Social & Health Care OSC - 16.07.26

AI-generated transcript — it may contain errors; the recording is the authoritative record.

1. 00:00:04 laura dar good morning members welcome to this thank you welcome to this meeting of the social health care overview scrutiny committee and we'll begin with agenda item one which is apologies for absence thank you chair we've had one substitution councillor sean bibby for councillor gina madison and craig with cloud the app director of social services a chief officer social services to send his apologies thank you councillor koppel
2. 00:00:35 Yes, Chair, apologies. I have to leave about 12.30 today to another Council meeting, so I'll just be leaving it at that time. Big apologies. Thank you, Councillor Cople. We'll move on to Agenda Item 2, which is declarations of interest, including whipping declarations. I'll wait for any members to indicate if they wish to make a declaration. Chair, we have had a declaration from Councillor Christine Jones for Item 6, 7, 8 and 9, because those reports have already been to Cabinet. Thank you.
3. 00:01:04 Thank you. I don't see anybody else indicating, so we'll move to agenda item three, which is the minutes of the previous meeting held on the 4th of June. They are on pages 5 to 10. Councillor Mackie? Move, Chair. Thank you. Do I have a second? Councillor Lister, all those in favour of the minutes? Any against? Any abstentions? That's carried. Item four is urgent matters as agreed by the Chair. There aren't any.
4. 00:01:35 so we'll move on to agenda item five which is the forward work program and action tracking thank you chair so if you move on to appendix one of the forward work program the september meeting we've got the annual reports on compliments and complaints the child care sufficiency that's now been moved to january and then we've got the corporate safeguarding policy
5. 00:02:02 For the October meeting, we've got an update, response to demand for hospital discharge support and audit Wales inspection of adult services. That's a follow-up report to monitor progress. November is clear at the moment. January, we've got the childcare sufficiency, as I just alluded to. And then we've also got regulated childcare CIW inspection.
6. 00:02:26 and then for february there's a new report that's coming on there which is the social services journey to net zero you remember we did have a report last year so this is an update report on that thank you chair i will now move on to action tracking so the action tracking report as you can see on page 17 of the agenda pack uh the the one around the director's annual report that's um i think that's something that we can
7. 00:02:56 sign off after after the consideration of that report today the young carers covenant that came to the full council and it was an excellent meeting and it was really lovely to see the young people there representing the young carers of flintcher so there's nothing else from me chair if anybody's got any items they'd like to bring forward thank you margaret councillor mackie
8. 00:03:22 um thank you chair i wonder if i might suggest some items that should go on the full or that might go on the forward work program um i've taken these from the um chief officer's report which is the next item on the agenda um on page 39 of the reports pack um
9. 00:03:47 there's mention of the north wales regional partnership board now perhaps i should know more about this but i don't so um i'd like to know i wondered if we could put that on the forward work program so that i could learn what it's about what it does and who if we have any powers in relation to any any control over it because i'm most concerned that these regional boards
10. 00:04:17 seem to float in a little area of their own and they don't seem to have we don't seem to have any input and carry on and i'd like to i'd like to just understand a bit more about the whole thing now it might be that i should know anyway i don't know so um that's one i'd like to talk to talk about um the flintcher there's also the flintcher social care academy
11. 00:04:46 um i think that could go on the forward work program because i'd like to know a bit more about that and perhaps again if i should know about you already i apologize on page 56 um uh hang on north wales yeah right on page 56 have i said the workforce development team already no i don't think i have right i know it's not very clear um
12. 00:05:16 So on page 56, there's talk about the workforce development team. Now, the workforce development is incredibly important. It comes up later on. And so I wondered if we could have a report perhaps on the workforce development team, what it's doing, where it's going, so that we can scrutinize that. And I get confused by my own page numbering here.
13. 00:05:46 And on page 42, I think. Oh, that's right. It's on page 42 and on page 57. Right. I came across it on page 57 first and then went back and saw it on 42. The equality and anti-racist. It's talking about equality and anti-racist. And I wondered if that could be added to the Forward Work Programme.
14. 00:06:22 thank you councillor i mean i'm quite happy to because we've not really i mean if the chief officer wants to look at that say next time he's here that would i think i'm quite happy with that i don't want to sort of push push it through uh so there's there's one two there's four items there and and the the forward work program look bare yeah that's really helpful councillor mackie as you would see on the action
15. 00:06:50 uh tracking the chief officer did say that the annual that the annual director's report would be the means of informing the forward work program going forward and that we would develop the forward work program having looked at the information within that so you've already made a great start thank you councillor lister on the same lines and it might be a better discussion for the next item um but i was looking at the improvement priorities um and the prevention and early health to support strong parent infant
16. 00:07:21 um relationships that area and i was just wondering um placing no judgment on people's choice um but whether infant feeding strategy could be part of that and the council's involvement um bearing in mind that we have the lowest breastfeeding rates um in sort of this this side of the world so yeah i was just wondering whether that could um whether a report could be brought to us about um the council's involvement in supporting um
17. 00:07:50 women who choose to breastfeed and perhaps in conjunction with health as well um thank you thanks for that council lister i've got councillor bibby next yeah thank you very much mr chairman just just to inform the committee i've received a message from councillor mel buckley uh saying that something's come up and that she's unable to attend the meeting and to replace her apologies thank you for letting us know councillor maybe we'll make a note of that councillor claydon
18. 00:08:21 Thank you, Chair. A couple of months ago, I did ask about the financial background of this committee. I think there are great financial pressures on it, and it's one of the highest spending committees, but we don't get a report back. The Chair said that there would be a report and discussion about this at the Joint Chairs Committee. So I wonder if the Chair would like to comment on what was said or...
19. 00:08:49 alternatively we could have a little bit of further information about um what's what's discussed and and have a better understanding of the financial basis of of this committee in general sorry yeah if i could come in on that as well the um chief officer and steve goodram they have been discussing that and there is a response due to come out to you on that councillor claydon i think the general view is that the information on
20. 00:09:19 financial information is considered at cross and then they're able to um pass it through to us if they've got some some concerns that's something that happened i think in 2024 when there was an action plan that came through so that is still work in progress um it's actually not on the action not sure why it's not on the action tracking that'll be my fault but it's certainly still on the radar and hopefully we'll have a response back to you very shortly thank you
21. 00:09:48 Thank you, Chair, if I may. Yeah, I think as we move towards budget setting in the future, this is going to be a very important thing for our committee to look at. So, yes, I would be very grateful to see that. Thank you, Councillor Claydon. Councillor Mackey. My apologies, Chair. I found more notes. Page 66 of the report pack. It's about EPEC autism.
22. 00:10:18 a community-driven early intervention model. Right. Because of my involvement with schools, I'm noticing particularly, and I know we all know this, that there's a lot of problems with young children moving into education. And I actually feel that this shouldn't be an education problem because it's...
