Hampshire County Council Item 3

27 January 2005

  

Cabinet

Item 7

24 January 2005

  

Strategic Management - Children & Adult Services

Report of the Chief Executive

1. Summary & Recommendations

1.1 The Children Act became law in November 2004. A requirement of the Act is to establish a post of Director of Children's Services by 2008 although the expectation is that most Authorities will have such a post in place by 2006.

1.2 In establishing a Directorate of Children's Services there are significant implications for the County Council. Although the Education Department and the Social Services Department are most obviously affected, the implications concern the whole organisation.

1.3 This report sets out the position currently reached in responding to the Act and recommends that the Children's aspects of the Education and Social Services Departments are brought together under common management and recommends the creation of a Directorate of Adult Care Services. It is proposed that arrangements to reconfigure the organisation are commenced immediately and the purpose of this report is to seek endorsement to the way forward.

2. High Level Overview

2.1 Key points to note are:-

3. Cabinet and the Children's Services Board

3.1 A Children's Services Board, reporting direct to the Cabinet was established in July 2004 following consideration of future management arrangements by the Cabinet. The Board is Chaired by the Chief Executive and comprises the County Education Officer; the Director of Social Services; the County Treasurer; representatives from the three School sectors; a representative each from the Strategic Health Authority and Primary Care Trusts and the Voluntary/Community Sector. It is also attended by the Police at Assistant Chief Constable level and by the Chief Executive of Connexions, although Membership in relation to the last two posts has not been formalised. Since July 2004, the Board has met regularly to develop proposals for improving outcomes for Children, reconfiguring services in a way which will deliver fully integrated provision, on a local basis related to need, whilst at the same time, considering the way in which high level performance will be monitored in order to gauge levels of improvement and success. There have been no matters for decision as the emphasis has been on wide consultation with partners.

3.2 The Act has five key aims. The responsibility for delivering these aims falls on the Children's Services Authority i.e. the County Council, which must make arrangements to promote co-operation between partners and others who exercise functions or engage in activities relating to children in the Authority's area.

3.3 The following sets out in the left hand column the five areas designed to improve the well being of children. The description in the right hand part of the box sets out work recently undertaken by Government working with its partners from the statutory and voluntary and community sector to define what the five outcomes mean.

Be healthy Physically healthy

        Mentally and emotionally healthy

        Sexually healthy

        Healthy lifestyles

        Choose not to take illegal drugs

        Parents, carers and families promote healthy choices

Stay Safe Safe from maltreatment, neglect, violence and sexual exploitation

        Safe from accidental injury and death

        Safe from bullying and discrimination

        Safe from crime and anti-social behaviour in and out of school

        Have security, stability and are cared for

        Parents, carers and families provide safe homes and stability

Enjoy and achieve Ready for school

        Attend and enjoy school

        Achieve stretching national educational standards at primary school

        Achieve personal and social development and enjoy recreation

        Achieve stretching national educational standards at secondary school

        Parents, carers and families support learning

Make a positive Engage in decision-making and support the community and
Contribution environment

        Engage in law-abiding and positive behaviour in and out of school

        Develop positive relationships and choose not to bully and discriminate

        Develop self-confidence and successfully deal with significant life changes and challenges

        Develop enterprising behaviour

        Parents, carers and families promote positive behaviour

Achieve economic Engage in further education, employment or training on
well-being leaving school

        Ready for employment

        Live in decent homes and sustainable communities

        Access to transport and material goods

        Live in households free from low income

        Parents, carer and families are supported to be economically active

4. Consultation

4.1 A first stage consultation exercise was launched at the beginning of November 2004 posing five questions to which a response was requested. A copy of this consultation was sent to all Members of the County Council. The questions and a summary of comments received is attached as Appendix 1. These comments generally support the approach being taken by the County Council. This first phase consultation concluded on 15 December 2004.

5. Needs Analysis

5.1 The results of this first phase consultation have been used to inform the plans developed to date. The intention is to develop a needs analysis which will enable the County Council to deploy its resources, ideally alongside the resources of its partners, on an evidentially robust basis. Essentially this requires us to analyse the differing requirements of groups of children and the professional and support arrangements available to meet their needs and then configure integrated service delivery on a local basis, supported by appropriate management arrangements, designed to deliver improvements under the five headings covered by the Act. It is intended to undertake a second consultation round towards the end of February, which will last for approximately eight weeks, in order to test the more detailed proposals that will then have emerged for service delivery options.

6. Targets for Improvement

6.1 As mentioned earlier in the report, a considerable amount of work has been done to set outcome based targets. In December 2004 the Government published "Every Child Matters: Change for Children" which included the Outcomes Framework attached as Appendix 2. Most of the work undertaken by the County Council fits with the Authority National Targets and other indicators identified in the centre of the chart and work continues to establish any gaps in data and other targets which may be more appropriate locally.

6.2 The first annual assessment of the County Council's children's services will be undertaken in mid 2005 and it is not yet known if Hampshire County Council will have a Joint Area Review in 2005 or later. The JAR is a review of all children services in the Hampshire County Council area (including partners). The annual assessment produces the ratings for the children's element of the Corporate Performance Assessment (CPA).

7. Director of Children's Services

7.1 A timeline for statutory requirements coming into effect is also attached at Appendix 3. As can be seen from the third line, it is stated that most Local Authorities are expected to appoint a Director of Children's Services towards the end of 2006. It is recommended that the County Council should proceed to make this appointment immediately. It is important that there is organisational certainty over future arrangements. The requirement under the Act as it currently stands is for a Director to be appointed within the timelines indicated, i.e. there must be such an appointment by 2008. Authorities are also required to designate a Lead Member for Children's Services.

