LG 6 - Arolygiaeth Gofal a Gwasanaethau Cymdeithasol Cymru (CSSIW)
The Evidence of the Chief Inspector of Care and Social Services in Wales (Saesneg yn unig)
To the Proposed Local Government Measure Committee
Purpose
1. This paper is submitted by the Chief Inspector of Care and Social Services in Wales to inform the Committee’s discussions in relation to the proposed Local Government Measure.
Introduction
2. On April 1st 2007 the Care Standards Inspectorate for Wales (CSIW) and the Social Services Inspectorate for Wales (SSIW) and their respective functions were brought together to form the Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW).
3. CSSIW provides a citizen centered regulation and inspection service. It encourages improvement of care and social services and early years services in Wales by raising standards, improving the quality of services and promoting best practice through regulation, inspection, evaluation and development work. It provides professional advice on all social services and social care matters to the Assembly Government.
4. Importantly for this Committee, my Inspectorate carries out the powers of Welsh Ministers under the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003 to review the way in which local authorities discharge their social services functions.
5. I am pleased to submit written evidence to assist the Committee’s deliberations on the proposed Measure and to contribute to this debate about what I consider to be a significant development in the continued drive to improve public services.
6. In broad terms I welcome the proposals outlined in the Measure and the underpinning objective of linking well being and community planning with service improvement. I have considered the proposals in the context of the role of my Inspectorate and in relation to our structure and operating practices as well as in relation to improving social services and social care.
Social Services in Wales
7. Social services in Wales support 150,000 people. They account for nearly
£1.1 billion in public spending and employ over 70,000 people. They are delivered by around 1,800 statutory, private and voluntary organisations. Usually, social services do not act alone and partnership is crucial in much of what they do.
8. Most social services are commissioned by local authorities from a range of providers including the private and voluntary sectors. The 22 councils have duties to plan, commission and provide services as well as to safeguard individuals. A diverse and complex range of services help to enable some of the most vulnerable people in our society to be as independent and safe as possible. Services range from assessment care management services provided by social work staff in local authorities to domiciliary care, children’s homes and adult care homes.
- More than 60,000 assessments of older people are completed
- Over 81,000 older people receive some form of care services
- Over 12 million hours of home care are delivered to over 20,000 people each year
- There are more than 25,000 people over 65 in residential care
- More than 4,000 children are looked after by local authorities and more than 3,000 of those children are in foster homes
- Over 2,000 children are on the child protection register
- 250 children were adopted in 2006 (Social Services Statistics Wales 2005-06, Local Government Data Unit March 2007).
9. In recent years service challenges and public expectations have increased. The needs and expectations of those who use services have become more complex as people are enabled to live longer and richer lives in the community and demographic and social changes need to be responded to. Services have had to become more responsive to the needs of users and careers and be more flexible in their delivery.
10. The strategy for social services Fulfilled Lives, Supportive Communities published in February 2007 provides for a continuing framework of development and change. The strategy recognises that vibrant, flexible and responsive social care services - properly integrated with other local services - are essential if we are to build the fabric of our communities and ensure that individuals and families maximise their opportunities and when necessary receive the support they need.
11. At the same time there have been ongoing concerns about the quality of local authority social services. There is inherent complexity and challenge in dealing with people who are often not well placed to articulate their needs or defend their own interests.
12. My annual report 2006-07 indicated that improvements are being made in social services, but more improvement is needed and the pace of improvement needs to be increased and firmly embedded in practice. Particularly:
- the overall baseline of performance has been raised;
- there is a need to capitalise on local government’s clearer recognition of its responsibilities for social services;
- there is a firmer grasp of performance management in social services, but this remains variable.
Indications for 2007-08 are that further positive improvements in social services are being made but that we cannot afford complacency.
13. Inspection and review regimes must reflect the challenges, risks and opportunities current in social services as well as promote improvement and innovation. Most importantly they must focus on the needs of those who use services, their families and carers
The Care and Social Services Inspectorate
14. Since the inception of the Inspectorate on April 1st 2007 I have been taking forward a programme to integrate and modernise our work including the framework for the inspection and review of local authority social services.
15. On July 1st 2008 I implemented a new structure at national and regional level to underpin our integrated role. The four regions are the focus for professional assessment and judgement about services and organisations. They inspect and review local authority social services, and regulate and inspect care settings and agencies.
16. Alongside this structural change we have also been modernising our approach to local authority social services inspection and review. Public assurance about these services, through external scrutiny, is expected, and must be based on the principle of proportionality and targeted in accordance with the needs of citizens, service users and carers. The proposed model for this work will lie at the heat of our business.
17. The new framework is rooted in a clear appraisal of social services in Wales and in changes taking place in the broader context for public service performance in Wales. It reflects the Welsh Assembly Government’s proposed Policy Statement on Inspection, Audit and Regulation.
18. The framework builds on local government’s own responsibility to ensure the effective delivery of its social services accountabilities and to report on its performance and plans for improvement reflecting the regime set out in the proposed Measure. It will provide the foundations of our duty to report on the whole circle of care from commissioning, contracting, assessment care management to service provision. It will allow us to focus on the experience of service users and to ensure that their voice is at the centre of our work.
19. The regional directors will lead an engaged and responsive relationship with local authorities, with other inspectors and regulators and with citizens in order to develop a more informed and current view of local authority social services performance.
20. The work we undertake with individual authorities will directly inform our programme of national reviews and inspections and our joint work with other inspectorates as well as our evidence based professional advice to Ministers and policy colleagues. It will be strongly rooted in co-operation and joint working with other inspectors and regulators including those with an UK remit whose activity will not be subject to the provisions of the proposed Measure.