23. 00:10:52 mostly i'm sorry the things i'm talking about are children running away children hitting adults children throwing things i'm talking about non-verbal children and i feel that we are we are entering a situation where parenting is becoming a major problem within our society i don't know if this is a throwback to covid or what but it seems um that
24. 00:11:21 parents seem to expect schools to pick up anything and go with it and take over where they haven't done anything and i find it amazing sometimes parents are arguing with the school over little insignificant things when the problem is a much bigger problem which they're just not looking at
25. 00:11:46 um sorry i'm going on i know so i would like to put that on and if it doesn't include parenting generally because it does say um early intervention model um if that that we do something we we look very closely at parenting because there are schemes out there but they don't cover the whole county and i feel we need to move on that one um
26. 00:12:13 and my next point is on page 100 where we talk about improving mental health services and they don't have a waiting list it appears and they must be the only mental health thing go on to a better word that doesn't have a waiting list because i think every other one does so um um yes
27. 00:12:39 so i wondered if that could go on our forward work program as well i am terribly sorry to be so disorganized but i'm sorry i can't annotate this this thing and i'm talking with it about that later on in the week thank you for your forbearance chair councillor jones um just on the epec um i attended with councillor married eastwood um the flight start 20 year
28. 00:13:23 birthday celebrations on tuesday tuesday and it was a lovely afternoon and recognizing all the work that flying start have done over the last 20 years for children parents families in general a hugely successful program epec has been a huge part of that massive you know really great success rate perhaps gail would you know she will be coming later
29. 00:13:51 in the air gail bennett um and she will her and hayley wilkes who has previously been here as a to do a presentation on early years yeah and um if they could do the pet presentation because we do an awful lot of parenting work in that epa program um the parents have gained so much from it but we're working closer now with education so it's not just us
30. 00:14:18 it's education and us combined to make it such a huge because it is a huge thing especially since covid especially with the speech and language etc so when we were actually celebrating the epec scheme while we were there on tuesday um but it is it is massive influence we do an awful lot of work with parents we have our parents champions um and the children who were part of that scheme
31. 00:14:46 heavily involved with our team so they they've really gained from that scheme since it started so i'm sure gail if we can put it on forward work program to discuss and present uh on epec and um our all our other for um everything else that we do in early years really which is huge uh but with the flying start program it's massive isn't it sarah uh yes thank you uh counselor chris um
32. 00:15:18 also it's how we actually tie up what gail service are doing and what our early help services are doing over in children's services there's a lot of connection there so while scale service is driving all of the epec and the flying start side of the business we're obviously working with the families that don't fit into that into the criteria there and actually doing a lot of parenting through our early help services so it would probably be of value
33. 00:15:47 to be able to bring both of those together so that you can have that clarity around the whole holistic picture um the child care sufficiency and the family information service on the agenda in january so could that report be incorporated within that or would you want a separate report yeah i think that would that would be appropriate right thank you i'm i'm glad i'd lovely but
34. 00:16:24 What I'm hearing about and what I'm seeing is young children who have issues. And they all come under ALN. And we're seeing a big increase in ALN. Now, you know, why are we seeing children in school that somehow haven't been picked up? That's my issue here.
35. 00:16:54 and and and you know the sort of things i mentioned before that i've seen them with my own eyes uh and they shouldn't be happening they shouldn't be happening at all so thank you anyway chair i'm just wondering um is there something we could do here that ties in the education and social care aspect because it's all linked so should that be presented together in a joint report
36. 00:17:22 yeah i think potentially there is something broader as you're hitting on council mackie that probably would need to go to the joint education and then there will be a while away because we have only just had that once annually but i think you're right that i think members would benefit from looking in more detail at why that is happening because like i mean like you i mean yeah so sorry i i would like that sorry chair uh i'm sorry to go off on one uh but um i think i think i think it is a an issue that
37. 00:17:57 It's being seen in early years. And I think, yeah, I think I appreciate that. I've got every fair thing, Gail. I think she does a wonderful job. Thank you. We've got Councillor Cunningham online next. Thank you, Chair, for letting me speak.
38. 00:18:19 I completely concur with what Councillor Mackey said about young children being sent to school and the teachers being expected to carry out duties that parents should have already taught their children. For example, I'm a former school governor of many years and the amount of young children coming into school in nappies
39. 00:18:46 and the staff were expected to change these nappies on their children. I think it's all wrong. And I think the whole situation needs looking at. But, you know, we're struggling with children with additional learning needs.
40. 00:19:02 This is another thing that's got to be looked into. And I agree with everything what Councillor Mackey says. I'm sorry if I'm repeating what he said, but that's how I feel. You know, it's the parents' job to educate the child on how to use the toilet or how to change their nappies at home before they come to school, how to blow their noses in fact.
41. 00:19:26 Some children don't even know their brothers or sisters' names, and it seems very sad. Anyway, that's all I've got to say, Chair. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Cunningham. I don't have any other members indicating, so we'll take these suggestions away and we'll repopulate the forward work programme, so it should have quite a few more items on it next time it comes back to the committee. We'll move to the recommendations.
42. 00:19:55 uh three that the committee considers the draft forward work program and approve amend as necessary that the facilitator in consultation with the chair be authorized to vary the forward work program and that the committee notes the progress made in completing the outstanding actions so i'd have a mover for that councillor mackie and that's a list at a second all those in favor of the forward work program action tracking any against any abstentions that's carried thank you and we will move on to agenda item six which is the
43. 00:20:27 director of social services annual report final edition 2025 2026 and i'll pass over to karen james and sarah grant to introduce the report and i know there's a range of other officers um available to answer any questions as well so thank you chair so in his absence today i'm pleased to present the director of social services annual report for 25 26.
44. 00:20:58 Director of Social Services is required to produce an annual report summarising their view on how the local authority has met its responsibilities in line with both the Social Services and Wellbeing Act and the Regulation and Inspection of Social Care Act. Report presented provides an overview of how the local authority has met its support needs for residents and both those who need support directly and for their carers.
45. 00:21:27 The report presents many examples of positive work that's undertaken against a significantly challenging context. Chief Officer has indicated that the past year has been one of the most challenging we have faced. As is the case across Wales and the rest of the UK, the intensity and complexity of pressures faced due to rising demand, complexity of need, escalating costs of commissioned care and persistent workforce shortages continue to pose substantial difficulties for everyone who works within the service.
