Yesterday, a council scrutiny committee was due to be provided with a further update on the progress Bridgend Council is making to improve children’s social services (pdf).
Several shortcomings and challenges have been identified in the last few years. These include recruitment/staffing, partnership arrangements and overall issues with the quality of services.
In the full assessment of progress in the first year of a £3.5million three-year improvement programme (pdf), none of the identified actions has been deemed to be making “unsatisfactory” progress.
The majority of actions (up to 35) have been completed in the first year. These include – amongst other things – establishing a new young person’s forum, a new workforce plan and recruitment drive and improvements to information collection & sharing.
11 actions were deemed to be making good progress and a further 11 were excellent progress/close to completion.
The only action deemed not to be making good progress so far is the delivery of a “Signs of Safety” child protection programme. While most staff have attended either 2-day or 5-day training courses, future training is still under development.
