The new interim head of Birmingham’s failing children’s service department admitted vulnerable children remained “unsafe” in this city and urgent action was required to turn the department around.
Strategic director Peter Hay was appointed to run children’s services alongside at least until the end of the year, following the departure of Peter Duxbury by “mutual consent” last week.
He was joined by the Labour Cabinet member for children’s services, Brigid Jones, as they spoke in public for the first time since Mr Duxbury left the organisation.
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Although prevented by legal agreements from commenting directly on his performance, they painted a picture of a social services department in crisis, with a toxic atmosphere in which social work staff took on heavier case loads, worked 20-hour days, took more time off with stress and felt unable to raise concerns with management – with the ultimate result that children were put at increased risk.
But they confirmed that, after four management changes in four years and three department re-organisations, which all failed to lift the Government’s ‘inadequate’ rating, there would be no further restructures – just a focus on improvement under the current plan.
Mr Hay, who has taken on the new role alongside his existing position as strategic director of adult social care, said: “The immediate position is unsafe for children and needs immediate action.
“We need to get a department which responds to the concerns of staff and those responsible for children.
“Their voices haven’t been heard, it is unsafe. We need to be turning this around quickly.”
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The department has consistently had problems with social worker recruitment, retention and sickness rates and is now losing agency back-up staff due to a ‘trade war with Sandwell’ after the Black Country authority raised its fees.
Mr Hay stressed that front-line staff were not to blame for the problems and added a considerable amount of “great work” was going on.
He said some progress was already being made with a new system for reporting cases, referred by the public, picked up by the council’s call centre.
Coun Jones, who had a difficult working relationship with Mr Duxbury, also spoke of the negative culture in the department.
She said: “There has to be a sea change.
“Children must come first, we cannot continue to sweep issues under the carpet and not talk about them.
“There has to be climate of honesty and openness.
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“Staff have to have confidence their concerns will be acted on.”
The councillor for Selly Oak added: “The buck stops with me, but I can’t fix things if I don’t know they’re broken.”
Having overseen a restructure in the last 12 months, following the last inspection by Ofsted last September, Coun Jones ruled out any further upheaval.
“We are sticking to the same plan,” she said.
“We will be looking at front-line improvement. The focus has to be on making children safer. There will be no big changes.”
Mr Hay confirmed his interim appointment was intended to last until the end of the year, during which time a “sustainable long-term plan” would be developed.
He was, between 2003 and 2005, the director of the council’s social services department before it was split into adults and children’s services and said he would provide some continuity.
A decade ago, the larger department was similarly in crisis and failing but under his directorship it secured a star, under an old rating system, before it was divided.
Since then, there have been a number of high-profile cases which exposed failings in the services, including the deaths of children known to social workers - Toni Ann Byfield, Khyra Ishaq and more recently Keanu Williams.
The department has also been rated as inadequate since 2009 and, despite the routine involvement of the Department for Education and Ofsted, is showing little sign of improvement.
The council’s vulnerable children scrutiny committee warned Coun Jones and Mr Hay that improvement must be swift.
Chairman Anita Ward, referring to the last Ofsted inspection, said; “Twelve months ago I said we had got away with it.
“We have to face facts – we have taken a backwards step since then.”
There are concerns that any further failure could result in Education Secretary Michael Gove stepping in to run the department, as he did with Doncaster’s department last week.
But Mr Hay warned such a step would mean further unnecessary upheaval for social workers as the Doncaster trust model was likely to take two years to establish.
Mr Duxbury took over as strategic director of children’s services in April last year, having come from the “outstanding” Lincolnshire County Council’s children’s services.
Mr Duxbury immediately set to work on an overhaul of the department – but an Ofsted inspector’s report last autumn revealed too many social care reports were of poor quality, frequently late and that the demoralised department faced major problems with staff recruitment, retention and high sickness absence levels – leading to a heavy reliance on agency social workers.
Recently it was revealed that, of a top management team of 12, only six were permanent, with three consultants and three interim staff.
Two of those consultants have also now left.#
Mr Duxbury went on an “unplanned, urgent” period of leave last month and has not returned.