46. 00:21:57 Recruiting and retaining social workers, occupational therapists, domiciliary care staff and re-ablement workers, for example, remain extremely difficult. This not only impacts on our ability to achieve consistently high performance, but puts additional strain on our committed workforce who continue to work tirelessly within that context. Having established that, however, the Chief Officer
47. 00:22:25 has reported on how social services have delivered services for which we should continue to maintain a level of of pride and recognition members will have been able to read the detail and i make reference only to a few highlights we have been able to increase our provision of in-house fostering expanded volunteer capacity to deliver the epa program as previously referenced by councillor mackie and others we've been able to progress
48. 00:22:53 and expand our in-house children's residential care offer we've continued to promote um independence through our award-winning progression model initially started within learning disability team the opening of both t croisati and our in-house and our quid a drag project as an integrated health and social care hub and again i know that members have received reports on on both of those
49. 00:23:21 we've been able to integrate our mental health social workers back into social services this year and that has that has yielded positive results we've continued to be committed to our grow your own social work program and also our traineeship options for occupational therapists and also carers have been given greater access to peer support training well-being activities and practical advice we celebrate and recognize these and all the achievements outlined in the report
50. 00:23:49 At the same time, we are fully focused that there's much more to be done. Achieving consistency and delivery of high quality and assured practice remains a significant and key priority. Care Inspectorate Wales have undertaken a range of regulatory activities during the year, and their feedback has reinforced where we know we want and need to achieve yet further improvement. The report identifies a range of these improvement areas, with a few examples being
51. 00:24:17 about ensuring that we evidence that the voice of the individual has been driving our assessment and our support offer to further demonstrate how we both make and report on how we support advocacy offers continuing to implement changes to how our front door and early intervention approaches can benefit our residents families and children families and adults focus in our long-term plan for our in-house services
52. 00:24:45 and continue to focus to strengthen our safeguarding and related activity. The Chief Officer will continue to lead the portfolio with the welcomed and acknowledged support from the Council to address areas for further improvement. Council has been supporting in recognising the growing pressures facing social care and the report reflects on how additional funding has been made to support this agenda going forward into this current and further years.
53. 00:25:15 wish to recommend the reports to the committee and seek to answer any questions. Thank you, Karen. Sarah, did you want to add anything? I think Karen's probably covered it all there. I think just to add for 26-27.
54. 00:25:45 clearly um on the improvement journey that we continue to be on the focus will um continue on obviously putting people and their voices at the center of assessments and care planning reducing waiting times and improving early intervention and prevention we we continue the demand has increased so much uh through our front doors that actually our early intervention and prevention side of the business really needs to be
55. 00:26:12 much more resilient so we we've got to do a lot of strengthening around that expanding family-based care and supporting people to live independently and continuing to strengthen our partnership working and our service integration so other than that i think um karen um covered it thank you thank you both uh councillor clayton first thank you chair um uh yeah i think this is a good report but i i think
56. 00:26:45 perhaps it does suffer us in places for having a wide-ranging audience.
57. 00:26:53 I'd like to be assured that it was user friendly for every audience that reads it. I'm looking at page 94 where it talks about standard seven and standard eight for developing fair pricing through CareCubed. I don't understand that. And I think it's important that people that read it can understand everything. So I'd like to feel that there was
58. 00:27:18 um as little jargon as possible and and perhaps people could just have a look through it and make sure that there's nothing that that isn't easily accessible to people next chair thank you councillor clayton i've just checked and yeah i mean there is a glossary of terms at the back but the ones you've referenced aren't in there so they probably ought to be in in there because yeah as i say i suspect members of the public reading that might not know what those standards are got any other members who wish to ask any questions or
59. 00:27:49 um obviously we did have the draft at the last meeting so this is the second time we've seen it this is the final version um if that isn't anybody uh we can move to the recommendations um i've got councillor biddy online thank you mr chairman just to formally move the recommendations thank you councillor bibby do i have a seconder for the recommendation councillor mackie all those in favor any against any abstentions
60. 00:28:27 that's carried thank you and we'll move on to agenda item seven which is safeguarding adults and children annual report that starts on page 123 and this will be introduced by susanna langley thomas my name is susanna langley thomas my role is safeguarding unit service manager i attend with two colleagues and i will allow them to introduce themselves
61. 00:29:05 Good morning, I'm Michelle Hingston and I'm the Adult Safeguarding Manager in the Safeguarding Unit. My name's Donna Daniels, I'm one of the Children's Safeguarding Managers in the Safeguarding Unit. The report follows the same format as previous years which begins in point 1.01 with a brief background to the Safeguarding Unit. The unit began in its current form in 2016 with up to 25 members of staff covering five service areas.
62. 00:29:38 child protection adults at risk adult safeguarding deprivation of liberty safeguards and children in care in respect of adult safeguarding and adult at risk work this has continued to see an increase this is felt to have been partly as a result of the awareness work that the unit has completed the graph on page 4 section 1.05 demonstrates this rising trend over the recent years
63. 00:30:05 However, Michelle and her team have managed to meet the demand, ensuring that enquiries are completed in a timely manner and strategy meetings are held to ensure that adults at risk are safeguarded. A service review is underway to ensure that the team can continue to operate effectively and sustainably in the future given the increased demand.
64. 00:30:26 There are no expected additional resource implications as the review is focused on ensuring the service makes the most effective use of our existing resources. Section 1.07 covers deprivation of liberty safeguarding work, also referred to as DOLS. The safeguarding unit currently has two full-time best interest assessors and grant funding is used to commission additional best interest assessments to manage the increased demand.
65. 00:30:55 following the Cheshire West Supreme Court judgment in 2014. However, in June of this year, a further significant Supreme Court judgment was delivered effectively reversing the Cheshire West ruling. The implications of the ruling came into force straight away and the local authority in conjunction with its legal services is reviewing its processes in line with the new ruling. It is anticipated that there will be a significant reduction
66. 00:31:25 in the dolls applications as the june 2026 ruling reduces the scope of dolls the next section of the report 1.09 relates to the child protection register the unit is not in control of cases presented at conference this is a decision made by children's social work teams where it is felt there is continuing risk of significant harm to a child
67. 00:31:50 The number of children's names on the child protections register fluctuate. They go up and down as names are added or removed if there is evidence of reduced risk. There are currently 122 children's names on the register, with eight of those being temporary registrations where children are registered in another area, but may be visiting Flintshire. Child protection conferences are held on Monday to Thursday.
68. 00:32:17 donna and her team work really hard to meet the statutory time scales for holding those meetings the most common child protection category of harm remains emotional abuse as with previous years this is often in conjunction with other forms of harm such as neglect the category of emotional abuse can be linked with high levels of reported domestic abuse often in combination
69. 00:32:44 with parental alcohol and or drug misuse difficulties as part of the local authorities response a pilot of the mst can um therapy service model was launched in 2025 this was secured through a grant funded program it offers intensive evidence-based support for families where there are significant concerns of abuse or neglect in addition
70. 00:33:09 through our workforce development team the local authority will be enhancing its approach to supporting families where there is domestic violence as set out in section 1.10 of the report the safeguarding unit supports the work and has a presence on north wales safeguarding board there's regional policy and procedures and delivery groups the unit has been involved in single unified safeguarding reviews of practice where this is required
71. 00:33:36 A child practice review in Gwynedd local authority led to a call for local authorities nationally to review their application of section 5 of the Wales safeguarding procedures. This relates to the management of allegations about professionals who work with vulnerable children or adults. An action plan has been devised by our authority to respond to the recommendations of that review.
