At Full Council held today, Councillors in Blaenau Gwent were presented with the Annual Report of the Director of Social Services 2023/2024.
The Annual Report of the Director of Social Services 2023/2024 highlights the work of the Social Services Directorate in Blaenau Gwent over the last year, with a focus on delivering essential services despite significant financial challenges and increased service complexities and demands. The report celebrates the efforts of the Social Services workforce to maintain the delivery of services despite what has been and will continue to be a harsh financial landscape.
Highlights include the completion of Independent Living PODS at Augusta House, providing self-contained units for individuals with learning disabilities to live more independently. The two self-contained PODS will support individuals with learning disabilities and complex needs for individuals aged 16+ focusing on what individuals can do and aiming to empower them to live as independently as possible. Support provided involves skill-building activities and personalised plans.
It also references the positive impact of the Children Looked After strategy with continued improved outcomes for our children looked after population with examples of five learners progressing to university, alongside plans to open the first Blaenau Gwent Local Authority children’s home in early 2025 following a successful capital grant bid to Welsh Government. The residential children’s home will enable our young people to remain in our Blaenau Gwent and not face moving to placements across the UK. Welsh Ministers made a commitment to ‘eliminate private profit from the care of looked after children by the end of the Senedd term.’ To help with this, the Health and Social Care Integration and Rebalancing Capital Fund was set up by the Welsh Government which can be used to invest in local authority residential homes to ensure they are able to meet more complex needs of individuals closer to home.
The Social Services Directorate also reported a positive budget position for the 23/24 financial year, and this was attributed to the impact of both the Children Looked After and independent living strategies, and the departments effective use of time limited grant opportunities to test and provide alternative preventative support that supports people to remain at home.
Moving forward, the Directorate plans to explore income generation strategies and community-based solutions to minimise further cuts and reduce dependency on statutory services.
Workforce Stability and Development:
The workforce in childcare social work teams saw stabilisation during 23/24, with successful social work recruitment of staff supported through Local Authority sponsorship approach to the Degree in Social Work. This programme provides an opportunity for support workers within the Council to undertake their social work qualification whilst working within the borough.
Councillor Haydn Trollope, Blaenau Gwent Council’s Cabinet Member for People & Social Services, says:
“The report highlights the Council's ongoing commitment to supporting its Social Services workforce and improving service delivery despite challenging circumstances. The work of Social Services supports our Corporate Plan priorities to be an ambitious and innovative council delivering quality services at the right time and in the right place and to work in partnership to provide high quality services to meet local need, improving the quality of life and well-being within the community, empowering and supporting communities to be safe, independent and resilient.
“It is paramount that we keep staff retention at an all-time high by providing them with the necessary training and skills needed to undertake their increasingly demanding roles in our care sector.”
“We acknowledge and support wherever we can further improvements and look forward to building on the good work in these areas.”
Achievements contained within the report are highlighted below: -
- The Families First Young Carers project won a Social Care Accolade.
- Five children looked after progressed to university
- Blaenau Gwent has become a Foster Friendly Local Authority
- The department has invested in electric community meals vehicles to improve service efficiency and our impact on our environment.
- We have seen an increase in attendance at work across the whole Directorate with fewer staff absences due to illness.
- We had a positive inspection by our regulator CIW of Cwrt Mytton Dementia Care Home and significant increase of social activities within the home to improve the wellbeing for those who live there and their links with the wider community
- We have increased support for unpaid family and young carers due to grant funding investment providing a cost of living grant scheme, increased respite offers and additional staff to support with carers assessments
- Work completed at Lakeview to improve our community options catering service which provides learning opportunities for people with disabilities
- We have continued provision of our CARIAD scheme to enable people to step down from hospital in a timely way and prevent hospital admission
- The purchase of 2 properties with Regional Integration Fund (RIF) Capital Grant to develop residential provision for our children looked after. The homes are due to open January 2025;
- Two schools achieved the Children Looked After Friendly Schools Quality Mark.
To read the report in full go to - https://democracy.blaenau-gwent.gov.uk/documents/s16299/CO2409D8%20Appendix%2023-24%20ACRF%20FINAL.pdf?LLL=0
