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Chapter 2 Context
Introduction
The inspection of East Dunbartonshire Council's social work services took place between November 2007 and March 2008. Our inspection team consisted of SWIA inspectors, associate inspectors, sessional inspectors and a carer inspector.
During the inspection we read a wide selection of material about the council and the social work services it provided or purchased. We analysed questionnaires received from staff, adults who use services, carers and stakeholders. Together with some staff from East Dunbartonshire Council's social work service we spent four days examining case files. The team then spent a further ten days in East Dunbartonshire looking at services as part of a fieldwork exercise.
During fieldwork, we spoke to people who use services, their carers and people who were responsible for delivering or arranging services. We met with representatives from a range of organisations and groups as well as elected members and other stakeholders. We also visited places providing social work services and people's homes when they received services there. As a result, we collected an extensive range of evidence that informed the content, evaluations and recommendations contained in this report.
This report is not a detailed description of all the social work services in East Dunbartonshire. It gives an overview and concentrates on the work being undertaken with people who need assistance and the areas where improvements are needed. It does not duplicate the inspection of services which are regulated by the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care (Care Commission) and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education ( HMIE). In order to achieve this, the Care Commission and HMIE provided us with information about their inspection reports from East Dunbartonshire.
Area profile
East Dunbartonshire has a population of 105,460 and covers 175 square kilometres, it is in the mid-range of Scottish local authorities. The population density is 604 people per square kilometre. It has a combination of rural and urban areas and comprises the following suburban and rural settlements of Bearsden (27,460), Bishopbriggs (23,080), Kirkintilloch (19,660), Milngavie (12,820), Lenzie (8,770), Milton of Campsie (3,810), Lennoxtown (3,770), Torrance (2,420) and Twechar (1,390). The population of East Dunbartonshire has decreased by 4.8% since 2000, while overall, Scotland's population has increased by 0.04%.
In East Dunbartonshire, 60.4% of the population are of working age. This compares with a Scotland figure of 62.8%. 20.7% of the population are of pensionable age (Scotland figure is 19.2%), while 18.9% are under the age of 16 (Scotland's figure is 18.0%). East Dunbartonshire's under 16 population is due to decrease by 21.9% by 2014 and decrease by 30.6% by 2024. The equivalent Scotland figures are a decrease of 9.7% by 2014 and a decrease of 12.4% by 2024.
The working age population of East Dunbartonshire is due to decrease by 6.5% by 2014 and decrease by 14.3% by 2024. The equivalent Scotland figures are a decrease of 0.8% by 2014 and a decrease of 1.0% by 2024. More specifically, East Dunbartonshire's 75+ population is due to increase by 35.0% by 2014 and increase by 70.7% by 2024. The equivalent Scotland figures are an increase of 18.8% by 2014 and an increase of 53.3% by 2024. We comment later in the report about the implications of these increases on the demand for social work services and evaluate the performance of social work in planning and service provision for older people.
People of working age account for 60% of all people in East Dunbartonshire, this is lower than for Scotland as a whole. Eighty-three per cent of working age people in East Dunbartonshire are economically active which is higher than the Scotland average of 79.9%. The unemployment rate in East Dunbartonshire (1.2%) is lower than Scotland as a whole. 1
The male life expectancy at birth in East Dunbartonshire is 78.0 which is greater than the overall Scotland figure of 74.6. This means East Dunbartonshire is ranked number 1 out of the 32 local authorities for male life expectancy at birth. The female life expectancy at birth in East Dunbartonshire is 81.7 which is greater than the overall Scotland figure of 79.6. This means East Dunbartonshire is ranked number 2 out of the 32 local authorities for female life expectancy at birth. 2
There are few areas of multiple deprivation in East Dunbartonshire. Figures from the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation in 2004 ( SIMD-04) identified there were four datazones which fell within the top 15% of the most deprived datazones in Scotland. Through work with community planning partners through East Dunbartonshire's Regeneration Outcome Agreement, one of these datazones in Twechar has fallen outwith the top 15%.
As at the 2001 Census, 3.1% of the population of East Dunbartonshire was from the black and minority ethnic community compared to 2.0% for Scotland as a whole.
Organisation of social work services
The local authority structure has three directorates: Corporate, Environment and Community. Social work is part of the community directorate. This comprises:
- Social Work
- Education
- Resources Planning and Improvement for Children
- Community Services including Libraries and Community Development
- Housing and Protective Services
There is one overall Corporate Director (Community) and each of the above areas is managed by a Head of Service. In 2005 the current management structure was formed with the head of social work and three senior managers reporting to a Social Work Committee. The head of social work and the chief social work officer ( CSWO) are the same person.
The Structure of Social Work Service
The structure of the social work service represents two broad areas of activity. These are separated into Children and Young People, and Community Care services. These in turn are supported by a Planning, Performance and Finance function.
Children and Young People's service
The Children and Young People's service deals with fieldwork services to children and families, residential and day services and all aspects of statutory and voluntary support to children, young people and their families including services to looked after and looked after and accommodated children, children with disabilities, throughcare services, child protection, fostering and adoption, youth justice, etc.
In addition, it includes responsibility for the Advice and Response Team which provides a generic referral and assessment service across the whole of social work with specialist teams involved as required.
Community Care
The Community Care service provides fieldwork, residential and day services to adults and older people, as well as occupational therapy, home support, services to adults with disabilities; adult protection; and addictions services. Some fieldwork services, for adults with learning disabilities, mental health problems or those with addictions, are being delivered jointly by co-located social work and health teams.
It fulfils statutory functions on various legislation affecting adults including the Mental Health (Care & Treatment) Act and the Adults with Incapacity Act.
Planning Performance and Finance
The Planning, Performance and Finance Section supports the operational remit by ensuring there is effective co-ordination of finance, planning and policy implementation across the range of social work responsibilities. It also enables the service to work collaboratively within the Community Directorate and across the Council. It was responsible for developing the Community Care Joint Planning Structures and the Children's Services Planning Framework.
It also commissions a range of services with Education, Health and Housing, providing care and support to the community.
Criminal Justice
Criminal Justice social work services are also within the Community Directorate. The services are delivered in partnership with West Dunbartonshire and Argyll and Bute. This partnership became part of the North Strathclyde Community Justice Authority in 2006.
The partnership has a single manager and common quality assurance systems. Some services operate on a partnership-wide basis. These include throughcare, work with high-risk offenders and the delivery of accredited programmes.
SWIA (formerly the Social Work Services Inspectorate) carried out an inspection of East Dunbartonshire's criminal justice services in autumn 2003 and published its report in February 2004 as part of an inspection of the partnership. This inspection was the first in a programme of inspections of criminal justice services delivered by all local authorities in Scotland. This programme is complete and because the report was published more than three years ago we have included criminal justice services within the scope of this inspection.
Staffing
East Dunbartonshire Council's social work service employed 604 staff. The Council's social work budget for 2007-08 was £32.5m net and £48m gross.
Political structure
East Dunbartonshire is led by 24 elected members and its political make up at the time of our inspection was as follows:
- SNP - 8
- Scottish Labour - 6
- Scottish Conservative - 5
- Liberal Democrat - 3
- Independent - 2
Inspection methodology and process
The structure of this report is based on the SWIA performance inspection model, which asks six key questions.
1. What key outcomes have we achieved?
2. What impact have we had on people who use services and other stakeholders?
3. How good is our delivery of key processes?
4. How good is our management?
5. How good is our leadership?
6. What is our capacity for improvement?
The following chapters address each of these questions in turn.
A more detailed description of the inspection methodology and the way in which we carried out our inspection are included in Appendices 2 and 3.
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