Local Spotlight: Knowsley Borough Council

Knowsley is managing current and historic challenges linked to deprivation with 27 per cent of children currently living in low-income households. Around 95 per cent of the population are of white ethnicity.

Since being rated "inadequate" in 2014, children's services has steadily improved and in June 2017 was judged "requires improvement" by Ofsted, which noted "significant improvements have been made in the transformation of children's social care".

Results from an Ofsted focused visit of "the first point of contact for children needing help and protection" has recently been carried out with inspectors praising strong leadership and management arrangements and concluding that children receive a timely, proportionate and effective response.

DCS View: Back to basics approach gets Knowsley back on track

By Colette Dutton, executive director for children's services, Knowsley Council

Since 2014, children's services has been on an improvement journey with the outcome being more effective and efficient services delivered to children in Knowsley, as validated by our recent Ofsted report.

Referrals into children's services have reduced by 30 per cent in the last 12 months, with re-referrals also reporting a 10 per cent reduction last year - the highest reduction rate in the North West and most importantly meaning that children are receiving the right help at the point they need it.

Effective early help practice has seen the number of children in need fall significantly - 356.2 children per 10,000 compared with neighbouring authorities that report 490.96 per 10,000.

We have focused on getting the basics right - having a clear understanding of where we wanted to be and how to get there, strong leadership, robust systems and procedures in place, effective "front door" arrangements into children's services and a good early help offer. We also created the right environment for social workers to flourish by developing an effective workforce strategy that concentrated on developing a permanent, motivated and skilled workforce. We are one of only a few councils that doesn't rely on any agency social work staff.

In 2014, Knowsley became one of the first authorities in the region to issue its children's social workers with tablets and smartphones. Social workers told us that by having remote access to the social care recording system whilst they are out and about, their time is freed up to support children and families in communities. Now, specially designed apps and programs for children and young people allow them to record their thoughts, feelings and memories in more innovative ways.

Moving forward, a key priority is to develop a sustainable, long-term budget for children's social care. Not needing to rely on temporary staff has enabled us to report a balanced staffing budget, but like other authorities, we have pressures in our placement budget and are working hard to develop our sufficiency plan.

Other priorities include the launch of our Social Work Academy in recognition of our continual investment and development of staff, strengthening our social work practice model, supporting better educational, training and employment outcomes for looked-after children and care leavers and boosting the mental wellbeing and resilience for our looked-after children.

We will keep the momentum going by continuing to do what we are doing, retaining the staff we have, maintaining high-quality services, working effectively with our partners, facilitating effective governance and scrutiny and ultimately ensuring that the impact on the child is at the centre of our decision-making processes.