Contact: Joanna White, 01962 847229, [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1. The purpose of this report is to outline a departmental workforce plan for Children's Services for 2008/9 in line with corporate reporting requirements. The report contains a number of Appendices that are referred to in the report. A summary of the workforce as at 31 March 08 is shown as Appendix 1. A summary of proposed changes is shown as Appendix 2. During the year, in order to respond effectively to needs identified there will be further changes in the deployment and focus of staff within the overall funding available. The major factors are identified within the report.

2 Recommendations

That the Executive Lead Member for Children's Services approves the Workforce Plan for 2008/2009 together with the staffing changes identified in the report and the continuing need for the workforce to develop and change to continue to deliver services in line with the aims of the Children Act and local need.

3 Vision and Direction

3.1 Underpinning the delivery of services are the five aims of the Children Act. Changes to the overall workforce as detailed in this report are intended to strengthen the Children's Services Department's ability to secure progress towards the 10 priorities within the overall strategic direction and within the context of the wider County Council and Partnership strategy and purpose and the Childrens and Young People's Plan (CYPP).

3.2 This report contains details of both additions and reductions in staff in various services in the department. The department intends to continue to review staffing within individual services to ensure it remains fit for purpose and has the skills-set needed for the future. The department's Strategic Workforce Development Plan complements this report by setting out the key areas of organisational and staff development that will support the overall strategic direction of the department.

3.3 This report details the incremental changes being effected to achieve the level of integrated working required to deliver the overall vision for the workforce in five years' time. The basic principles driving the workforce structures and development are:

· Greater integration of the various professional and service groupings within the department, so that all can demonstrate a common understanding of the communities they serve and the contribution each service makes to them

· Increasing integration of school and multi-agency leadership within communities so that a multi-agency grouping, with strong influence from Children's Services, can lead integrated service delivery to achieve the best outcomes for that community

· A strengthened organisational performance management framework to ensure the local leaders and managers have access to qualitative and quantitative data and information to inform local multi agency decision making

· Increasing multi-agency (including schools and the voluntary sector) co-operation and joint working on organisational, leadership and management development, core skills and induction

· A workforce that works flexibly, with the IT skills needed to enable `work anywhere' approaches that support a rationalisation of the office accommodation needs and reduced travel through the use of the nearest convenient flexible work base.

The collective skills of the workforce that will need to be enhanced and developed to achieve this include:

· Strengthened ability to work with partners (including schools and the voluntary sector) and elected members at a strategic and operational level to provide leadership to local communities

· Greater understanding across the department of the work of all teams and the contribution each service can make to a community

· Breadth and depth of common core skills that then enable greater choices and flexibility of professional pathways

· Ability to lead and manage multi-disciplinary, multi-professional and multi-agency teams.

· Flexible working skills including IT competencies

4 Workforce Profile

4.1 The age profile is broadly in line with that of the County with significant numbers of staff in the range 45 - 59. Further work is required to ensure succession planning and the structure of the department takes this into account.

4.2 The department has seen a number of flexible retirements whereby subject to agreement an individual can reduce their working hours and/or the level of their work. This has helped retain expertise and assist in succession planning.

4 Progress on the overall Structure for Children's Services

5.1 The department restructure was implemented and became fully operational in January 2007. Since then there have been a number of refinements and changes. The welcoming of the former South Central Connexions staff into the integrated Services for Young People and the restructuring of the social care workforce following the additional £600k injection of revenue funding in the 2008/09 budget are the major change factors this year. There are also a number of more minor, but no less significant changes across other services. These changes are aligned to overall departmental priorities as identified in the Childrens and Young People's Plan and reflected in the re-prioritisation of funding within the 08/09 budget and across the 3 year budget setting cycle.

5.2 Pilot in Hart - single District Manager

5.2.1 In 2007 the decision was taken to pilot the approach of having a single District Manager post in Hart. The promotion of the post holder to an Area Director role provides a suitable opportunity to reassess the pilot. On balance, mindful of the current needs within Hart, and the work load on any individual the management team have decided to appoint an additional District Manager in Hart, to match the structures in all other Districts.

