But this looks set to alter as last week's Commission for Social CareInspection report revealed that change is taking place (Children Now,5-11 October). For the first time, Birmingham has been judged as servingsome children well and although inspectors say there is still more todo, the council's capacity for improvement is rated as promising.
This might explain why Peter Hay, strategic director of social care andhealth, is so frank about the past. "It was a fairly comprehensivebreakdown," he says. "Management in the directorate had clearly not beengood, but equally practice was poor."
He even agrees that the state of case files showed staff didn't careabout people, they couldn't even write to them in a civil tone.
It's perhaps easier for Hay to be so frank - he was part of anine-strong management team that arrived in the summer of 2003 to turnthings round.
He describes what's happened since then as a "complete rebuild".
One improvement is more effective joint working with health, educationand voluntary organisations, something that Hay thinks was helped by theEvery Child Matters reforms. "At first we were a bit paralysed by it, itfelt like another change and we had lots of changes to make." But hesays the council took time to think through the changes properly and nowdescribes it as like "riding with this great wave".
A designate director of children's services has been appointed and willstart on 1 April 2006, when education and social services officiallybecome one department. And children's trust arrangements are already inplace.
Improved budget provision and better control of funds have been centralparts of the improvements. Hay thinks a different approach to inspectionbrought by the newly formed Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI)played a key role in this. "They were very, very clear about the lack offunding. We recognised and confirmed that analysis but they were able tosay it with a significant degree of strength because of theirindependence," he says.
After the critical inspection in 2004, the Department for Education andSkills and CSCI sent a team of expert consultants to spend three monthsat the council. Hay praises their "very frontline orientated skillsdevelopment package", which he says led to teams gaining inconfidence.
Assessment and initial response services have also improved, as hassupport for foster carers. For example, they all have broadband internetaccess, enabling them to use an intranet that improves communicationbetween them and the council. Developments in the child and adolescentmental health service have also been described as "very positive".
But Hay is in no doubt that there is still a lot more work to do. Hewants to see the pockets of excellence identified in the last inspectionreport become more widespread. There are some "big issues" in servicesfor disabled children, which Hay says require a completeremodelling.
Services for children leaving care are another priority, as is workingmore productively with housing at a strategic level.
As part of the recovery plan Nigel Richardson, director of children andyoung people's services at Hull council and member of the VictoriaClimbie inquiry team, lead what Hay describes as "powerfultraining".
"He said, 'the success of this is about practice'. This sentence stillechoes round the city," reveals Hay. "We've got to maintain this workfor children and families but we mustn't get distracted bystructures."
BACKGROUND - Birmingham City CouncilIn 2004 Birmingham was one of eight councils in England to receive azero star rating from the Commission for Social Care Inspection.Improvements in its latest inspection report include:- Improved budget provision- Improved assessment and initial response service- More effective joint working with health, education and voluntaryorganisationsPriorities for the future include:- A complete remodelling of services for disabled children- Improving care leaving services- Engaging more productively with housing at a strategic level.
