Issue - meetings

Dave Howes, Director of Social Services

The Director of Social Services, Dave Howes along with Rachel Moxey and Jane Whitmore attended the Panel giving a powerpoint presentation on the core questions sent in advance of the meeting.  The following points were noted over and above that given in the presentation.

·         Co-production and how is it working?  Step change means doing things significantly differently.  It is different because working together as equal partners.  To do it properly it takes a lot of time, it requires a certain skill and need to build up a certain amount of trust between all those involved.  Must be sure about what can and cannot be done.  Managing expectations is key. If done well it means real decisions being made collectively.  It is early stages and we are learning as we go along.  We will be developing a co-production strategy which will be written co-productively.

·         Co-production should make the finished product better and more likely to provide services people want and well.  The difference this will make to individual moving forward is to be tested.

·         Co-production could also be the answer to removing barriers but it can be difficult to find and include the really excluded people in communities.  It is a challenge for us in terms of whether we are sufficiently open to finding and engaging with the most excluded individuals.  This is absolutely a work in progress. We do tend to work with the same people over and over again, we will need to reach out more.

·         We are at the very early stages with co-production and have the ambition to do this much better but can come across a number of barriers when doing it.  We recognise that we are learning ourselves and trying to be an organisation that is constantly developing.  Moving our engagement to something more constructive and engaging is difficult but ambitious.

·         Arising from a scrutiny inquiry into poverty a couple of years ago, we are setting up a Poverty Truth Commission.  It will include working with people who are experiencing poverty.  This will include not just the council but other key service providers.  We are working with the Policy Development Committee to move this forward.

·         In Swansea in Social Services we are supporting our staff through reflective practice.  Really looking at why something may have worked or not worked.  Looking at the key factors that lead to the outcome you and the family have achieved, including barriers and how overcome.  It is really useful also when you ask the family at the end, we are trying to do more of that although it can be difficult especially if outcome is not what they hope.

·         Recognise the workforce in social services is not reflective of communities and the need to be able to relate to those people who are marginalised and/or vulnerable.  The social services childcare staffing tends to be young, white and female with adult services staff be the mirror opposite, predominantly older females.  Do we have a sufficiently robust strategy for staffing, no not robust enough, in reality it is not a particularly attractive job.  We are struggling to overcome this perception but it is hard.

·         It is one of our priorities moving ahead to make our workforce more reflective, it is definitely an area we could strengthen.

·         Poverty and Prevention Team more diverse but not necessarily where we want to be, could be a better gender balance.  The diversity of this team developed through the previous communities first programme.

·         If we want a more diverse workforce we as an authority have to change our approach to recruitment and employment practice.  It is also difficult to look at how diverse our workforce is because the data collected is not a reliable indication.

·         Not enough time and funding to carry out co-production at the moment (public)

·         Can be difficult to find EIA’s on council website and not easy to understand the process used.  Should they involve people who are affected by decisions? (public)

·         Only 1% target for staff with a disability for Swansea Council, is that too low, Welsh Government have 5% target. (public)

·         We want a co-productive approach to service provision and happy to work with people to progress this.  It has started but not embedded.  Resources are an issue.  But we are starting from a default position to do it.

·         Need more documents to be in Easyread (public)