Title: Children’s Social Services in the City and County Of Swansea
Date: 24 March 2009
By: Gwenda Thomas, Deputy Minister for Social Services
I made a statement on 3 March setting out my concerns about social services for children in the City and County of Swansea. They had been inspected by the Care and Social Services Inspectorate in March and April 2007 and again in December 2008. During the intervening period, the Chief Inspector had implemented the Protocol for responding to serious concern about Local Authority Social Services in respect of the authority.
However, whilst there had been some improvement, the overall judgement in 2008 remained the same as in the 2007 inspection. Its services remained inconsistent and the prospects for improvement remained uncertain. It was clear that leadership at corporate and political level had not been sufficient during the period when the protocol had been in place.
In my statement I indicated then that I was considering making an Order under Section 84 of the Children Act 1989 declaring the Authority to be in default of certain of its functions in relation to the provision of social services for children, and directing it to take certain action. I also indicated that I was considering establishing an Intervention Board to provide robust external challenge to the authority in order to drive the improvements necessary.
I had met that morning with the Deputy Leader and Social Services Portfolio Holder to inform them of this and had written to the authority by way of confirmation attaching the Draft Order and Terms of Reference for the Intervention Board. In that letter, I provided the authority with an opportunity to respond to my proposal within 2 weeks.
On Monday 9 March I met, at their request, with the Leader, Deputy Leader and representatives of the other political groups on the Council. They all indicated to me that they were committed to improving children’s social services in the authority and that they would work together to provide the unified leadership that is required to achieve this and that they would write to me to confirm their position on this.
I have received a letter from the authority’s Chief Executive. In this he expresses the authority’s disappointment that I saw the Intervention Board as the way forward. They had hoped that I would have been more confident that the improvements achieved to date would have continued and been consolidated.
However, the authority recognised why I was considering this action in view of the report on the December 2008 Inspection by the Care and Social Services Inspectorate. The authority was pleased that, in all that I had said, I had recognised the hard work of front line staff. I wish to repeat that recognition again now and I am sure you would all endorse this.
The letter makes it clear that the authority will embrace the opportunity to work with the Intervention Board, recognise that the action I am considering would be focused purely on ensuring continued improvement and that all the political parties support this position.
The authority also confirms that it will ensure high level corporate support, at officer and member level, for the process, and that it is working towards the establishment of an Overview and Scrutiny Board which will have a dedicated focus on Children’s Social Services.
The authority reports that it has also developed its existing involvement with the Welsh Local Government Association and the Social Services Improvement Agency. Both have indicated that they are keen to support the authority on the improvement agenda.
The authority is already working on a draft action plan to tackle the areas of improvement identified in CSSIW’s report and in the Draft Order which I shared with them. One of the first tasks of the Intervention Board will be to consider this.. The CSSIW report of the inspection will be formally presented to the authority and published on 31 March.
I have now given careful consideration to the response I have received and am pleased to see that the authority has provided me with a response setting out the wish to embrace the opportunity to work with the Intervention Board.
I have given due weight to this alongside my determination that social services for children should not fall and remain below acceptable standards and the fact that the City and County of Swansea has failed by the December 2008 inspection to make sufficient progress to tackle the issues identified by CSSIW’s inspection in 2007 and to bring about the necessary improvement in these services.
Consequently, I have decided to make the Order under Section 84 of the Children Act 1989, declaring the authority in default of certain of its functions in relation to the provision of children’s social services and directing it to take all necessary action to secure without further delay that all the statutory duties imposed by or under the Act are consistently performed to an adequate standard.
I have met again with the Leader and Deputy Leader and Leaders of the other political parties in the authority this morning to inform them of this and have passed them a copy of the Order. I have also written to the authority with the formal Order which I have signed.
I have also initiated arrangements to establish the Intervention Board which will be made up of a chair drawn from outside social services and local government together with a current or past Director of Social Services, Head of Children’s Social Services, local authority Chief Executive and elected member in local government with experience in social services matters.
I propose that the Intervention Board will be in place as quickly as arrangements can be finalised to secure the high calibre of Board members which I wish to see.
Its composition is vitally important given the fact that the Board will have powers to require the Authority to take all reasonable steps to fulfil its responsibilities, to provide robust external challenge, to report to overview scrutiny boards on progress being made by the authority and to report to me on the authority’s progress at regular intervals which I shall determine.
I shall write to Members of this Assembly, informing them of the establishment of the Intervention Board and of its membership once these arrangements are finalised.
I wish to impress upon the City and County of Swansea that I consider the making of this Order, the first time that such an order is issued in respect of a local authority in Wales, and the establishment of the Intervention Board, to be a very serious step to take.
In doing so, I wish to emphasise that the responsibility for bringing about the improvements needed is not affected – it remains with everyone of the members of the authority who are elected to ensure that Swansea can provide social services capable of safeguarding and responding to the needs of the children and young people of Swansea and of supporting their families. I must stress that strong political and corporate leadership is essential if social services for children are to be improved at the pace at which that is needed.
I shall be keen to receive reports from the Intervention Board on the progress it considers the authority is making, as I will from the authority itself, and will ask the Care and Social Services Inspectorate for Wales to inspect children’s social services in the City and County of Swansea again in January 2010 or earlier if this becomes necessary.
I hope that all members of the Assembly, of whatever political persuasion, will recognise that the steps I am taking are motivated by the wish to see the necessary improvement in children’s social services in Swansea. The need to do so should transcend party politics and I expect the authority as a whole to work together to bring this improvement about.
