Behind the Rating: Out-of-hours service praised

Ofsted highlighted two areas for special praise in Derbyshire County Council's children's services unannounced inspection last autumn: the out-of-hours service and the disability team.

However, assistant director Ian Johnson is not one to shy away from the challenges facing his authority's safeguarding team.

Asked about those lauded areas of the authority's work, he defers answering in order to first tackle the tougher points raised by inspectors over less successful areas.

"The inspection was a reasonable reflection of where we are," says Johnson, who is the executive responsible for safeguarding within Derbyshire. "We've got a mix of truly outstanding areas, and some challenges in terms of areas of development."

He is particularly keen to stress that despite the criticisms, Ofsted "acknowledged that we have already picked up on many issues ourselves and are working hard to improve them".

Improved supervision

Indeed, the Ofsted report noted that a key concern identified - namely, the lack of opportunities for newer social workers to work alongside experienced colleagues - was already being addressed by the promotion of 21 existing social workers to senior practitioner posts.

Staff were invited to apply through an internal application process, with successful candidates going on to receive extra training. The new structure should be in place in the first half of 2011.

Inspectors also expressed concern that the common assessment framework (CAF) was "not sufficiently embedded" in inter-agency practice across the council's six districts.

This is another area, says Johnson, where remedial work is well advanced. "As an authority, we're in the middle of a major restructuring programme, creating 33 multi-agency teams that will work alongside safeguarding teams, and using CAF tools to ensure early intervention and accurate, efficient referrals."

The principle behind these and other initiatives, he says, is to "do less, but do it better" - in other words, to address the time and effort lost when cases are referred to the wrong team.

The out-of-hours team is one example of the success that can be engendered by this approach.

"It impressed Ofsted, and it impresses me," says Johnson. "They are not only there for emergencies - they also do their own initial and core assessments, late-night checks that have been requested by daytime colleagues, and generally provide a continuation of the service until they can hand over in the morning."

Information is shared electronically, and the team is co-located in the service's 24/7 call centre near Matlock, ensuring that overnight referrals are dealt with accurately and efficiently.

Andrew Steward, service manager in the north east Derbyshire district, agrees that the out-of-hours service is "exceptional", saying: "I've worked with a few different authorities but the service provided here is second to none. It's staffed and resourced in such a way that it acts as an extension to our working day - not just a holding service."

Social workers on day teams often work extra shifts on night duty, so there is a sense of continuity, and a mutual respect between day and night duty teams, says Steward.

Holistic approach

Another area of praise from Ofsted was the way in which Derbyshire's safeguarding directorate handles disabled children's needs.

Johnson says: "We have an excellent service, fully staffed, with highly experienced social workers. It's a holistic, completely self-sufficient team, covering the entire range of social care involvement in a disabled child's life."

This has resulted in what Ofsted described as a "highly effective and comprehensive contact, referral and assessment service" for disabled children, with "excellent assessments of need and safeguarding risks".

DEMOGRAPHICS

Location Derbyshire

Description Large, mainly rural county with pockets of deprivation

Population 760,000

Children and young people (aged 0 to 19) 177,343

Number of children in care 620

HELPFUL HINTS FROM DERBYSHIRE

• "Do less, but do it better" - Ian Johnson, as head of safeguarding in the authority, has striven to ensure that the assessment and referral process is as streamlined and efficient as possible. The next step is seconding senior practitioners to work alongside staff in the central call centre to ensure accurate initial referrals
• Review supervision processes - following feedback in internal audits and an earlier Ofsted report, Derbyshire launched a big push on supervision. This resulted in team managers reviewing their own practice and methods, and the creation of a single, "best-of-all" document that ensures a consistent approach
• Identify your weaknesses and act on them - Derbyshire pre-empted many of the inspectors' concerns through internal audits, and as Ofsted noted, the authority to its credit was already in the process of addressing those issues at the time of the inspection