Colin Tucker became Birmingham City Council’s Director of Children’s Social Care in July. In the first of a series of blogs, he provides an insight into the work being done to improve the service.
At the end of last week I attended an event on the implementation of the common assessment framework. There was some excellent work going on in setting up an assessment process for all services that work with children.
This is vital because it is used to put together support programmes for children who are at risk of their behaviour deteriorating and therefore ending up in need of higher level of services, for example child protection plans, youth offending intervention, mental health services, care etc.
Very clear to hear that not enough staff understand this new system and the fact that they can refer children to it, so decided to invite Common Assessment Framework (CAF) staff to talk to managers and teams.
Later in the day went to Kingsmere Remand Unit to discuss with staff why the department is consulting on potential closure of this home. Key reasons include the fact that over the last couple of years the number of children looked after has been relatively low which means high costs and the building is of poor standard and the service is currently graded inadequate by Ofsted.
I talked directly with staff there and this is consistent with my principle that managers should not delegate the difficult tasks.
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Colin’s approach is really striking a chord with staff and gradually the culture and ethos will change in Children’s Social Care.Let’s face up to the challenges and really work together to improve what we are offering to our young people because as the advert says “they are worth it”
Birmingham is a great place to live and work and Its public services need innovative leadership with clear focus.
We are glad you are here to invest in shaping the direction of childrens services so we can continue to find better ways of working and really make a difference to the lives of others.
You have already provided us with clarity and what our priorities need to be.
well done colin. birmingham needs you and your experience
This is interesting stuff….let’s hope the words translate into actions….the children of birmingham deserve a better service than they have in the past.