72. 00:34:02 In conclusion, I want to thank our dedicated staff and partners for the continued commitment to delivering services in the challenging arena of safeguarding adults and children. Thank you, Susanna. I'll open up now to any questions from members. Councillor Mackey. Thank you. Thank you very much for the report and for being here. I wouldn't like your job. I don't think a lot of people would. So thank you very much for doing it.
73. 00:34:35 um yeah um i've got one or two questions that you might think are funny um paragraph 104 on page 125 at the top of the page and um yeah it's always difficult when we have paragraphs within numbered paragraphs
74. 00:34:57 I know sometimes it's the way it works, but it is difficult. So at the very top of page one, two, five, it says it's talking about the no printed copies of the safeguarding. It's all on the app. And it says somewhere in there it's on every app in the county. Is that right? It's available to anybody. Right. I couldn't find it online. So what do I look for?
75. 00:35:28 please that's question one it might be an icon that i've not got or whatever but i couldn't i actually went i looked at every icon sorry no it's on on here i don't i don't have apps on my phone it's on here i wanted to see it because it said it there right sorry chair we shouldn't do that i shouldn't do that really sorry ladies right um right okay i think you've covered this in 105
76. 00:35:58 you're talking about um the increase in in um in numbers in in referrals but um um right but there's no increase in in resources and i thought to myself don't like that so i'll ask you i wondered if you can explain how you're coping with more work
77. 00:36:26 with uh without increasing your resources because i thought to myself leader of council might want some um on 106 um this hoarding problem uh yeah you're not um right um
78. 00:36:51 i can't remember what my question was about that but it certainly made me think i did i wrote it down on 107 um um you have a vacant senior position um and that there has been a big increase there um so and i think you've more or less said this the the the the change in the in the law
79. 00:37:21 the revision of the reversal of the original decision hopefully has brought things back into equilibrium and we won't need that extra post that's really all my questions a bit garbled i'm terribly sorry thank you councillor and if i can respond uh first of all with regards to the it and it's not easy to find these things on the app
80. 00:37:50 But we do have an amazing IT team and colleagues, if you're willing to have a look, if you'd like us to. Really good question about how we're coping with more demand, but there's less resources. And that's exactly what the service review was began to look at. And what we established was that some areas of the service are having that increased demand, whereas other areas are having a decrease in demand.
81. 00:38:18 alluded to we have been able to look at how we can balance things better and spread the work across that resource without needing additional um i don't know if you can recall um the question about holding but i think michelle would be happy to answer it if you do was it a specific question about numbers or people or because i know you mentioned it but sorry
82. 00:38:54 question was yeah so just just to give a bit of context really so in in historically the adult at risk team have normally taken referrals for people who don't neatly fit into any of the other team's criterias and that involves people who self-neglect or hoarding
83. 00:39:15 or quite often have substance misuse issues so what we've been doing is working with the other teams and the mental health team have now set up their well-being service their well-being team and the social workers were brought back into social work
84. 00:39:31 teams from the mental health team so they're able to pick up some of those um people that would have historically been referred to us and now go into more appropriate services and the same with the substance issues teams is we're working very closely with them so they're able to give their support as well so um it enables us to to work with people with more complex issues that's the oh sorry i've got council couple first and i'll come to council list it
85. 00:40:05 Thank you, Chair. Just from the previous speaker in relation to apps and the sort of lack of visibility of them and it's an IT issue, could that not be put on some form of a work programme? Because the visibility of information is key, I find, and particularly on multi-agency events where lots and lots of folks have to chip in and do things. So if there is a problem and seems to be recognised as a problem, could we not put that on maybe a multi...
86. 00:40:35 work program going forwards is that something perhaps we could monitor that particular one through the action tracking margaret yeah we've got um some work which has developed from the joint committee around safeguarding and i think that's um what you know visibility and availability of the app is something that i think we could progress progress by that forum as well thank you councillor lister yeah um
87. 00:41:06 Thank you for the report and thank you for coming in today. I remember meeting at the Flint offices a year ago and it was very informative then just as it is today. So I'm focusing at the moment on the adult safeguarding and the increase in numbers and Councillor Mackey alluded to the fact that the numbers have gone up hugely and the resources have stayed static. I was just wondering what you felt whether any work had been done as to the causes of
88. 00:41:33 that going up because obviously demand for care and everything is increased massively and I'm just wondering whether the ability to provide the care to everybody who needs it is there and is that a reason that the numbers are going up for when they come to your door and whether
89. 00:41:51 although you need to be properly resourced and and absolutely be able to do your job safely whether the investment needs to be before it gets to you um to prevent that so i've just i was just wondering whether you had any answers to that but thank you yeah just just in response to your question so as suzanne alluded to earlier the service review is to look at all the staff in the team doing covering all areas rather than um you know before we had some pinch points in the safeguarding side so because the work
90. 00:42:23 as some of the work is going out to the mental health team which would have normally come to us we've had that bit of capacity so we've been able to to move some of the work across so that that's how we're coping with it because all the factors have come into play quite nicely um you know it's without needing that extra resource um so in relation to the um
91. 00:42:46 the work being done so i often work very well always work very closely with spower our front door and always look at the trends and the patterns so i've done lots of pieces of work i used to sit in there daily uh weekly um but but don't go so often now perhaps a couple of times a month but um and and what i'm able to do by sitting there is to identify where the inappropriate referrals are coming through because they might come into the front door um
92. 00:43:13 and we don't necessarily get to know about them because they're inappropriate so by by hearing that going on i've then we had 10 so i then went out to their team meeting sat in their team meeting talked to about inappropriate referrals so i think that they would have gone up more but we've been doing a piece of work to get rid of the inappropriate ones and but then i think as part of that it's there's been more education
93. 00:43:41 um and going to more care homes for example sitting in team meetings so the reporting is better i'd like to think there's better reporting and not there's more abuse um so yeah the numbers are going up but i think it's probably because we're doing that more bespoke stuff and better training um when to put a referral in and when not to so with those inappropriate referrals
94. 00:44:07 They've obviously come to you because there's an issue and it's not appropriate to come to you. But there is obviously something that needs addressing to perhaps further down the line, prevent them from ending up at your door. So I'm just wondering what's in place there. It doesn't be your threshold, but it is something that perhaps needs looking at or referring on to a different team.
95. 00:44:28 Eddie up for that question. And I think that's precisely why those referrals go through to our front door, the SPOA service, because that is a front door to all areas of the service, not just safeguarding. So that would be potentially an issue if it came just to safeguarding. But because it comes to the front door, they can identify if it's not safeguarding.
