vision for social work services, especially in regard to children and families services. These generally performed well and there were plans to further improve them.
Some community care services were good, but Falkirk faced challenges in managing them evenly and consistently while embedding priorities at a corporate level.
Senior social work managers were aware of many of the challenges faced by both children's and community care services. In some cases there had been a lack of urgency in addressing these. Improvement in strategic planning and direction was required to build on current achievements and to continuously improve service delivery.
Improved outcomes for people who use services
In Chapter 3 we judged that social work services performance in terms of monitoring outcomes was adequate. Like most local authorities Falkirk social work services did not routinely link the work that it does with changes in people's quality of life. However, service users in receipt of a range of different services told us that they were positive about the help that social work services had given them. Service users and to a lesser extent carers, were generally happy with the services they received.
Falkirk performed very well in some outcome indicators and where they were not performing as well, for example in the number of placement moves looked after and accommodated children had to make, social work services often had plans for improvement. However, social work had not always managed to effectively project manage key plans, or finish work on time. There were particular successes in reducing the rates of offending for young people and, partly thanks to the appointment of two liaison officers, the likelihood that some children would need compulsory child protection measures.
There was some information which was not available for to us such as how long people had to wait to get a service. There was also a lack of confidence in the accuracy of The same as you? statistics for people with learning disabilities because limitations of IT systems meant these had to be compiled manually. Confidence in management information systems is important if they are to feed improved performance, but this was not in abundance with the SWIS system. However, social work services had started to improve this information system.
More adults with mental health problems had better outcomes in terms of being helped to get a job than did adults with learning disabilities.
Effective leadership and management
Elected members and the chief executive saw strong connections between corporate goals and service plans, though these connections could not be verbalised by staff at the point of social work service delivery, and they were stronger in children's services than in community care. We thought that that elected members and the chief executive understood priorities for children and families, including child protection, reducing offending and corporate parenting, and were determined to support senior social work managers in continually improving all social work services.
It was clear that Falkirk social work managers already knew about the majority of the challenges which they faced in community care services. This was also in part due to the MAISOP inspection which had taken place in 2007 and whose action plan Falkirk were already addressing.
The question remained as to whether social work services had robust plans to transfer the findings from the MAISOP inspection across to benefit service users other than older people. We generally found that this varied. The community care services management plan 2007/08 was extensive but it was ambitious within its narrow time frame and did not always state SMART objectives.
Social work's self evaluation said:
"Significant change has been made as a result of the Multi-Agency Inspection of Services for Older People. This change has engaged all staff in our community care teams."
However, in our survey staff said that social work services could do better in communicating and with management of change. These themes emerged again when we met staff during our fieldwork, though we acknowledge that efforts made by social work services to address this after the MAISOP will take time to have an impact.
Secondly, social work services had not managed to conclude the community care and integrated teams' review whose extended period of consultation meant that the project was at least a year overdue. Even when we asked for a date when the consultation would be concluded we were originally given nothing more specific than 'early 2009'. We found that the uncertainty among some staff regarding this review was avoidable.
And although elected members were fully aware of the outcomes of the MAISOP inspection for older people, we thought that other priorities of community care services were less embedded at this level. In part, we thought that this might be related to the lack of a local forum in community care which had the status and visibility of the children's commission or the child protection strategy group.
We thought that there were practical approaches that social work services could take to reassure staff as well as to improve project management as a whole. These should include a SMART approach to planning processes on a more consistent basis.
We found children and families services to be generally well managed and were particularly impressed by the children's commission. We thought that children and families services faced up to the challenges such as the large number of out of authority placements for looked after and accommodated children, although we found no substantive evidence that all of the options had simultaneously been considered in a decision to create new residential units. We were also of the view that the council should have recognised some financial pressures in children and families to a greater degree in the formulation of the 2007/08 budget.
During our fieldwork a decision was taken to separate the management of housing and social work services. In allowing the director to focus solely on social work services the capacity for improvement in all social work services likely to be strengthened.
Quality improvement and performance management
Overall, there was a culture of supervision, appraisal and training in Falkirk social work services and an acknowledgement that since the MAISOP social work services had made efforts to improve communication at all levels.
Social work services demonstrated its ability to address the challenges raised in the MAISOP inspection. The follow up action plan which was produced was detailed and clear.
Some of the recommendations were for the partnership with the NHS. Falkirk's good track record of being involved in partnership working again promised the likelihood of improvement in jointly taking MAISOP recommendations forward.
The strong emphasis on the 'golden thread' should ensure that improvements in performance in older people's services are reflected across community care.
In children and families services we noted how the children's commission was at the heart of services which were at times dynamic and receptive to new ideas. Challenges remained in services for looked after and accommodated children. However, the pilots for integrated teams indicated that change was seen as positive when it can lead to improvements in the health and well being of most children - again reflecting another corporate goal. The extent to which the council as a whole, including elected members, kept a focus on children was generally impressive. Improved performance in service planning including systematically appraising all options for redesign will progress services further and reinforce our belief that social work services in Falkirk are changing in a positive way.