7.2 At the moment these responsibilities are discharged by the Children's Services Board in effect acting as the Director of Children's Services and the Cabinet collectively acting as the Lead Member for Children's Services. Having a lengthy period between now and moving to these arrangements is likely to create uncertainty and be destabilising organisationally. Work is currently underway to define a job specification for the Director post by the end of January in order that recruitment can commence immediately with a view to appointment around Easter. The same timescale is recommended later in the report in relation to establishing a new post of Director of Adult Care Services. At the same time whilst it may be possible to identify some of the other posts in the top team, for example, Resource and Finance Director, it needs to be pointed out at this stage that other key members of the Management Team will depend upon the precise configuration of integrated services at the point of delivery and the intermediate management arrangements between those services and the head office function. It is recommended that the detailed arrangements for integrated service delivery and intermediate management are formulated before the other management team posts are recruited to. The timescale for this is expected to be following the second phase consultation arrangement i.e. May/June. It is also recommended that opportunities are taken to explore the possibility of joint posts within the management structure with the Strategic Health Authority/PCTs in order to maximise the potential benefits from partnership working.

7. Scrutiny Arrangements

7.1 Scrutiny is through the existing Policy Review Committee arrangements. These will require revision once the revised structure has been agreed, before implementation.

8. Asset Related Issues

9.1 Opportunities will be sought to consolidate use of assets where practicable and relocate to achieve operational improvements, particularly at the front line. A property review is about to be initiated - this will include property held by partners subject to their agreement to participate in the exercise.

9. Adult Care Services

9.1 If the recommendations for the establishment of a Children's Services Directorate are followed, it is recommended that at the same time a new Directorate of Adult Care Services is established with recruitment of the Director taking place within the same timescale as the Director of Children's Services.

10.2 Expenditure on Adult Services is circa £200m and there is considerable partnership working involved especially with Health Services. The County Council is pursuing a number of innovative approaches in this area e.g. the Enhance Project and the Innovation Forum Project. Overall, this suggests that this important area should be a department in its own right with a seat on the Corporate Management Team (CMT).

9.2 During the setting up process, opportunities should be investigated to combine resources where practicable, e.g. support services such as resources, finance, IT etc rather than creating separate support arrangements for each Directorate.

9.3 The responsibilities for a new post of Director of Adult Services is likely to be spelled out in the Government's Green Paper on the future of Social Care which is expected by the end of January. Several Authorities have already made such appointments, in some instances combining Adult and Older Persons Social Care with other parts of their structures or the NHS. The same principles apply as indicated in the first part of the report, i.e. there are opportunities for partnership arrangements including joint appointments. The new Commission for Social Care Inspection, will, during the course of this year, be commenting on the plans Local Authorities have in place to discharge adult care responsibilities, alongside responsibilities for children.

9.4 Making both Director appointments at the same time is appropriate because:-

9.5 Because of the lead in time to the Children Act, it was possible to set up Corporate Project Teams to develop the approach during 2004. It will be important to move rapidly to set up parallel corporate project arrangements for Adult Care Services.

10. Details of the role

10.1 It is expected that the Green Paper will promote personalised care. This is likely to involve "personalised budgets" with more flexibility and a greater drive to ensure that these are made available to individuals so that they can choose their own care directions/packages. Social Care is also likely to be set in a wider context of community and individual development. This approach is consistent with the County Council's own developmental approach to services for older persons in line with the corporate agenda being developed by the Member Officer Working Group led by Councillor Glasspool.

10.2 There is likely to be a greater need to co-ordinate via community development with provision of care packages as the solution of last resort. Localness will increasingly become important both within the CPA and the inspection regimes, with responsibilities on Councils to ensure that local communities are well served across the spectrum from play facilities for children under the Children Act to lifelong learning and support, within a community framework for adults.

10.3 The Adult Services Authority is likely to be responsible for commissioning and enabling the development of a number of services to vulnerable adults which they can purchase with a degree of assurance because they will have been ratified in some way by the Local Authority, e.g. gardening, repairs, etc. This will link in well with work the Council is already undertaking via Trading Standards ensuring quality contractors etc.

10.4 Whilst it is premature at this stage to consider the final structural implications, there is no doubt that there will be an increased requirement to commission across a range of partners including the NHS and the Independent Sector as well as District Councils. It is also possible that the Green Paper may revive the issue of Care Trusts, in line broadly, with what is being proposed in relation to Children.

12. Inspection Arrangements

12.1 The Comprehensive Performance Assessment for Children's and Education Services will be combined and there will be a separate judgement for Adult Services. This will affect the weighting of the overall scores under the CPA regime.

12.2 The inspection regime is likely to focus on a wide range of responses by Adult Services Authorities such as inclusion; prevention/early intervention; safeguarding services; together with collaborative partnerships and community development.

13. Trade Union Consultation

13.1 As arrangements are firmed up for the organisational structure below, Director level trade union consultations will be undertaken in accordance with existing protocols.

14. Recommendation

14.1 To endorse actions taken to date and note current progress.

14.2 To agree the proposals for proceeding with the appointments of a Director of Children's Services and a Director of Adult Care Services as soon as possible.

Section 100D - Local Government Act 1972 - Background papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB the list includes: