Birmingham chief vows to improve inadequate services within a year

Birmingham’s children’s services have been rated inadequate for four years in a row. England’s second city has also witnessed several high-profile child deaths.

Yet Peter Duxbury, the strategic director for children, young people and families at the city council, believes he can deliver improvements where his predecessors have failed.

During his previous six-year spell at Lincolnshire County Council, he raised the authority’s Ofsted rating from adequate to outstanding – a success he plans to emulate on a grander scale in Birmingham, which he joined in April 2012.

It is a huge challenge. Birmingham is the largest local authority in Europe and home to 287,000 children and young people aged under 19.

But Duxbury says the size of the city is no barrier to improvement, provided the council focuses on basic, best-practice social care.

“Whether it is in a large authority like Birmingham or a much smaller one, the relationship between the team manager, social worker and service user is much the same,” says Duxbury.

“There’s no reason why that shouldn’t be as good in Birmingham as anywhere else.”

Duxbury is determined to see “significant improvement” in the council’s social work within a year, focused on two areas: management and leadership; and supporting the frontline.

Too many changes in Birmingham’s leadership have, he says, led staff to feel unsupported, so he has sought to reassure them that they will not be blamed for failure in future.

“Sadly in the work that we do, sometimes things do go wrong even in the best authorities,” he says. “I need to get across to staff that they will be supported as part of a single team and single approach.”

Extra social workers
Duxbury has begun this process by working directly with frontline staff. He says regular meetings with social workers and regular audits of case files have enabled him to better understand the situation on the ground.

As a first step, he has started to recruit more social workers and restructured the department to improve managerial support.

“Recently, we’ve made a more direct link between assistant directors and team managers by removing a layer of management, and have created in each team two practice supervisor posts – charged with supporting and encouraging social workers in ensuring our practice is excellent,” he says.

These changes have, he adds, helped the council reduce its use of agency social workers, on which the city spent £7.7m in 2012.

But, in common with other authorities, money is tight and central government has reduced the authority’s 2013/14 children’s services budget by £24m. In a bid to drive improvement with little ability to invest, Duxbury has developed an expert group of unpaid advisers who meet every two months.

The eight-strong group includes representatives from Ofsted, Cafcass, the NHS, local schools and the Social Research Unit at Dartington.

Expert advice
Duxbury says no other authority is using such an approach. The group has advised him on management changes within social care, among other matters.

“We were concerned if it was the right time to be making changes among the budget changes, and the need to improve rapidly,” he says.

“But the expert group looked closely at those proposals and concluded it was worth taking these forward. The group provides a really good source of advice and support.”

Similarly, Duxbury is encouraging Birmingham’s schools to join in a co-operative education trust. He hopes this will result in better schools supporting weaker ones, and schools integrating better with children’s services.

“If you look at the impact upon attainment and achievement of children in primary school, the effect of family support on issues outside the classroom is greater than the effect of teaching,” he says.

Early intervention and help are also a high priority. In the past, Birmingham has been at the forefront of innovation in early intervention, piloting the now national family nurse partnership scheme.

Today Duxbury is working with the local health and wellbeing board to provide early intervention and help services for families that will be funded using some of the city’s troubled families budget.

Birmingham has also brought more money into its children’s services by ending funding for some voluntary sector services. Nonetheless, there have been cuts, some of which have sparked condemnation in the local media and demonstrations outside the council offices.

Duxbury insists the cuts are for the best. He says the £3m withdrawn from the integrated family support team has only reduced services in the communities that needed them the least, and says proposals to close 17 children’s homes mean the council can place more children with adoptive or foster families. “The best services for children aren’t necessarily the most expensive,” he says.

Successful approach
Members of Duxbury’s expert group are impressed with what they have seen so far.

Michael Little, co-director of the Social Research Unit, thinks other struggling authorities should introduce expert groups. Kamal Hanif, head teacher of Waverley School, notes that his own experience of taking a school from one of the worst to one of the best in the country is informing Duxbury’s approach to social care.

“Being a good leader in any organisation, you have generic leadership skills,” says Hanif.

Nushra Mansuri, professional officer at the British Association of Social Workers, says: “There is nothing worse in social work than when everything is temporary and short-term,” she says.
 
“That’s been sad for Birmingham – when they’ve only had short-term posts in recent years, it has created instability. It needs a more long-term strategy and I’m glad he’s started there.”


Timeline: Birmingham City Council’s struggles

May 2008
Seven-year-old Khyra Ishaq, who was known to social services, dies of starvation

Feb 2009
Government issues an improvement notice to Birmingham for its poor performance on safeguarding children

April 2009
Colin Tucker is appointed as service director of children’s social care. He was previously the DCS at Sandwell Council

Sept 2010
Government issues a further improvement notice to Birmingham

Oct 2010
Eleanor Brazil, who stepped in at Haringey after the Baby P scandal, is appointed interim strategic director for children, young people and families

Dec 2010
Tony Howell, strategic director for children, young people and families, retires after handing over the role to Brazil

Dec 2010
Ofsted says the city “performs poorly” in its annual inspection of the council’s children’s services

2011
A major children’s services restructure is carried out, with oversight from a government-appointed improvement board

Oct 2011
Unannounced Ofsted inspection of the city’s children’s services finds “most areas require further work”

Sept 2012
Unannounced Ofsted inspection rates Birmingham’s services “inadequate” in all areas