96. 00:44:48 but perhaps it could be for our older people service or our disability team, or they might need some care support and they're in the right place to tap into that then from that point. Thank you. Councillor Gladys Heaney. Thank you, Chair Dear Humbug. My question is on mental health for children. As we know, the consultants for mental health care for children is...
97. 00:45:25 I think last count there was only one in Flincher. My question is, before a person is assessed and brought to the consultant, what is the waiting list? That is my question. How long does a patient have to wait or a child have to wait to see somebody in mental health? What is the waiting list?
98. 00:45:56 Thank you. Dear Councillor, we refer on for mental health support for children, but we're not responsible for managing those waiting lists. That would be a health responsibility. So I'm afraid I don't have that particular data to hand. But if there are delays, then the allocated worker who's involved with that family would be tracking that and contacting health.
99. 00:46:28 or potentially getting advocates involved to put a case forward to why that service is needed and to keep an eye on when that can be achieved. I think there are no issues with health waiting lists, but I wouldn't have specific data to hand, I'm afraid. Thank you. I'll bring in the leader of the council next. Thank you. I'd just like to respond to Councillor Ackley's quote.
100. 00:46:57 you know we do spend 34 of our budget on social services which is massive our two biggest portfolios are education and social services and in 26 27 we've allocated another 6 million going into social services but a big thank you to the staff they appreciate all the hard work that you do i mean we're in torrid times and whilst i look at these budgets and i look and thinking where can we save money what can we do
101. 00:47:27 have to keep thinking about what our council tax going to be next year as well and that's a that's a big big problem for us i don't want to see nine percent council taxes or anything else but we have to be bold and we have to be brave with some of the some of the decisions we may have to make in the future but i'd just like to say thank you very much for all your hard work and all you do thank you i don't have any other members indicating to speak so we'll move to the recommendations
102. 00:48:01 and there's two in the report and the first is that scrutiny review safeguarding capacity and structure and the second is scrutiny agree the strengthening of quality assurance of practice development arrangements so do i have a mover for those councillor cunningham i've got councillor gladys healy seconding all those in favor that looks like everybody thank you that's carried
103. 00:48:33 We'll move to agenda item eight, which is the Care Inspectorate Wales Improvement Check of Adult Services. And I'll hand over to Karen Chambers to introduce the report. Thank you, Chair. Care Inspectorate Wales completed an improvement check of Adult Social Services in March this year, and that was further to a full performance and evaluation inspection that they undertook in late 2023.
104. 00:49:08 report presented to members today has summarized the outcome of that visit and that the overall response is that our services are making improvements in all areas and inspectors indicated that the management team and the workforce should continue to implement the planned activities that we've got as part of our improvement plan
105. 00:49:28 The priority is to keep working to both sustain and gain further improvement to make sure that the improvements that we have achieved so far are consistent and very crucially sustainable. The benefits that we're working to achieve through implementation of our new client system database.
106. 00:49:49 you can tell i'm not very techie but our new mosaic system is also recognized as a key part of not only supporting our frontline workforce but also supporting management to be able to much better understand our performance on a live on a live um
107. 00:50:06 perspective and a way of helping us to then further embed and assure good practice going forward and we look forward to that opportunity members will have noted that the inspectors recognize that the demand on social services continues to create significant challenges for the workforce and management team and that whilst there are improvements that we have made and that those should be recognized we do have to make further improvements and in a number of areas those are deemed as being necessary or
108. 00:50:34 referred to as must by by the care inspector at wales and this and these areas are those that require the local authority to work even smarter even harder and take things even further in order to meet our duties outlined in legislation regulations and codes of practice
109. 00:50:56 In continuing to support and ensure performance is achieved as outlined, it is also noted that there remained opportunities to further enhance service provision and outcomes for people and their carers. I'm pleased to report that inspectors noted that despite challenges that have been recognised and we've talked about further already this morning, social services continues to employ approaches that are innovative and or which consistently result in positive outcomes for people in receipt of our statutory services.
110. 00:51:25 it was very pleasing to note that the inspectors referenced that they had witnessed that people are treated with dignity and respect and that there are examples of good quality assessments where people's circumstances communication needs and views are well understood and if there could be any statement that encapsulated what we want to achieve for all people that we support within social services i think that that would be that would be the statement that we'd want to see applied to all of our service areas
111. 00:51:54 in addition so adult social services were noted to approach management of risk and safeguarding and the adoption of progressive approaches to support individuals and as being positive ways and examples of practice that we needed to and continue to adopt as part of the inspection ciw spoke to some of our key partners and determined that the way that we work with them is considered to be positive
112. 00:52:19 and members will note that they made reference to the fact that our system is complex and made particularly complex of course as we all recognize and have spoke about repeatedly through being a border um authority as well as part of the inspection we also so following this inspection we have
113. 00:52:40 also now updated and further refined our action plan so we have now got an action plan to help us identify how we're progressing in terms of all the improvement areas that we we want to work through and we will be working through the forward work program to bring updates to this and other committees to to explain the progress that we're making the chief officer
114. 00:53:07 continues to work with the cabinet council chief officer team as well as management team to create a high level of transparency relating to where our key risks are recognized and understood and what we're working to do working on in order to bring those areas under the even further improvement and other reports from the chief officer will that have come through today and through the year as well as the specific
115. 00:53:35 action updates that will come to this committee will we hope seek to provide members with further assurance that we're making the necessary improvements in the areas that have been identified that's a summary of of the report i also know that the members have received a copy of the letter from ciw and so i now um ask for any questions that i can provide an answer to thank you thank you karen counselor mackie
116. 00:54:09 okay i find i'd like to start off by saying in a very challenging report pack i found this to be the most challenging report um it was a difficult read it really was so i think the first thing and most important thing to say is that there are a whole mass of good comments from the inspectors
117. 00:54:39 a lot of positivity in there unfortunately there are also a number of improvements that are further required and we're talking here about having been a three-year gap between the original inspection and this look at how things were going now i went through this and and
118. 00:55:09 I would like to take you on a journey, if you don't mind, and I'm hoping the chair will let me do this. I'd like to start my journey on page 164. Now, this is the part of the letter from the inspectors. And if we look on page 164, we see item 416.
119. 00:55:38 and if we read that uh sorry first of all the the actual improvement proposal is shown in bold but if we look at the unbold the normal it says in there um right it says if you read it's the second set well yeah the second uh sentence starts in very few cases and i think that's important because it puts
120. 00:56:11 the re the the comment that we have to improve on into perspective if you look at i'm just going to stop at item uh 419 on the way should should there be some of that in bold uh i think probably the last paragraph last sentence should be in bold there right on page uh if i go to 425 um that one says um
121. 00:56:45 425 that also has in very few cases in it again i think that puts that comment into perspective i think this is what i'm trying to get across is i think what we're missing in the report is the perspective that these comments are made and and if we go on we'll see more uh i at 426.
