Agenda item

(a)  Children’s Social Services Annual Report 2019-20

Report of Cabinet Member for Children and Young People

(b)  Learning from Complaints

Report of Cabinet Member for Children and Young People

(a) Children’s Social Services Annual Report 2019/20

The Committee considered a report of the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People (Schedule 1 to the signed minutes) informing them of the Customer Feedback and Complaints Service – Children’s Social Services Annual Report 2019/20 (schedule 1 to the signed minutes). Preliminary consideration had been given to the report at their meeting 5 November 2020. However, the Cabinet Member had undertaken to provide background details of its contents, including lessons learned from complaints, to assist the Committee in providing full and detailed scrutiny. 

The Annual Report had been prepared in order to comply with the Authority’s statutory duty under the Children Act 1989 Representation Procedure (England) Regulations 2006 to publish details of (i) the number of complaints recorded regarding children’s services; (ii) the outcome of each complaint made and; (iii) whether relevant statutory timescales had been adhered to. As such, it provided a historical snapshot of the Authority’s performance during the year.  

The Committee noted that during 2019/20 there had been a total of 324 complaints investigated through the various statutory and Corporate Complaints’ procedures of which:- (i) 124 dealt with under Statutory Stage 1 (Local Resolution) procedures; (ii) 12 dealt with under Statutory Stage 2 (Independent Review/Investigation) procedures; (iii) 1 dealt with under Statutory Stage 3 (Complaint Review Panel) procedures; (iv) 187 dealt with under Corporate Complaints Stage 1 (Local Resolution) procedures; (v) 18 dealt with under Corporate Complaints Stage 2 (Internal Review/Investigation) procedures and (vi) 47 investigated by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO). However, there had also been 225 complements received by the Authority relating to Children’s services.

During the discussion which ensued, Members queried the Authority’s performance by reference to the above-mentioned statistics, the majority of which had shown significant increases when compared to those for the preceding year (2018/19). Stage 1 Corporate Complaints had increased by 49% whereas the number of complements received from service users had decreased by 6%. In addition, complaints referred to the LGSCO had increased by 62%. In reply, the Cabinet Member explained that many of the Stage 1 Corporate Complaints received had been in respect of the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) service. However, the backlog of cases which had largely arisen owing to staff shortages had both been addressed. Also, it was anticipated that the appointment of a new SEND Complaints Officer within the Corporate Complaints service would enable early resolution of issues, in the future, as they arose. Further measures were being implemented in order to manage expectations although complainants retained their right to refer matters to the LGSCO in the event they remained dissatisfied with the outcome of both statutory and legal investigations/reviews.

Members also raised the impact of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic on the figures for the year which they acknowledged was likely to be minimal although performance for the current year might be significantly affected.

In response to a question from a Member regarding some of the outcomes of the Independent Investigations/reviews included in the report which involved relatively low level recommendations eg “Communications – letters, emails, phone calls – should be responded to promptly whether or not an immediate answer can be provided”, the Cabinet Member acknowledged that performance had been lacking in certain circumstances and the Authority had occasionally fallen short of required standards owing to administrative oversight. However, he re-assured them that robust measures were in place to share best practice across the service and learn from previous mistakes in order to improve future performance.               

RESOLVED – That the report be received and noted.

(b) Learning from Complaints

The Committee considered a report of the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People (Schedule 2 to the signed minutes) informing them of how the Children and Families’ Service had learned from complaints received during 2019/20 implementing change where necessary. This followed a request by the Committee at their previous meeting for further information on how the Authority dealt positively with complaints to improve service delivery for the residents of Staffordshire.

Members heard that the County Council were committed to continuous service improvement and as such, focused on outcomes rather than the total number of complaints received. However, it was recognised that all complaints, whether upheld or not, could provide the Authority with:- (i) a better understanding of the needs of service users; (ii) how these needs could be better met and; (iii) opportunities to avoid similar complaints arising in the future. The Committee were provided with specific examples of remedial measures which had been implemented in various service areas following complaints received and were encouraged by the steps which had been taken to resolve issues of concern. 

In response to a question from the Chairman, the Cabinet Member outlined the progress which had been made by the Family and Friends Fostering Team Service in reviewing the information and training provided to Special Guardians. The Authority had made a significant financial investment during 2020 to establish a support hub for Special Guardians and, following the outcome of a complaint received during the year, other remedial measures with timescales had been included in an Action Plan, progress against which was being closely monitored by management.

The Cabinet Member also outlined various the efforts made by the Authority to share key messages, themes and learning across the service to ensure all practitioners were fully aligned/trained as appropriate. These included Practitioner Briefings, Practice Forum and Team meetings etc. However, following feedback from staff it had become apparent that there was a need to share information on best practice in a more routine and accessible way having regard to their heavy workloads and further consideration was being given as to how best this could be achieved.

In response to another question, the Cabinet Member explained the changes which had been implemented by the Specialist Safeguarding and Early Help Service following a recommendation to review the inclusion of tick boxes in templates for special work reports. Staff had been reminded that written assessments must also include critical narratives and reasons behind any ticked boxes used so as to avoid the misleading binary approach which could otherwise arise.

In conclusion Members were encouraged that the volume of complaints over the year had been relatively small having regard to the extent of Children’s Social Services provided by the Authority during 2019/20 under difficult circumstances. However, they expressed their wish to receive more real-time data in the future rather than just the historical snapshots provided by Annual Reports, in order to assist them in their overview and scrutiny role. They also noted that whilst benchmarking with other Local Authorities in the area of complaints could, in theory, provide useful comparisons, this was not possible at present owing to inconsistencies in the methods of recording data between Councils.

RESOLVED – (a) That the report be received and noted.

(b) That the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People and Chairman give further consideration as to how the reporting of information on complaints to the Committee could be enhanced so as to improve scrutiny and provide greater assistance to the Authority in their efforts towards service improvement in the future.