5.3 Education and Inclusion Senior Management Team

5.3.1 The retirement of the County Services Manager, Strategy, later in the year affords a good opportunity to review the accountabilities at the senior level and to further develop integration across Children's Services. The proposal is to realign the accountabilities across the senior team and to have an over-arching County Manager for Educational Improvement who will lead educational improvement right through from 4-19. There would be a range of people reporting to the post, who would be responsible for carrying out the strategy, including the strategic manager for integrated youth, the extended schools officer and the health and well-being team.

5.3.2 Each of the Education and Inclusion Area Directors will assume lead responsibility across the County for one of:

National strategy work for behaviour and attendance Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement (EMTAS), Education of vulnerable children, other than those with SEN or from ethnic minority backgrounds (also supported by a new senior adviser post - see 5.5). 

5.4 Locality Teams

5.4.1 The roll out of the Locality teams, working in districts and bringing together expertise centred on the needs of individual children and involving expert interventions as required, has been completed successfully and the teams are working well. Core team members are Education Welfare Officers and Inclusion Social Workers, together with new Family Support Workers. The experience from these team will inform the social care review referred to in section 6.1

5.5 Team for the Education of Children in care (TECIC)

5.5.1 Improvements in outcomes for Children looked After is a top priority for Children's Services, and is one of the key targets in the LAA.. Performance of Children Looked After in educational tests and exams, while in line with national averages, falls far short of the aspirations of the County Council for these children and young people. A number of changes are underway to strengthen the services for this vulnerable group, and the remodelling of the TECiC is one of those changes.

5.5.2 Following a consultation exercise a revised structure is proposed that should have both the resources and the authority to enable Children's Services to make better provision for the educational success of children in care. The team will be fully integrated into existing structures. Additional support workers and dedicated education welfare officers will underpin support for children in the community.

The proposal strengthens the work of Inclusion Managers by providing 3 additional posts, one in each area, reporting to the Inclusion Manager, plus a Senior adviser to lead on county wide issues on the education of vulnerable children.

The implementation of the new structure will start with the appointment of the Lead Adviser as soon as possible who will then work with HR to implement the structure giving priority to placing current staff within the revised structure

5.6 Adult and Family Learning

5.6.1 Following a decision by CMT staff in the adult and family learning team have transferred to the Recreation and Heritage department. This reflects a national move towards "informal" adult learning and consolidates the R and H expertise and capacity in their delivery of services to their adult customers. The effective date was 1 April. Staff have been kept informed by their managers.

5.7 Intensive support services

5.7.1 The intensive support service for South Hampshire began to develop in May 2007 upon the closure of the residential care service at Stonecroft in Havant. The Corner House in Aldershot closed temporarily in mid 2007 and permanently later that year, releasing resource for an intensive support service in North Hampshire modelled on the South Hampshire pilot. This service is still developing as the staff were initially relocated to other residential care homes during the original, temporary closure of Corner House.. These two initiatives are good examples of the re-prioritisation of resource to improve outcomes for young people.

5.7 Wessex Youth Offending Team (WYOT)

5.8.1 In order to address one of the key recommendations from the inspection report the WYOT Management Board agreed a 3 year funding plan which will increase the resource base of the WYOT by about half a million pounds over 3 years . This funding is targeted at front line staffing.

5.8.2 The headcount in WYOT has shown an increase of 125%. The latest return in 2007/08 shows a headcount of 270, which is 3 times the original size of WYOT. Further increases as a result of the TUPE transfer of former South Central Connexions staff and the transfer of Children's Fund are likely to take the headcount nearer to the 290 mark. This is without the additional funding for new HCC posts and non HCC posts which will take the figure nearer to 300 in 08/09 .

5.8.3 The biggest increase has been in the last two years as a result of creation of the Prevention team. This team's primary target is to reduce the number of first time entrants to the criminal justice system (now an LAA target). In this period the Prevention team have set up new provision to maintain or enhance existing arrangements across the whole of the Wessex Area. The joint working with the Children's Fund and the IOW has been critical to developments in these areas.