122. 00:57:14 In sorts, in very few cases. So that's not a big problem. 427, in common with other authorities, I think it says. Yes, it starts with that. 434 talks about workforce issues. Well, we know we've got workforce issues. They're national. They're not local at all.
123. 00:57:49 436 talks about the new IT system. We're actually implementing a new IT system. We know the old one's been there a long time. We're doing the new one. So, you know, come on, wake up. And 438 talks about unpaid carers and mucus. And we've already had a report about how the numbers there have rocketed.
124. 00:58:16 in the since nucleus took over that so um right so what i would like to propose if i'm allowed to i think i am is that i think scrutiny should be involved in following the progress of these items and i think you've actually said that in your summary right um
125. 00:58:45 but i think what i would like to see is these improvement items in context so that we as counselors know whether they are a few items or they're a or they're a significant problem because just on their own they don't tell us that so i'd like to know that um i'd like to know
126. 00:59:10 what the plan is and this may already be something that you're proposing i'd like to know two things actually about the plan i'd like to know what we have to do to overcome the issue now it might be more staff it might be changing process or whatever and if it's relevant what we could do if for some reason we couldn't do the
127. 00:59:41 thing that says this is what we have to do so in other words if it says we have to employ four more staff and we find we can only employ one more staff then let's see what that involves so we've got a comparison right and i also would like time scales on that and i'd like that to be coming to scrutiny because if it was three years since they last came it might be three years again and i think scrutiny should be seeing how these
128. 01:00:11 uh improvement items are progressing and i think you've probably already said you're going to do that um over the course of the next few years so that when they come back not only can the inspectors look at what's been going on in the department but we'll also be able to look at how we as a scrutiny committee have followed these items through having put them into perspective having having looked at what how we could
129. 01:00:41 uh resolve the problem and then how we've actually done that over the time right i hope that is okay thank you thank you councillor mackie so um first i'll respond to your um responses to the letter that
130. 01:01:05 care inspectorates wales center was when you were referring to the paragraph so this of course is the report from from care inspectorate wales and in terms of us have how we use this report to help us understand the scale of an issue if you like we refer to the to the back of so appendix 2 within the report that tells us that when they refer to a very few in their context it's less than it's less than 10 so so um i
131. 01:01:35 i i think that from from my perspective and perhaps offering perhaps an alternative narrative is when i read that i read that i read that with with a level of of satisfaction in as much as while the care inspectorate were identified that they didn't see full consistency and therefore couldn't report that that actually nonetheless uh left in less than 10 percent of cases they'd seen
132. 01:02:02 the alternative so so i i i welcome um the the ability to really stress that that although we recognize we have improvements we we have been able to see from the from the care inspector at wales the order of those improvements um and that whilst we don't rest on our laurels we've we've a proportionality in terms of what we need to do so so i i hope that helps hope that helps in relation to
133. 01:02:30 to that that um that discussion in relation to the request for a detailed action plan i can provide assurance that's actually since this report has been written that action plan has now already been completed i believe that's due to come back to this committee as part of the forward work program so
134. 01:02:51 we've written the action plan we're already we're already working on it and by the time we return we'll start to give you a sense of the improvements that we're already working on and in terms of how we've helped to prioritize that action plan we have focused if we were to prioritize ciw have talked to us about some recommendations or some or improvement areas and they use the word must
135. 01:03:19 and in other areas they were use the word should and they have they have a specific meaning so the must is you must do these things in order to to comply with legislation to be code of practice etc to remain to remain a local authority that can can can achieve um the performance that from a legislation we require you to as a regulator the must the beg your pardon the shoulds are where actually we've got we've got opportunity to
136. 01:03:46 to go that bit further to do things to it to a level that we that we would want to do for our for our um residents but from a ciw regulatory perspective they've got a slightly different ability to to um take action should we not do those things i suppose so within our within our action plan those are clearly those are clearly differentiated i will take back councillor mackie your request in relation to
137. 01:04:14 because the action plan currently says what we want to do i think i will reflect and say about if we can't achieve these what might be the next best best option which is how i hope i've interpreted your request correctly thank you chair for this opportunity yeah i think you can see where i'm coming from here what i'm trying to say is we're the councillors this is your committee we should be making decisions and i
138. 01:04:48 i think this is an opportunity for us to look at what we have to do and if there's options about how we do it this committee should make those decisions because that's sometimes sometimes the offices are taking it upon themselves to make the decisions when in fact we're here and it's the office it's for members to make decisions and and i think it would help the process
139. 01:05:19 better if we were more aware of this is what we're being asked to do this is what we can do this is how we can do it and and we can decide for you which options we wish to take i'm getting a nod from over there which is quite good and that's what i'm trying to get across if you can see what where i'm coming from yeah thank you chair i think it's the terminology that they use now personally i don't like percentages
140. 01:05:51 I would prefer actuals because I can work percentages out myself. And I think really, as councillors, we need to see actuals so we can see exactly to what extent that the problem arises. If you say a few, is a few two? Is it five? If you were dealing with a thousand, would you say a few could be 50? So I think actuals are really...
141. 01:06:19 what we require. And if we can talk to the Inspectorate and we can put that over, we would like to see actuals being in the report. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Councillor Hughes. Councillor Lister. Thank you. I was quite interested in paragraph 1.21, and I know it came up in the safeguarding report as well, the deprivation of liberty assessments.
142. 01:06:48 It mentions the Cheshire West ruling being overturned by the Northern Ireland ruling. And I just wanted to know what that is like, how that actually translate in practice. What is the difference between the two assessments? Because I wasn't quite sure. I could have gone and looked it up and I haven't done. And the other one is the mental capacity assessments. Who completes them? Is that social workers or is that medical professionals? Thank you. That's a good question.
143. 01:07:20 um so i'm not a legal advisor so bear that in mind but in terms of the cheshire west judgment um it made a very sort of clear-cut distinction that if somebody lacks capacity um maybe they've got dementia or alzheimer's and they're in a home it was it was almost automatic they're being restricted of their liberty and so everybody in that situation um essentially came under the scope of the doll's work
144. 01:07:50 The new ruling has basically looked at the validity of consent that people can give to their care arrangements, even if they lack capacity. So an example might be somebody who does have those difficulties, has Alzheimer's, has dementia, but they're very settled and quite contented and are communicating in some way that they are in agreement with their living arrangements. And there are many.
