Children's services leaders: When are two hats better than one?

Rachael Wardell took up the role of corporate director for communities at West Berkshire Council in 2013. "There are days when I come home and I feel absolutely exhausted, like a hung out rag, and wonder whether I'm doing any good in the world at all," she says.

Looking at her wide portfolio, it is little wonder she feels like this. As well as being the council's director of children's services (DCS), she is also its director of adult social services (DASS) and leads housing services.

On top of her day-to-day responsibilities, she is overseeing efforts to improve children's services after they were rated "inadequate" by Ofsted in May and her bulging in-tray also includes a judicial review against the government around its adult social care funding.

"Both the DASS and the DCS roles are full-time jobs," she says. "When you bring them both together, the work doesn't magically disappear, so I have my hands very full. I work exceptionally long hours and I'm usually disappointing someone. More often than not, I've got two or three things conflicting with each other on the same day. Managing that is difficult."

Wardell is not alone among DCSs in having an increasing and varied workload. Since 2008, one in three DCS roles have converted to a combined post, with adult social care, housing and public health among areas being added on.

But since 2013, when 60 statutory directors of children's services were in combined roles, this trend appears to have plateaued, with 59 currently in such posts (see graphic).

Could the breadth of responsibility and heavy workload be the reason many councils appear reluctant to combine the role?

Latest recruitment figures certainly indicate councils are already having a tough enough time filling the top children's services post, with more than one in 10 DCS roles vacant (see graphic).

Maris Stratulis, the British Association of Social Workers' (BASW) England manager, believes the rise of combined roles is leaving many DCSs struggling. "The feeling among members is the role is now so broad, those strategic leaders are losing sight of what is happening on the ground," she says.

She believes the two key roles involved in most combined posts – children's services and adult social care – are "so complex" that a distinct leader is needed for both.

 Combined director model

But despite the workload challenges, there are benefits to combining directorships.

Chief among these is the money that is saved on top-end salaries.

"Money has been an issue and that has meant many local authorities carrying out a dramatic slimming down of senior management positions," says David Simmonds of the Local Government Association. "This is not just in children's services, but also in planning, environment and leisure, which all in the past may have had different directors leading them."

Another benefit of a combined role is it fits better with an increased focus on integrating services and creating support for families as a whole.

Councils taking on responsibility for public health is another factor, with director of public health roles being created either as stand-alone roles or as part of a combined DCS and wider social care post.

Andrew Ireland, corporate director for social care, health and wellbeing at Kent County Council, welcomes the breadth of his remit across health and social care as a way of better integrating support for families.

"Finance has been a factor in combining roles. But this approach also came as councils were having a discussion about the whole-family approach, looking at child and adult protection as well as issues such as mental health at the same time," says Ireland, who is also joint chair of the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) and Association of Directors of Adult Social Service (ADASS) Joint Committee.

Another advocate of the combined model is Phil Norrey, chief executive of Devon County Council and children's policy spokesman for the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (Solace).

"You need to protect children, advocate strongly for them and champion them," he says. "But the issues affecting children are also about adults, their relationship with the child and their lifestyle."

Norrey also believes a single director of both children and adult services has more clout among local partners, particularly in health. "The reality of the NHS is that they are more focused around adults," he contends. "This means a combined director will have more traction with the NHS."

Strong support network

Maria Stratulis of BASW welcomes Wardell's honesty about the challenges those in combined roles face and urges councils to realise that all DCSs - especially those with such a wide brief - need a strong support network if they are to make the job a success.

"Social workers are telling us that staff structures around the directors are critical," she says. "We have to acknowledge the challenges directors face and support them."

Wardell agrees, saying her role is only possible due to the "high level of trust" she has in her management team.

"Because of this, I have confidence in being able to delegate where it is possible as well as prioritise ruthlessly," she says.

Amanda Kelly, director at public services consultancy Impower, says another challenge combined directors face is ensuring the integrated working ethos of the role is channelled through to the frontline. "If a council has a director of people but the services are still being provided within silos, then local people are not going to feel the benefit of that combined role," she says.

DCSs in combined roles need to be top-level strategists, yet keep a close eye on frontline support offered to families.

"The volume of things you need a bird's eye view on is huge," says Kelly. "Children's services on its own is massive, then add in health and adult services as well and it is a challenge to look at the wider strategy and be aware of the red flags that could arise in each area."

Ireland is aware of this challenge and has put in place a series of measures to ensure he retains a strong link with local operations.

This includes regular meetings with local managers and staff briefings, as well as auditing specific cases.

Catalyst for change

While cost-cutting and integrating family support have been the main drivers of combining DCS roles, Alison O'Sullivan, ADCS president and Kirklees Council's DCS, says the reason is often pragmatic.

For example, the skills and experience of a particular director who steps in to cover the brief left vacant through the retirement of a colleague can be the catalyst for some to combine roles.

Meanwhile, a negative Ofsted inspection report or government intervention may make councils shy away from the upheaval of merging departments.

O'Sullivan believes that instead of sticking with one model, more councils may switch between combined and dedicated roles based on the skills of senior managers at any one time and changing local need.

In Barking & Dagenham, for example, a DCS role has been kept due to the need to focus on the borough's growing population of young families (see case study, p23).

Reasons for the scope of the DCS role can be very specific to their personal requirements. For example, when O'Sullivan took up the role of ADCS president, she relinquished her combined post to become a dedicated DCS "because it was felt that with that national role being so demanding, it was right to keep my role focused on children".

Given such flexibility around the responsibilities of their DCSs, there is little appetite to alter guidance around the 2004 Children's Act, which created the statutory role of DCS.

Norrey says the guidance already allows councils to tailor the role to their local needs, while retaining a senior officer to champion children.

Wardell is also against any update, saying existing government guidance "has enough checks and balances" to ensure she and others in combined DCS roles are fulfilling the statutory requirements of the role.

Case study: The single hatter

Helen Jenner, corporate director of children's services, London Borough of Barking & Dagenham

A rise in Barking & Dagenham's younger population, largely through families moving away from central London's rising house prices and rents, has been a key factor in keeping Helen Jenner's role focused on children's services.

According to latest council figures, 33 per cent of the population is now aged under 19, compared to 24 per cent across London as a whole.

"We review our structure frequently and choose what is needed for the borough," says Jenner. "With one of the fastest-growing children's populations in the country, there is a need to have a management structure that reflects that."

Another factor in the council sticking with a dedicated DCS role is to ensure Jenner can retain a focus on specific areas of children's services and education in need of improvement, in particular the borough's historically poor school attainment record.

Latest local authority-wide figures indicate this focus is already paying off. In 2013/14, the borough's GCSE A*-C pass rate finally beat the England-wide average for the first time in eight years.

But there is more work to be done, with the council's 2013/14 pass rate of 58.2 per cent still below the outer London councils' average of 62.4 per cent.

Jenner admits focusing on this improvement would be a "challenge" if she also had responsibility for overseeing adult social care.

"I need to really drill down to a local level to see what needs improving," she says. For example, her focused role allows her to directly oversee improvement in that she has time to chair monitoring boards of failing schools.

"There is no way I could operate at that level if I was covering a broader field," she adds.

But she insists her focus on children does not mean she operates in isolation.

"I am a corporate director of children's services so already have a wider responsibility across the council," she says.

In addition to her DCS duties, she also chairs the council's housing strategy group, due to the need to provide homes for the borough's growing younger population, and also sits on a number of other council-wide groups including its community safety partnership.

Case study: The twin hatter

Michael Bracey, corporate director - people, Milton Keynes Council

Slashing the senior management salary bill was a key driver in Milton Keynes Council's decision to create the role of corporate director of people earlier this year.

Covering children's services, adult social care, education and public health, the role was filled by Michael Bracey, who had been assistant director of children's services at the council since 2009.

He says as well as saving cash, his role was also created to eradicate "cliff edges" in care for young people when they reach adulthood. It came alongside efforts to make commissioning more efficient, by having one team covering the procurement of children and adult care support.

"The most powerful part of what we have done is to remove the partitioning between adult and children's services in terms of the finances and the approach we take," says Bracey.

Areas across children and adults services where he is looking to forge closer links include personal budgets for support, where "there are similarities around planning packages of care".

Another area of closer collaboration between adult and children's care is through the council's multi-agency safeguarding hub, which aims to improve responses to safeguarding concerns.

Adult social care's involvement means support for the whole family can be accelerated when concerns are raised, explains Bracey. Adult social care professionals are also benefitting from children's services expertise around missing children to improve the way the council takes action when vulnerable adults go missing.

Bracey acknowledges that the remit of his directorate is large, covering about 75 per cent of the council's work, which makes delegation and having an expert second tier of management important.

The council retains a director of adult social services who reports to Bracey. In addition, the council is one of three local authorities to share a director of public health, with Bracey working alongside that director on Milton Keynes-specific issues.

"By making sure you have experts around you, it can work well," he says.

"I have a group of professionals in place who I know I can rely on to offer me specialist knowledge."

Stick or twist?

Benefits of a dedicated director of children's services

• With a focus only on children, a DCS has the time to personally oversee specific areas of children's services in need of improvement, such as a poor recent Ofsted report.
• The dedicated DCS need not operate in a silo if the role has a corporate element to it with a leading role in council-wide initiatives, such as regeneration and health and wellbeing.
• A dedicated DCS can save money by focusing on driving down the children's social care bill through keeping families together.
  
  

Benefits of a combined role for director of children's services

• A combined role allows social care services to join up more effectively to offer support to families as a whole. It can also help address cliff edges in support, when vulnerable young people make the transition from children's to adult services.
• In large geographic areas, it can be more practical to appoint a strategic director across social care and then appoint specific managers to oversee children's services in each distinct locality.
• By having a strong second management tier to provide expert specialist support, a combined DCS need not face a sharp learning curve in taking on extra responsibilities.