21. The proposed Measure can strengthen the foundation for our own proposals particularly in its focus on forward looking continuous improvement and bench marking as well as the strengthening of arrangements to support and intervene in failing authorities and to direct collaboration. I support its aim to secure greater collaboration between local government auditors, regulators and inspectors so as to maximise value and minimise burdens (this largely entails placing existing best practice on a statutory basis).
22. However, it is essential that the existing statutory position and independence of the individual inspectorates are acknowledged and taken account of within the overall thrust of the proposed Measure. Our relationship with the Auditor General for Wales must be one of co-operation not one where he is able to direct our activity or influence our professional judgment.
23. I set out below my comments in respect of the questions posed by the Committee.
Specific Responses
Is there a need for legislation to reform:
- the statutory basis for service improvement by local authorities; and
- community planning and strategies?
24. Yes, it will help bring greater clarity to the duty of local authorities to secure continuous improvement and better outcomes for citizens and underpin partnership working to secure those outcomes. The move to a model that is not overly focused on risk is in line with the proportionate approach CSSIW takes in its work.
25. It is my view that duties placed on authorities to collaborate and the power of Minister’s to direct collaboration where authorities are failing are particularly important. We know that in the best performing authorities’ collaboration and partnership will be embedded in practice but there is still some way to go before this is the standard. I welcome the support and intervention regime set out at paragraph 29 of the proposed Measure.
26. The proposed Measure’s reinforcement of the need for effective collaboration among regulators in delivering their activities is welcome, but has to be balanced against my statutory duties and my independence to pursue issues and plan work to meet that duty. I want the vast majority of our work to be co-ordinated with other regulators but that must be based on co-operation and not direction.
How will the proposed Measure change what organisations do currently and what impact will any such changes have in terms of service improvement and community planning?
27. As I have already indicated the proposed Measure is in line with the approach that my Inspectorate takes – one where we seek to work co-operatively with inspected organisations and inspectors and regulators to maximise improvement. The consideration of risk is an element in what we do but it is only one component mixed in with the evidence and knowledge we develop and set into the context of our proportionate approach. The proposed new framework for local authority social services inspection and review builds this approach across all our work. This will allow us to direct our resources regionally and nationally to the areas where we can stimulate greatest improvement, recognise good practice and encourage innovation.
28. The proposed Measure’s intentions that authorities must set clear improvement objectives within a strategic framework and using a range of information including performance information should support more effective engagement with stakeholders and citizens and with inspectors and regulators. The iterative and continuous approach to improvement is particularly welcome as is the requirement for authorities to compare their performance with each other as this will mean and additional element of challenge and scrutiny in the system.
29. I welcome also the re-emphasis of the importance of performance indicators and standards. My Inspectorate has played an important part in the development of the current Performance Measurement Framework and its implementation and there is no doubt that this framework has enabled local authorities to gain a much better grasp of their social services framework. The framework needs more work – and is not fully fit for purpose in relation to adult services - and this will need to be addressed.
30. We have seen clearly that where authorities struggle to meet their social services responsibilities - for example in authorities that have been subject to my protocol for dealing with serious concern – performance management and measurement is weak. Improvement will not be achieved without information about what is happening – and systems to measure and manage that. The setting of national standards will add to the outward facing nature of the improvement framework – but these must be developed collaboratively and not be so generalised as to have little or no meaning.
Are the sections of the proposed Measure appropriate in terms of reforming the statutory basis for service improvement by local authorities and reforming community planning and strategies? If not, how does the proposed Measure need to change?
31. Largely, yes. However it is through implementation that the detail of the proposed Measure will be tested and I would want to see proper engagement of all key stakeholders in the development of the guidance to support that implementation. As I have indicated this will be particularly important in relation to the respective roles of my Inspectorate and that of the Auditor General. Sections 17 to 20 and 24 of the proposed Measure are central to that concern. There must be no clouding of my statutory functions as an independent Inspectorate. A duty to co-operate would be sufficient, we have done so for many years with the Auditor General on a range of ongoing and specific items of work. In particular I have concerns about the wording in section 19, which gives the Auditor General the power to require CSSIW as a relevant regulator to provide him with a report describing what the Inspectorate found during an inspection. What concerns me is that the Auditor General may give instructions as to how my Inspectorate should comply with his request for such a report, in particular by imposing requirements as to the content of a report, as to the period to which a report is to relate and a particular date by which the report must be produced. I also have reservations about the wording of section 24 which imposes a requirement on the Auditor General to produce a timetable for inspections with which CSSIW would have to take all reasonable steps to comply with. I am of the view that this may operate as a constraint on the work of my Inspectorate which may fetter my discretion in exercising powers of reviews and investigations.
32. The way in which my Inspectorate works will build in co-ordination with WAO and others, including UK Inspectors and Regulators, in planning the work of inspection across Wales and in each Local Authority.
What are the potential barriers to implementing the provisions of the proposed Measure (if any) and does the proposed Measure take account of them?
33. A key barrier will be if the proposed Measure fails to take account of the independent and statutory role of other inspectors and regulators. I support the common aim for inspection and regulation to be better co-ordinated and less burdensome. I want to avoid duplication and successive visits to authorities. I believe that modern services will require a modern approach to inspection and regulation, one which places citizen’s at its centre and which is effective and efficient. This also means that the regime must be more ‘joined up’. The proposed Measure must recognise these matters as well as remove the current reliance on the good will and good sense of organisations in working together.
What are the financial implications of the proposed Measure for organisations?
34. As the main thrust of this measure is already in line with the way in which CSSIW operates there are no direct financial implications for us.
Rob Pickford
Chief Inspector
Care and Social Services in Wales
18th November 2008