145. 01:08:19 uh individuals in that situation um and the lesser number of people who are actively objecting to their homes would be the ones that now you know coming within the scope of the adults framework sorry you did ask about the mental capacity assessments and those do come from health professionals i just wanted to say that um capacity assessments are completed
146. 01:08:55 for dolls by health professionals but across the service social workers and occupational therapists also create complete mental capacity assessments depending what the decision is at that time so if it's related to a day-to-day decision or going into a care home in the first place a social worker might do that if it's a decision about a bit of equipment
147. 01:09:22 or how someone's going to be supported and an occupational therapist might do that on a day-to-day basis as well thank you councillor gladys healy we haven't got you unmuted yet councillor healy can i just come in just give it sorry while councillor healy's sorting that out can i just um just give a bit of background to why we're considering this report today um the chief officer craig mccloud he offered to bring the
148. 01:10:36 high level report as quickly as possible before the recess and as you can see the date of the this letter came i think it's the 18th of june so this is a high level report and how we move move this forward comes to the it's on the forward work program in october so the detail and the what and the how will be coming to that one for members comments thank you i can see that you're still struggling councillor healy to come off mute so um
149. 01:11:09 I'll move to any other members if I've got any. I'm unmuted now. I'm sorry about that. That's why I don't like to have Zoom. Can I just ask a question? We are here making the decisions are being made by social services and health professionals, but I haven't heard. What about the family?
150. 01:11:39 What about the next of kin? What happens in these cases? I haven't heard any mention of them. Thank you, Chair. Councillor Healy, sorry, apologies if you could reference, do you mean in relation to mental capacity in particular? Yes, yes. So the question is how families and individuals are involved in mental capacity assessments? Yes.
151. 01:12:15 Thank you. I'll hand over to Ben, just for any counsellors who haven't met Ben before. Ben James, he's the service manager for localities, including older people, occupational therapy and our adults front door, just for everybody's awareness. Thank you. Thank you, counsellor. So the mental capacity assessment itself is completed by a professional.
152. 01:12:41 So that's an assessment following legal guidelines in the Mental Capacity Act. That isn't a decision-making process about what happens next. That would come under a best interest decision. And in that best interest decision, we involve all relevant parties to that decision.
153. 01:13:04 it is not always the local authority or the health professional that is the decision maker in those incidents um quite often individuals have decided to have a power of attorney for them so that individual then becomes the decision maker and also there is a deputieship which the court protection um bestows on somebody to be and then they become a decision maker in that
154. 01:13:35 this for that decision but we always ensure that we discuss the matter with all relevant people and provide all of the information that we can if someone else is the decision maker so that would be assessments on social care assessments ot assessments what have you said they get able to be fully informed to make that decision themselves if that's required thank you chair thank you i don't have any other members indicating to speak so
155. 01:14:05 We'll move to the recommendations. There are two in the report. One is that members welcome the steps taken by the local authority to address areas for improvement identified in the 2023 inspection, which demonstrates progress in all areas. And the second is that members support the development of a comprehensive action plan to secure further improvement to meet statutory duties and achieve consistent, sustainable and assured practice across adult services and agree to receive an annual update on progress.
156. 01:14:35 so i'll look for a mover for those two councillor cunningham and councillor healy to second all those in favor that looks like everybody um i'll ask for any against just in case no any abstentions no okay that's carried thank you and we'll move on to agenda item nine which is the update on the care inspectorate wales action plan progress children's services
157. 01:15:09 pass over to sarah grant to introduce the report thank you chair thank you everybody so in the pack um i'll just start off by saying that you will have seen the letter um you will have seen an action plan the current action plan that's live you'll have seen a couple of audit tool forms um which i have put together and also you'll see the performance data so they're all really important because what they they do is put some context
158. 01:15:40 to the improvement journey in terms of where we're at so um care inspector at wales um inspects local authorities as we know under the social services and well-being act 2014 and what they're doing is assessing how effectively we support and improve outcomes for people ciw carried out a performance improvement visit of lynchshire children's social care from the 14th to the 16th of july
159. 01:16:08 2025 so it's actually a year ago so uh yeah there we are anniversary today uh this week following up on progress since the november 2023 performance evaluation inspection the report um that's in your pack provides an update on the progress following the performance improvement visit in july 2025. we work at
160. 01:16:37 a pace on this um day in day out it's it's the day job in terms of what we're doing um alongside all of the other day job that we're doing kind of operationally so um i very much am over the improvement plan and we are working uh constantly to make sure that we don't lose our lens on that action plan so overall i'm pleased to report
161. 01:17:05 that children's services has demonstrated some clear improvement across the areas identified by ciw 12 months ago significant progress has been made in strengthening safeguarding arrangements improving performance oversight which you will see from the data that's in the pack embedding quality assurance processes
162. 01:17:30 which I can talk you a bit more through those audit tools if you've got any questions. Those are literally live in the last couple of weeks. So we've moved on again since I've written the report and enhancing multi-agency working. We have seen measurable improvements in frontline safeguarding performance. It's not perfect, but we are absolutely making good headway.
163. 01:17:57 with all reserves referrals receiving timely decision making stronger management oversight and improved compliance with key statutory requirements so i've the new performance reporting and auditing and practice improvement arrangements are helping to drive that greater consistency and accountability across the service just to note one of the things that i've driven within children's services is making sure that those
164. 01:18:27 weekly performance reports that come out have a lens from the managers and the assist and the dtm the deputy team managers so that every week they've got a lens on are children safe our children seem to be safe so because there's a difference um there so that performance monitoring is very much down into now those operational management oversight on a weekly basis
165. 01:18:58 We've continued to progress our care closer to home agenda, expanding our local residential and accommodation options for children and young people, while strengthening support for our foster carers, our special guardians and our care leavers. However, there's always a however, the most significant challenge remains, as we know, in our recruitment and retention of experienced social workers. Whilst there are encouraging signs through our recruitment,
166. 01:19:27 university partnerships and our grow our own workforce programs competition from neighboring authorities continues to impact our ability to recruit permanent staff but we don't give up as a result agency workers remain necessary at the moment to ensure safe service delivery while we build a more sustainable workforce
167. 01:19:51 and i can bring some positives um that again are alive this week with regards to some of our grow our own so in summary what i'm hoping is from the report that's in the pack it demonstrates a service that is moving in the right direction with strong evidence of improvement and a clear focus on addressing the remaining workforce and capacity challenges
168. 01:20:14 We will continue to work closely with CIW to sustain the positive trajectory and deliver the best possible outcomes for Flinch's children and families. So if there's any questions, Chair. Thank you, Sarah. Councillor Mackie. Wow. So, right. Yeah. I think you were talking about what I call context and...
169. 01:20:45 how how big and also what uh what the leader said about how you know how big is this football um and that is so important because that tells us a great deal as i'm sure you've picked up um and and it's knowing that size of problem which matters to us and so on but right you're already on a track you're already going down the track uh that's great um
170. 01:21:16 as long as we've got a chance of following it i think that's important so that we can show to the inspectors that we are involved and we're following the plan and everything else so i'm yeah i'm very much in favor of everything but i do have to just make a comment this is the device that we are given as counselors to look to read your reports on and um the screen just ain't big enough particularly if you get
171. 01:21:44 a big a big um spreadsheet and i can't read that no no it's just if you and and the other one is it comes out the same so if if you could just bear that in mind um the the you know that that's what we're looking at and um it i couldn't it didn't work for me that
172. 01:22:12 Thank you, Councillor Mackay. I fully take that on board. In terms of, I think if you were able to kind of view it on a bigger screen, I think what you would see there is that live action plan of the improvements that we're making. We're actually just now this week updating it again. So we will have moved on again from that action plan. We update it every three months.
