Upbeat report into state of Children's Services in Powys

That is the view of an assurance report, commissioned by Powys County Council and written by an external expert in children’s social care.

Councillors received the report at a recent Health and Care scrutiny committee.

The review looked at the state of the department as it is now – several years on from a scathing Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) report that was published in 2017, which revealed missed opportunities to safeguard children, poor risk assessment and serious performance issues with front line services.

The work was commissioned by the council’s chief executive Emma Palmer and was carried out by Stephen Walker the director of relational children’s social work services at Leeds City Council.

He was also the head of children’s services at Swansea City Council between 2008 and 2011.

Steve Walker’s report highlights stable leadership, strong advocacy from independent reviewing officers on behalf of children and high-quality performance reporting as key strengths.

He said: “Powys Children’s Services is a safe service. No serious failings were identified, and no practice issues had to be referred to leaders. Powys Children’s Services has made significant progress, particularly in recent years and has improved services, practice and outcomes for children, young people and families.”

The Director of Relational Children’s Social Work Services also said that staff feel supported and are proud to work for Powys County Council, even though they face challenges with the IT systems they currently use, and financial pressures are persistent.

He adds that the service is well-informed and has a clear understanding of its strengths and areas for improvement.

Mr Walker continued: “What I found was a service that knows itself well, there is a good understanding of the challenges facing children in Powys and a commitment to improve and innovate.

“It’s an improving service that will continue to improve.

“But there were some opportunities for improvement which I covered in my recommendations.

“A key thing for me is that there is no need for reactive action.

“I didn’t come across anything that I felt didn’t make sense or was unsafe.”

“We commissioned this report to find out if Children’s Services are functioning effectively, safely and in line with our expectations,” said Councillor Sandra Davies, Powys County Council’s Cabinet Member for Future Generations. “We are very pleased to find that the view of an independent expert is that they are ‘safe’ and ‘improving’.

“We also wanted to understand current challenges and support further improvement through clear recommendations and appreciate and welcome the findings of Steve Walker. Diolch yn fawr, thank you, very much.”

Committee chairwoman Cllr Amanda Jenner (Conservative) said: “For those of us who were here since 2017 it’s really pleasing to hear the comments; the service is vastly different.”

She added that the department could now “stop firefighting.”

Vice-chairman Cllr Gareth E Jones (Powys Independents) said: “Saying that it’s a safe service gives us the reassurance that we wanted to see.

“There’s a massive communication job we should be doing here.

“The press are very quick at hitting the authority when something is not going right but this is a real success story.”

Cllr Jenner asked for an update report in how the response to the recommendations is proceeding to come before committee in six months’ time.

The recommendations include developing a simple, ambitious vision for Children’s Services, conducting research into causes of care entry, especially around poverty, mental health, and repeat removals, continue coaching and mentoring for senior leaders and upport career development and develop a better understanding of case complexity.

Other recommendations include reviewing the way staff are communicated with and how often, improving multi-agency coordination and access to resources, reducing transfer points to help avoid frequent social worker changes, making child participation a strategic priority, consider piloting family group conferencing, streamline early intervention services, improve foster carer support, and implement a special guardianship offer, defining specific roles for each of the council’s children’s homes and make sure they are all open by the end of the year and engaging with partners to reduce distant residential placements.

Cllr Davies added: “The main conclusion is that we are in a strong position to make further progress, which will be sustained and delivered at a faster pace if we can focus on our vision, workforce support, strategic clarity, and partnership working.

“It is because of the hard-working commitment of staff in Children’s Services that the service is as it is today, I wish to thank our staff for this.”

The full assurance report can be viewed on the council’s website: https://powys.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s97333/Assurance%20Review%20of%20Powys%20Childrens%20Services.pdf