5.8.4 Over the last 18 months Arts provision has been developed across the WYOT through the appointment of a youth Arts Development Officer. The next year is expected to be a period of consolidation.

5.8.5 Recruitment activity rates are consistently high for an operation of this size. From April 07 to March 08 there have been 62 recruitment exercises.

5.9 Education and Inclusion Branch - support for Attendance Management

5.9.1 Attendance in Hampshire primary schools is above the county average and improving but the rate of improvement in Hampshire is slower than nationally.  In 2006/07 the level of absence in secondary schools was, for the first time, fractionally above the national average.  Of the county's 71 secondary schools, 11 are currently identified by DCSF as priority schools to reduce the level of persistent absenteeism.  Improving attendance is a priority for the LA, not least because of the relationship between attendance, well-being and achievement

5.9.2 The structure of the department distinguishes between work with individual children and their families to ensure attendance at schools and work with schools to ensure that they have the systems and educational provision needed for this.  Support for individual children and their families rests with the C&F branch, notably Locality teams. 

5.9.3 Early in 2008, a single team was established with professional leadership across the county being located within the team.  Behaviour, attendance, curriculum, teaching and learning, and standards are all inter-linked and it is therefore logical to recruit staff who are able to advise with confidence across this domain.  The people between them have curriculum understanding, knowledge of whole school strategies for improving attendance, understanding of data and the place of target setting and awareness of the work done by Education Welfare Officers and other agencies that can support attendance. The County Attendance Manager post was retained to maintain the specialist expertise.  

5.9.4 There will be Behaviour and Attendance Consultants in each area. They will be line managed by the Inclusion Manager and have an extended remit to include the some of the previous attendance officer function. The Behaviour and Attendance Consultants will ensure that local priorities influence deployment and that their work is joined up with the Inclusion Manager responsibilities for establishing Education Improvement Partnerships and supporting schools in promoting the attendance, behaviour and educational provision of children in care.

5.9.5 The County Attendance Manager, line managed by an Area Director, will provide professional leadership for Behaviour and Attendance Consultants and Locality Team Managers (on matters relating to legal requirements in respect of attendance and the use of legal sanctions).  The post will take the lead in the professional interpretation of attendance data, contributing to its use for the determination of priorities for action and oversee the timely provision of data to DCSF, GOSE and their agents.

5 Key Workforce Issues

6.1 Social Care review - reconfiguration of teams

6.1.1 A substantial review of the configuration of the social care teams is near completion. This is responding to the changes to business process enabled by the move of Reception and Assessment services to Hantsdirect, and the continuing drive to achieve better outcomes for the most vulnerable by ensuring integrated service delivery across the department and through multi-agency partnership working.

6.1.2 The 2008/09 Revenue Budget includes a reduction of £800,000 in respect of the Department's contribution to the setting up of the new Contact Centre. Savings were planned through a mixture of reduction in posts (estimated at 16 fte) and services provided through service level agreements. Subject to equivalent savings being achieved, £600,000 was included in the budget for re-investment in qualified social workers (estimated at 16 fte). This was identified as one of the priorities from the Joint Area Review in 2007.

6.1.3 The revised social care workforce structure recognises the need for smaller spans of control and team size for some managers (current ones are too large in some cases). The restructure is also based around a needs analysis that ensures resources are allocated across teams according to need within their local populations.

6.1.4 The new structure will give continuity of worker from initial assessment through subsequent planning and service delivery. This will eliminate the current break and change of worker between Reception and Assessment (R & A) and other teams which can give rise to a discrepancy between initial assessment and subsequent planning through a lack of ownership of outcome from the initial assessor.

6.1.5 Some additional team manager roles will be created and there will be an incremental change in the relative mix of support workers and professionally qualified staff. The structure will be designed to be able to flex, in terms of the nature and number of posts, according to how the service can best be delivered locally. Area Directors will retain accountability for the overall configuration of teams within their area..

6.1.6 The new structure is close to finalisation and HR processes will now start in order to achieve the alignment of current staff into the revised configuration of teams. This will be achieved by asking staff to state preferences for roles and location. The new structure will be rolled out from September 2008.

