Consideration was given to a report of the
Managing Director, Children and Young People, (DCS) which sought
approval of the proposed investment into children’s services
and the invest to save strategy aligned with it
In May 2022, Annual Council adopted the
Administration’s priorities for 2022/23. One priority area
for the Council was to have a relentless focus on children and
young people to ensure that they enjoy a happy, healthy and safe
childhood. In September 2022, the Council further declared children
and young people to be its number one priority, underpinning the
organisation’s new five-year corporate plan.
As part of this focus the Council’s Children’s
Social Care and Early Help services had embarked upon a challenging
“Getting to Good” programme that would see the Council
improve the quality of its vital social work and safeguarding
services and the experiences and outcomes of those in need of
them.
To support both our overall priority for children and young
people and the continuous improvement of our existing services the
Council was proposing a significant investment into services that
support and safeguard children, young people, and their
families.
The proposal Cabinet was being asked to approve was to
invest £14.7 million into vital children’s social care
and family support services in the borough. This investment
would;
- Provide better support for families, at an earlier
stage, to avoid the need for social care involvement,
including:
- The targeting of £3 million of external
funding to provide a greater range of services, support and
activities at key children’s centres
- The targeting of £2.7 million of external
funding to target support for families currently struggling and
needing less intensive support
- Extra work with schools, colleges and with
voluntary, community and faith organisation’s to improve the
amount and level of support available for families in local
communities
- Provide the very best care for Oldham’s most
vulnerable children and young people by:
- Investing in additional capacity in the teams
assessing and making-decisions on vulnerable children and young
people’s care and support needs
- Increasing the teams, supporting fostering and
special guardianship orders so that more children and young people
have a home within a family setting
- Increasing the amount of move-on accommodation
available in Oldham to support those young people ready to leave
care to live independently
- Establishing a scheme to provide deposits and
first month’s rent and/or acting as guarantors for young
people ready to move into independent accommodation and
housing
- Establishing a new council-run children’s
home for local children and young people with learning disabilities
so fewer children need to be cared for outside of the
borough
- Make Oldham one of the best places to be a social
worker by:
- Recruiting 50 more permanent social workers to
ensure manageable caseloads and reduce the need for agency social
workers as much as possible
- Recruiting 17 new Social Work Support Officers to
free up social workers for more time with children and
families
- Reviewing current pay and conditions for
children’s social work staff to ensure the Council was able
to attract and retain the most talented social
workers
- Recognise, reward and better support
Oldham’s Foster Carers by;
- Increasing allowances and skills payments by
10%
- Recruiting five highly trained specialist foster
carers to offer additional training, support and advice to foster
carers across the borough – focusing on supporting those who
care for some of the most vulnerable children and young people to
help them remain in foster care.
-
Options/alternatives considered
Option 1 – Approve the investment as
detailed within the report which aimed to improve services for
children, young people and families and to support quality social
work and reward foster carers.
Option 2 – Not to invest in the service
as detailed within the report. This would removed the ability to
tackle rising demand for support leading to spiralling costs to
deliver quality children’s services.
RESOLVED – That:
1.
The proposed investment into children’s services and the
invest to save strategy aligned with it as detailed within the
report be approved.
2.
The decisions resulting from the implementation of the invest to
save strategy be delegated to the Managing Director of
Children’s Services and the Director of Legal Services.