173. 01:22:36 our action plan to ensure that we are we've got the red amber greens we're ensuring that we're on track with everything so some of that has moved on yet again um so it yeah it's not ideal in terms of like you say the size of the document but i think for the context um it's important that it is in the pack sarah you mentioned um that you had some recent positive examples from the grow your own
174. 01:23:06 would you be able to just go into that i know the committee's been quite interested in that scheme in the past yes so uh this is really positive and again it's very live as we talk um so um a couple of months ago i made a visit to rexham university to with some colleagues to talk about um uh to talk to the three third year social work students and i think what became really apparent um in that forum
175. 01:23:37 was that we are very good in flintshire we offer a lot of placements for our social work students um and when i we kind of went around the room it was very much well i'm on placement in flintshire i'm with adults i'm with education i'm with children and i thought this is really positive so we we have got a very good um buy-in from the university in terms of our students so myself and my colleagues sort of seized that opportunity and thought well this is one the um
176. 01:24:03 that the year threes are coming through now and graduating and in the good old-fashioned way i went around with the paper and got everybody's email addresses and just you know contact details and then came back and we did a bespoke advert for specifically around newly qualified social workers when our newly qualified social workers come into post they have to come in to start with on a csa a children's services assistant
177. 01:24:32 uh jd until they actually get their qualification in their hand which is normally a couple of months later so the job description that went out was for a csa role which then of course attracted a lot more people as well who weren't actually on the social work training so we have seized this opportunity and gone well actually this is our future this is our grow our own this is a possible invest to save so we have talked this through
178. 01:25:01 we have we are now interviewing um a number and quite a large number of those potential candidates over the next couple of weeks which is really really positive for flintshire because the cvs are strong some you know good backgrounds good experience so i just think we have to kind of really celebrate
179. 01:25:24 areas like that and whilst we continue to manage high levels of agency staff in our frontline teams with all of that high risk work at the other end of it we are moving things on but of course it takes time for those things to come to fruition so i just think that's something we need to celebrate thank you so yeah that's incredibly positive to hear so thank you for giving that context councillor lister
180. 01:25:54 Thank you. It's a very, very thorough report, so there's not much to ask. But I was kind of tuning in, really, to what you were saying, that the structure and the managerial bit is all set, isn't it, for the authority to thrive. I was just wondering about sort of the line management system and the size of the teams that go out and deliver this service. How big are they? Is there mentoring for, you know, right from the bottom?
181. 01:26:24 you know the the entry levels jobs right through to the um the managerial positions and and yeah how that sort of quality and consistency which is a theme that comes through isn't it making sure that every um that quality and consistency is there is there any is there any information that you can give me on on the so yeah the line management structure really of of how this will work
182. 01:26:45 so so if i use the example of newly qualified social workers coming in now they will be very carefully mentored and supported through their first three years in practice and through that journey they will have a they will have a mentor they will have an assessor that sits with them and helps them and supports them they'll have protected caseloads to start with and they will actually be on that journey that development journey because it you know some
183. 01:27:11 it can be quite scary there's no other way to put that really in terms of you know that the risks and and the things that people are out there doing and seeing and responding to so there's very very much um that mentoring in terms of
184. 01:27:28 as they as a social worker newly qualified social worker progresses they have opportunities to workforce development to do all of that professional continued professional development training certainly if they want to progress into the management side there are management programs so our wealth workforce development team and i know this is something you you want to bring on the forward walk forward work plan which i think is really really important actually because i think it would add some context
185. 01:27:54 questions that are being asked around training development and the future um kind of grow our own and how people go from there to there so there's absolutely really good training programs that we're supported with through workforce development the one that's particularly relevant is the team manager development program and so it's that middle management um i've done that course it's it's a really good course because it it takes you from that operational aspect through to more of that strategic
186. 01:28:22 um thinking um which doesn't come naturally for a lot of people when you've been so operational so yeah hope that's answered your question back again so that's brilliant thank you when on the sort of day-to-day of social work is fairly lone working i presume and there's a lot of important decision making is there opportunities for teams to come together
187. 01:28:47 to you know to improve that consistency if that makes sense that that that day-to-day working as a group of people as a group of professionals rather than being out and alone working all the time absolutely um i would say well you know for me personally when i was practicing as a social worker having that that peer group having that core team to go back to having that manager to go back to to talk to to bounce things off to reflect was really really important
188. 01:29:15 that hasn't changed. The peer support and the formal and informal supervision that goes on day in, day out is really, really strong. We've also got our effective child protection lead now that's in post and is developing all of our collaborative communication work and our effective child protection model. She's also providing reflective group discussions and all of that is being started to be embedded into practice.
189. 01:29:43 Absolutely. There's team manager forums. I absolutely encourage the teams to meet with each other because what happens at the front door impacts everybody else as well. It's really important that they don't work in their silos, but actually they pull together. They might need support. The front door might need support from a different team with an issue. So that is very, very much encouraged. Absolutely. I don't have any other hands up.
190. 01:30:15 we'll move to the recommendations um there's two in the report one that scrutiny no progress and the traction achieved in securing service improvements through the care inspector wales action plan and two that scrutiny recognizes the ongoing challenges associated with recruiting permanent child care social workers and supports the continued targeted action to safely and systematically reduce reliance on agency staff have a mover for those cancer lister a seconder
191. 01:30:43 counselor gladys healy all those in favor i think that's everybody thank you that's carried and we will now move on to agenda item 10 the final agenda item which is the council plan end of year performance report 2025 2026 now on this one um given that we have this annually um and i think all of the
192. 01:31:13 items that are relevant to the portfolio are green rated and there isn't really anything for officers to introduce as such so i'll just open it up to members for any questions or comments on the report if there are any no not really um i i don't have anybody indicating um i'll just find the recommendations in the report excuse me chair it's just confusing this report because
193. 01:31:56 There's all sorts of housing issues which are actually defined under social services. And that worries me. I don't quite understand that at all. And the whole thing, I looked at some of the issues that they're seeking to improve and they didn't seem incredibly relevant in my view. Thank you, Councillor Mackey.
194. 01:32:37 don't have any other members indicating so we'll move to the recommendation which is that uh scrutiny review and provide comments and observations on the council plan end of year performance report councillor bibby is that to move brilliant thank you and councillor buckley to second uh all those in favor any against any abstentions no problem uh well thank you that concludes the meeting deal thank you to members and officers