INTRODUCTION BY THE CHIEF SOCIAL WORK INSPECTOR
Alexis Jay
Chief Social Work Inspector & Chief Executive
This is our fourth annual report and accounts reporting our performance for the period 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009. It has been produced at a time of significant change for both the Social Work Inspection Agency ( SWIA) and the scrutiny of public services in Scotland. At the same time, public concern for the protection of vulnerable children and adults has been heightened by a number of high profile cases.
Previously, I have reported substantial progress towards delivering independent, systematic inspection of social work services. I have highlighted our commitment to working closely with our stakeholders to ensure improved quality of life for people who use services and the need to achieve this through inclusive and proportionate inspection.
During this year we have visited the remaining 12 councils in our baseline programme of comprehensive performance inspections. The final report (South Ayrshire Council) is scheduled for publication this September. The completion of our performance inspection programme provides a unique evaluation of the state of Scotland's social work services. I am pleased to report that whilst we have seen areas for improvement and even significant weaknesses in specific areas in individual councils, we also have seen much good practice. My inspectors have worked closely with councils on delivery of their resulting improvement action plans. Encouragingly, the majority of the 15 follow-up inspections concluded to date have all shown good progress but more work is still required.
Other highlights have included the delivery of our multi-agency thematic criminal justice services inspection of pre and post-release arrangements for high risk of harm offenders which will report this Summer. This important piece of work was carried out in close collaboration with colleagues from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons. A follow-up to the Review of the Management Arrangements of Colyn Evans was published in January 2009, and a SWIA inspector was also seconded to the Kerelaw enquiry team. Preparations for further multi-agency inspections of learning disability services and services for older people are well advanced. An inspection of prison based social work has also been agreed by ministers and will take place later this year.
To help councils take a high-level overview of the social work services they provide, we have worked closely with Scottish Government partners in Changing Lives and 21 councils to produce self-evaluation guides for various aspects of social work services. The first of four guides is a useable 'stand-alone' self-evaluation approach that can also complement corporate self-evaluation systems such as the EFQM. It was launched formally in February 2009. Three further guides looking at specific themes - commissioning, performance management and leadership - will be published in July and August 2009. Users of the general guide will be able to deploy these complementary good practice self-evaluation guides to take a closer look at key areas.
Looking ahead
On 6 November 2008 the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth announced government proposals for a single scrutiny body for care and social work covering the functions of SWIA, the Care Commission (minus its independent healthcare function) and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education's ( HMIE) current responsibilities for inspection of child protection and the integration of children's services. The new body would be in place from April 2011. I have welcomed the proposal as an improved way forward for the scrutiny of social work and social care in Scotland. By bringing together three separate elements into one body, this unified approach should make for better assurance to the public and to Parliament that the most vulnerable in our society are properly supported and cared for.
SWIA has already played a leading role in working with partner bodies as evidenced by our multi-agency inspections and other joint activity. We are fully engaged in the Scottish Government's change process for scrutiny whilst continuing to keep our focus clearly on assurance and improvement.
We have been careful to integrate the changing public sector landscape in our approach to future social work scrutiny following the conclusion of our performance inspection programme. The Crerar scrutiny review, the Concordat between the Scottish Government and COSLA, the National Performance Framework, the Accounts Commission's coordination of scrutiny, and the move to greater reliance on self-evaluation by delivery bodies have all influenced our new inspection methodology and approach. We will build on the evidence produced by the full round of performance inspections and follow-up inspections and utilise councils' self-evaluation work to direct risk-based, targeted scrutiny activity. Our inspections will provide public assurance, support improvement and evaluate progress towards national outcomes.
Following the conclusion of our performance inspection programme, we will publish a series of reports on specific themes and areas of social work practice. Initially, we plan to produce short guides for practitioners on key areas of social work practice, such as the use of chronologies within case files. This will be followed by the publication of an overview report (as we did on completion of our criminal justice inspection programme) reviewing overall findings, recommendations and progress from the performance inspection programme 2005-09. This 'state of the nation' report will identify both key achievements and challenges. This report will also form a baseline for the introduction of our revised approach to inspection. Thereafter, we will focus more specifically on practice themes, encompassing key areas of social work services, and based on inspection evidence.
These summary reports, periodic thematic inspection reports and the statistical data publicly available on our website will support our key role in connecting policy development with current practice and disseminating and promoting good practice. We will use links with international standards and benchmarking in relation to the performance of social work in Scotland to promote Scotland abroad.
It is clear that both SWIA and social work more widely will see increasing change in the coming year. More than ever, it is essential that we build on the significant achievements in providing assurance and promoting improvement we have delivered to date through close partnership working and a clear focus on people who use services.
Alexis Jay
Chief Social Work Inspector & Chief Executive
10 June 2009