6.1 Integrated Youth Support

6.2.1 With the transfer of 260 former South Central Connexions staff into Children's Services on 1 April 2008 the new model of service delivery began to be implemented. The actual transfer of staff was a success, and ongoing delivery of the Connexions service has been maintained, with Connexions Managers working innovatively and constructively to find alternative delivery mechanisms with the closure of 8 of the former South Central Connexions Centres.

6.2.2 Given the scale of the change the new structures will take time to bed in. It is intended that the deployment of staff to schools is in place for the start of the new academic year in September. The workforce implications and structures are shown in Appendix 3. This Appendix presents a full picture showing all posts, by branch, that are an amalgamation of posts that transferred from Connexions South Central, posts in the Children's Service Department aligned to the Youth Service and support posts in finance and HR.

6.2.3 With any new structure there will be a need to review how it works in practice. In the coming year there will be a continued focus on integration issues including, training and development, systems and processes.

6.2.4 Currently staff in the former Youth Service are employed on Soulbury JNC pay and conditions and staff who transferred under TUPE retained their existing pay and conditions. In the light of the continuing national drivers to achieve single status where possible and the need to consider the most relevant and appropriate terms and conditions for the service consideration will need to be given to achieving harmonisation of pay and conditions. Consultation with the Unions will be a key factor.

6.2 ICT

6.3.1 The scale of change needing to be supported by the Children's Services IT team is enormous encompassing Building Schools for the Future and strategic technologies for schools, e-CAF( common assessment framework); ICS and Contact Point. Data analysis and collection is becoming increasingly important and complicated and there is ever increasing demand for web development and maintenance.

6.3.2 Additional staff are identified in Appendix 2 to support various aspects of the work.

6.4 Children's Centres

6.4.1 Appendix 4 shows the staffing requirements for Children's Centres. The programme requires additional central resources to deliver Phase 3

6.5 Study Centres

6.5.1 Following the review of the Study Centres and the potential for linking overall management of the Study Centres and the Outdoor Centres the Leader has asked for a report in the autumn. The key drivers will be shared governance, greater cross working and development between all the centres, and to ensure that all centres are working to meet corporate and departmental priorities. The report in the autumn will focus upon how these outcomes may be best achieved in the short and medium term. There are significant HR issues associated with a changed structure.

7 Schools Workforce

7.1 Summary figures

Approximately 24,000 of Hampshire's children's workforce are working in schools. Of these the breakdown is:

· 34 % are teaching staff

· 61% are support staff

· 5% are senior leaders including Headteachers

· 78% are female and 22 % are male

7.2 Current key issues

Specific national priorities for the supply, development and modernisation of the Children's Workforce in schools governs much of the Local Authority activity however some key local issues are outlined below.

7.2.1 Leadership

There is an ageing profile with 53 % of Headteachers and 31% of Deputy Headteachers over the age of 50. As recruitment into these key posts continues, we will be requiring new appointees to be capable of whole system and community leadership in line with the overall Children's Services vision for its workforce.

7.2.2 Recruitment

There are significant difficulties recruiting experienced maths and science teachers and Heads of Department particularly in the north of the county. There is the potential for this to lead to a reduction in the quality of candidates appointed and a consequent risk to the maintenance of standards.

There are small candidate fields for Headteacher appointments leading to repeat adverts in some areas of the county particularly the north.

Newly qualified teacher recruitment continues to be successful, at approximately 800 a year.

7.2.3 Retention

Turnover shows a trend towards Headteachers leaving before the age of 60

Newly qualified teachers' retention rates after 3 years remain consistent and above national average at around 70%.

The 31^st December 2008 sees the cessation of a 3 year safeguarding of management allowances (the means by which teachers used to be rewarded for undertaking management responsibilities) which may lead to an increase in resignations in some schools this year.

The new pay framework has had varying impact on different support staff groups in schools with a particular negative impact on lunchtime supervisory assistants which has the potential to jeopardise both their retention and recruitment.

7.2.4 Workloads and staff wellbeing - Headteacher and teacher workloads continue to be a focus of national and local concern although the increasing professionalisation of the school support staff workforce is a means by which this has begun to be addressed. However, this seems to have had little positive impact on Headteacher workloads to date.

