Published on:
17
January 2013
Significant investment has been made in the workforce of the Council's Child Care Long Term Team with a comprehensive national recruitment drive being undertaken.
The child care team remains under pressure during the transition period as improvement efforts are made, but already there have been changes in the management team, with additional staffing still to be sourced.
Convener of Housing, Health and Care, Councillor Les Sharp, said: "The significant investment in the workforce has been extremely well received by the service and marks the beginning of what is a tangible shift in morale. All indications are that the feeling of immense urgency and reactivity has subsided somewhat and staff are reporting greater support and positive change.
"To date five permanent posts have been recruited to with agency staffing offering temporary assistance to increase capacity."
A comprehensive national recruitment drive is taking place in January 2013 to secure the remainder of the posts.
The Council aim to employ experienced staff to work with the more complex cases and also those more newly qualified staff coming into the service.
Councillor Sharp added: "The post of Assistant Head of Service (Child Care) has been successfully filled for a six month period by an experienced child care Senior Manager who comes to Clackmannanshire Council from Midlothian.
"He is extremely experienced and will focus on taking the improvement work forward. A permanent Service Manager post was also successfully filled on 7th December. This Service Manager has been with the Council on an interim basis and has established a solid knowledge of the service and immediate needs."
The average caseload remains at 15-30, continuing to be above practice guidelines in both number and complexity. This will improve with the recruitment of more staff.
The Centre of Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland (CELCIS) commended managers and staff in Clackmannanshire for their openness to constructive challenges and joint learning to secure improvement for children.
As part of their ongoing schedule the Care Inspectorate will be co-ordinating a supported self-assessment exercise. This is a multi-agency initiative which impacts on all areas of child care practice. It will be facilitated across the shared service with Police, NHS and Education colleagues and will commence in January 2013, running through until March.
The service will continue to be externally scrutinised, for the time being, by the Care Inspectorate on a monthly basis to ensure improvements are secured. Involvement to date of the Care Inspectorate has been fully supportive and encouraging.
In addition the service will also be reviewed with all partners present on a quarterly basis, in advance of Committee, to ensure up to date and accurate reporting.
The Housing, Health and Care Committee will continue to offer internal scrutiny, direction and challenge on a quarterly basis.