Local Spotlight: Brent Borough Council

At the end of August, Gail Tolley will call time on her eight-year stint as director of children’s services (DCS) in the north west London borough of Brent. It marks the end of Tolley’s four-decade career in education and children’s services – the last 13 years as a DCS – as she pursues more ad hoc projects. For a details person like Tolley – the former head teacher confesses to proofreading department reports for grammatical and spelling errors - this promises to be a real change in pace. It will also mark the beginning of a new era for Brent’s children’s services department, although the transition to new leadership should be eased by the appointment of Nigel Chapman as Tolley’s successor after spending six years as operational director at the council.

Changed fortunes

Chapman takes on the DCS role after playing a key role in helping Tolley turn around the department’s fortunes over the past decade – he joined from Hackney in 2013 as head of service responsible for fostering, adoption and looked-after children – before moving on to oversee social work, early help and inclusion services, which covers special education needs and disabilities (SEND).

In 2012, the child protection service was judged to be “adequate”, while in 2015 children’s services was rated “requires improvement”. However, by 2018, overall effectiveness of the service had improved to “good” when Ofsted chose Brent as one of the first areas to be inspected under the ILACs framework. Inspection timescales were a factor in Tolley deciding to hand over the reins now, with Brent likely to be one of the authorities Ofsted visits early in the new round of ILACs visits when they start in January 2023, in addition to a new cycle of SEND inspections.

“We were early on in the previous cycles so we’re likely to have them next year,” she says. “I love an inspection; I see it as an opportunity to show positively what you’re doing without putting on a special show.”

Further evidence that she leaves the department in good health came in a 2019 focused visit of leaving care services that was largely complementary, while weaknesses identified at a 2017 local area SEND inspection that resulted in a written statement of action were fixed by the time inspectors revisited in 2019. That same year, HM Inspectorate of Probation also rated youth offending services as good.

For Tolley, one of the few remaining DCSs from an education background, a key achievement has been the improvement in school performance in the borough, with 97 per cent of schools being rated good or outstanding by Ofsted, compared with 77 per cent when she joined. This has been achieved by developing good relationships with head teachers, many of whom are part of a multi-academy trust, which, Tolley says, dispels the idea that councils cannot influence school performance (see DCS box).

Maintaining these high standards will be a key challenge for Chapman, particularly at a time when Brent like many other diverse London boroughs is facing rising demand for services and support due to the impact of the pandemic and rising living costs. In addition, the start of a new policy landscape, through the SEND green paper, Schools Bill and the Care Review, raises the likelihood of further changes to how teams and practitioners work. Rather than seeing these as challenges, Tolley says they present an opportunity for her successor.

“If I were to have stayed, I’d look at implementing a route map to 2030, linked to these key policies,” she says “It is the right time for me to leave: it needs the next generation of children’s services leaders to do those five to eight years. I’m teeing up the route map to 2030 and my successor will build on that.”

DCS VIEW: ‘YOU CAN’T JUST FOCUS ON SOCIAL CARE OR EDUCATION – IT’S GOT TO BE LINKED’

Gail Tolley, strategic director for children and young people, Brent Council

The number of directors of children’s services (DCSs) that have come from a pure educational route is declining. Given the opportunities now to run multi-academy trusts (MATs), my equivalents with secondary head experience aren’t coming into local government. The field to replace me all came from a social care background. It reflects a national trend – the greatest risk to councils hasn’t been their school performance.

When I joined Brent, 77 per cent of schools were good and outstanding. Now we have one of the highest rates in the country at over 97 per cent. Since I announced my departure, many authorities have been in touch asking if I will help them set up a local authority established multi-academy trust.

When I started, academies weren’t talking to the local authority. By contrast, there were two local MAT heads on the interview panel for my successor. You can’t just focus on social care or education – it’s got to be linked.

Under the department structure I introduced in 2016 I don’t have a director of education nor director of social care. I have an operational director for integration and improved outcomes, who is the statutory practice leader, and another operational director for safeguarding, partnerships and strategy. You wouldn’t be able to tell from those titles who has an education or social care background, nor from the roles that sit under them. For me it is not about form, it is about function – our role is to improve the life chances of all children, not to deliver education and social care services.

There was a view after 2010 that there wasn’t a future for local authorities in education. But the schools white paper and SEND green paper spell it out that they do and the role of the DCS as a champion of children is re-emphasised through the document. It is an exciting time to restate this.

Recruitment and retention of permanent experienced social workers is a key challenge for my successor. I’m hearing about authorities that are using more agency staff than ever before. High agency rates have always been an issue in Brent. It was 66 per cent in 2014, but we’ve managed to flip that to two-thirds permanent staff now. If there’s strong practice, people want to stay. We’ve done overseas recruitment and have a Brent housing company that has bought a block of flats in Wembley Park for key workers at below market rent.

There are 149 languages spoken in Brent schools, which reflects its wonderful diversity. However, we had the highest number of Covid-19 deaths and furloughed workers during the pandemic and the impact of the cost of living crisis means that the number of referrals coming in will increase. There’s not going to be large increases in funding from the council or government either. It is going to be a challenging but exciting time for my successor in the context of the major policy changes to be brought together from the white and green papers and Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.