Neverthess, although the intervention group parachuted in last year to support failing childrens services reported some progress, it was nothing on a scale that could justify a lifting of special measures. As a result, they will remain at Swansea. Only two areas out of fourteen showed significant improvement but that did not prevent an attempt at a bit of feeble back-slapping by house-trained councillors who actually seem to think that they are achieving something.
Earlier, deputy minister Gwenda Thomas stated she had been advised that the department continued to be “inconsistent” and needed further improvement. She added that a “reality check” would be made in September. It would probably be a good idea for governance and scrutiny roles within the council to undergo a similar kind of examination – given that those involved apparently remained in total ignorance for so long about the circumstances behind three unrelated child deaths.
1 Comments:
I have to agree with the sentiments expressed here.
Scrutiny at Swansea is a sanitised practice in which the officers control information and councillor do a passable impersonation of mushrooms by being kept in the dark & fed on shit. Members are deliberately inundated with masses of detail about process which makes them feel clever if they manage to understand a fraction of what they are told. Yet the same system encourages then to skip over important parts of content - or lack of it in Swansea's case.
Unlike the people who ‘advise’ them, the councillors supposedly governing & scrutinising childrens services have no actual grounding in the departmental ethos or an ability to make contact with staff on the ground. This is demonstrated by their total ignorance of three serious case reviews at a period preceding WAG intervention. I strongly doubt if any of them are aware of a further two cases which yet to be published.
The idea that Tregoning and Childs can assess the scale of improvements is laughable. How can they possibly determine the potential for raising standards when they have no meaningful idea of the extent how bad things have been allowed to get?
Swansea’s social services directorate is lucky that its performance, or lack of, is monitored by the Welsh Assembly government. In England, as seen by events in Haringey, Doncaster and Birmingham, ministerial intervention and sanctions can mean something very different and a lot less equivocal.
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