7.2 Action to address key issues

7.3.1 Leadership retention succession planning and developments

· An on-line talent management database bank will be piloted from September 2008

· The Leadership Development Centre is now in place with associated leadership programmes and development opportunities including coaches for staff close to headship

· Exploration of flexible working patterns and retirement for headteachers to help retain expertise.

7.3.2 Recruitment

· A specific campaign for the Basingstoke area

· Targeted school recruitment fairs

· Continuation of Graduate Teacher Programmes in spite of reduction in government funding

· Significant support for NQT recruitment and induction targeting shortage subjects.

7.3.3 Support staff development

Significant programmes in place with over 2,000 staff achieving Higher Level Teaching Assistant status in 2007/8. Hampshire is an OCR Centre for SWIS (Support Staff in Schools) qualifications.

7.2.4 Workloads and staff well-being

· The development of support staff has assisted in achieving statutory requirements for teacher workloads and a review of the sustainability of the National Workforce Agreement will take place in partnership with Professional Associations this year.

· National pilots are exploring shared Business Manager roles for primary schools to support Headteachers

· Increased support for staff well-being is being integrated into the Healthy Schools programme.

7 Training and Development

8.1 Review of systems and structures to support more integrated services

8.1.1 The creation of separate departments for Adults Services and Children's Services has meant that the learning and development resource in the old Social Services department has had to be reviewed to determine where and how the old team should be repositioned to ensure the needs of the new departments can be met.

8.1.2 Children's Services has taken this opportunity to begin to draw together learning and development activities in other parts of the department and incorporate within the same team these activities from the transferred Connexions functions and integrated Youth support. This will allow for a more cohesive approach to be taken towards the production and delivery of the whole strategic plan for the development of the children's workforce whilst being sensitive to the position of schools.

8.1.3 The structure which has emerged has been developed in close consultation with HR to ensure that corporate training and development needs can be delivered. It entails a new role of Head of Organisation and Staff Development, accountable to the Assistant Director, Performance and Resources, and three strengthened, second level roles of Strategic Learning & Development Manager.

8.2 Investors in People and Workforce Development

8.2.1 The success of the department in achieving Investors in People was a key achievement in March 2008 that was based on considerable systems development work over the last year. A Workforce Development Strategy for the whole department and improved evaluation and reporting were just two aspects of these improvements that now need to be built upon.

8.2.2 A Strategic Workforce Development Group with senior representation across the department is now firmly established. An Operational Workforce Development Group is bringing together the implementation mechanisms across the department and is working to jointly deliver the activity required for priorities identified within the strategy for 08-09. The detail of the priority work streams is shown as Appendix 5.

8.2.3 Development of the Integrated Qualifications Framework (IQF), a set of approved qualifications that allows progression, continuing professional development and mobility across the children and young people's workforce is due to be launched in October following extensive national consultation.

8.2.4 The IQF will be a comprehensive set of qualifications that are agreed to be appropriate for people who work with children and young people, up to and including degrees and postgraduate qualifications. It will support shared values and learning approaches across the whole of the children and young people's workforce. In preparation for this and as part of the Workforce Development Strategy, work has begun to:

· identify and clarify existing pathways and qualifications in the department

· develop a model that can be applied to any role profile to inform the pathway from induction to competence in role and then the areas of appropriate continuing professional development for that role that can aid progression and mobility

· use these principles to inform the decision making for induction, consolidation and skills development, qualifications, continuing professional development and succession planning for the Services for Young People

The development of the national IQF are being monitored and will be applied to the Children's Services current development pathways work when it is launched.

8.3 Absence Management

8.3.1 The effective management of absence continues to be a priority. During the year more detailed information has been provided for managers to enable them to manage absence as effectively as possible. The OHU unit provides support and guidance and there have been significant improvements in the unit's ability to action referrals in a timely way.

8.3.2 Overall the level of sickness absence across the department is 7.3 days per FTE. This is an improvement on previous reported levels of 9.82 and 7.71 for last year when the figures were split between the former areas of Education ( non schools) and Social Care.

