How application of ‘Hackney model' boosts outcomes and morale

Project
Isle of Wight Council

Funding
An annual budget of £13m for children's social care and children's centres

Purpose
To improve children's social care services

Background
Isle of Wight Council was determined to improve safeguarding and looked-after children's services after Ofsted rated the department as "adequate" in 2010. "Some of the issues we were struggling with were national problems like morale, high vacancy rates and high levels of agency social workers," says Ali Matthews, deputy director with responsibility for children's safeguarding.

"We had a high sickness absence rate, a higher than average number of looked-after children and a higher than average number on child protection plans and there were also issues around the quality and timeliness of assessments." The authority opted for a radical overhaul of children's social care based on a model designed by the London Borough of Hackney, which saw a restructuring of social work teams led by an experienced "consultant social worker".

Action
Newly constituted teams began work in the Isle of Wight in July 2011. Divided into units, social work teams have a unit co-ordinator, who carries out admin, as well as a consultant social worker. "They are the eyes and ears for the rest of the unit," Matthews says. Each unit also has a therapeutic worker.

The consultant social worker works alongside social workers who are newly qualified, helping to develop their skills and make sure they are supported. The team also includes a children's practitioner who is not a qualified social worker. "They're like children's guardians, so when the social worker is focusing on the statutory side, they are the one sitting with the child getting to see what it is like to grow up in that household," says Matthews.

The Isle of Wight currently has three units in the children and young adults disability team, three in short-term intervention, three in child protection, three in fostering, two in adoption and six in looked-after children's services.

The move has posed challenges. "Not everyone liked it and some left because they couldn't get used to the idea of collaborative decision making," Matthews explains. Staff were also sceptical that the new model would last, having been through a number of changes in the past. "Now people are settling into the new roles and seeing we are committed to it," says Matthews.

Outcome
The model has contributed to a reduction in the number of looked-after children from 176 in July 2011 to 148 now. The new way of working has also helped to boost staff morale and improve the stability of the workforce. The authority's spend on agency staff reduced by £25,000 between 2010/11 and 2011/12 while the cost of staff sickness dropped from an estimated £212,000 in 2010/11 to £140,000 in 2011/12. A staff survey also shows job satisfaction has increased.

The timeliness of assessment has improved. In 2010/11 just 37.9 per cent of initial assessments were completed on time; that has gone up to 79.1 per cent. Performance on core assessments went from 51 per cent to 71.4 per cent as of April this year. The percentage of staff reporting that the organisation had encouraged "a noticeable improvement in my practice" went from 42 per cent before the new structure was implemented to 65 per cent a year later.

The percentage of social workers spending more than 45 per cent of their week doing direct work with children and families was just eight per cent before the restructure, but is now 19 per cent. The authority has been able to take some children off child protection plans and has reduced the number of out-of-authority placements from 32 last August to 24 in July this year.

A peer review of safeguarding in April was positive about the changes and quality of social work practice. Feedback from young people has also been positive, with reports that it is now easier to get hold of social workers.