8.3.3 Accuracy of recording continues to be challenging particularly for staff who work non standard hours, such as those in the residential units. The introduction of the Rota Planning tool has improved this for some units.

9 Recruitment and Retention (non schools)

9.1 Turnover is 14.4% over the year. Recruitment is carried out for Children's Services by the HR Resourcing Centre. A common trend across all sectors is that recruitment is more difficult in the north of the county. This appears to be for two main reasons, firstly North Hampshire may be less attractive to those relocating from outside of Hampshire, and secondly for those who already live in North Hampshire they are within commuting distance of Surrey and London Boroughs where salaries are, in general, higher than Hampshire.

9.2 The switch from the DIPSW to the BA (Hons) Degree, together with the improved starting pay for qualified social workers, as a result of the new pay framework, has impacted during the year and in general terms recruitment of newly qualified staff has been easier and more successful than in the previous year.

9.3 Recruiting experienced social workers and Senior Practitioners, particularly in the North of the County remains more difficult although the new pay framework has made the salary levels more competitive.

9.4 Work has been carried out to define more closely the requirements of social service support worker roles so that progression criteria are clear and more defined. This provides staff with a career progression route and enables the service to deploy staff appropriately.

10 Management and Leadership competencies

10.1 Effective management and leadership are key to creating a high performing organisation and in meeting corporate priorities. The Management and Leadership Competency Framework identifies five competencies that can be used to support the development of managers and formalises the skills, competencies and behaviours required of managers:

_ Vision and Direction

_ Stakeholders and Partnerships

_ Developing Capacity

_ Business and Services

_ Political Awareness

This Framework will be rolled out across the department in 2008 and will underpin aspects of the IPP process for managers and well as clarifying for staff what they can and should expect from managers.

11 Pay framework

11.1 The new pay framework was implemented in February 2008. There is already some evidence that the new framework has improved ability to recruit in some areas. Where appropriate the use of market supplements will continue to be considered.

11.1.1 Some issues have been encountered in managing the move away from inclusive pay in the residential units where staff are now required to claim allowances for night and week end work. Support is being provided to managers to assist in resolving issues.

11.1.2 Individual Performance Planning (IPP) is not fully embedded in the organisation and further work needs to take place to develop and refresh managers in conducting IPP discussions.

11.2 Soulbury pay issues in Education and Inclusion

11.2.1 A number of the professional posts within the Education and Inclusion branch are paid on the national Soulbury pay scale. These include the posts within HIAS of Primary Phase Inspectors (PPI), that report to District Managers, and work on improving the performance of schools through nationally funded strategic work and in their role as School Improvement partners (SIP).

11.2.2 There continues to be a salary difference between Headteachers and Phase Inspectors, such that it is generally disadvantageous for Headteachers to move across into school improvement work. Hampshire has required PPI's to have Headship experience in order to carry out the role.

11.2.3 In conjunction with the Remunerations and Benefits team a way of tackling the relative pay issues and the need to continue to recruit effectively, against the background of equal pay legislation pay issues and emerging national drivers is being developed and will be reported to the Director of Children's Services.

11.2 Information Technology

11.3.1 The planned corporate review of market supplements relating to generic IT posts has concluded and should positively impact ability to recruit and retain staff in these roles. A number of posts within the Children's Services will become eligible for market supplements.

12 Financial implications

12.1 The posts in the Summary of Workforce Changes 2008/09 (2) have been reflected in the development of the Children's Services Department budget for 2008/09 and the planning of the use of specific government grant and all are funded as shown. Posts are either graded according to existing levels or have been evaluated according to standard practice.

13 Impact assessment

13.1 Race and equality impact assessment has been considered in the development of this report and no adverse impact has been identified.

14 Crime prevention issues

14.1 The Children's Services Directorate works in many ways to reduce crime and key to this work is an effective workforce.

15 Conclusion

15.1 The Children's Services Department continues to change and develop both in structures and in workforce competencies and skills as it seeks to ensure constant delivery of effective and efficient services to improve the life chances of the children and young people of Hampshire.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background documents

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

NB: the list excludes

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

None