Written Statement by the Welsh Assembly Government
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WRITTEN STATEMENT BY THE WELSH ASSEMBLY GOVERNMENT Title: Children’s Social Services in the City and County of Swansea: Membership of the Intervention Board Date: 30 April 2009 By: Gwenda Thomas, Deputy Minister for Social Services I have made two previous statements in Plenary setting out my concerns about social services for children in the City and County of Swansea. On 3 March, I indicated I was considering making an Order under Section 84 of the Children Act 1989 declaring the Authority to be in default of certain of its functions and directing it to take action to improve. I also indicated that I was considering establishing an Intervention Board to provide robust external challenge to the authority in order to drive the improvements necessary. My consideration of such action resulted from the findings of an Inspection in December 2008 by the Care and Social Services Inspectorate for Wales. This found that, while there had been some improvements following its inspection in 2007 and application by the Chief Inspector of the Protocol for Responding to Serious Concern about Local Authority Social Services, the overall judgement remained the same from both inspections. Services remained inconsistent and prospects for improvement remained uncertain. Swansea was given 14 days to respond to my proposal and a letter from the Chief Executive confirmed that the authority would embrace the opportunity to work with the Intervention Board and that it would ensure high level corporate support, at officer and member level, for the process of bringing about the necessary improvements in its social services for children. In my Plenary statement on 24 March, I confirmed that I had that day signed the Order under Section 84 of the Children Act 1989 and was proceeding to establish the Intervention Board. I consider its composition to be vitally important as its members must have the background and experience which will enable it to fulfil the Terms of Reference I have set. I undertook to inform Assembly members of the Board’s membership and this is set out below: An independent chair drawn from outside social services and local government: His Honour Judge Graham Jones He was born and raised in the Rhondda and is a Law Graduate from St. John’s College Cambridge. Following a distinguished career as a partner in a leading Cardiff Law Firm and a 10 year period as a Deputy Circuit Judge and Recorder, in 1985 he was appointed a Circuit Judge (the first solicitor Circuit Judge in Wales), becoming Senior Circuit Judge in 2000. From 1990 to 1998 he was Designated Family Judge, first at Merthyr Tydfil and then at Cardiff, subsequently becoming Designated Civil Judge for Wales. He retired in 2005 but continues to sit both as a Deputy High Court Judge and a Deputy Circuit Judge on a sessional basis. He is a member of the Civil Justice Council, being concerned on its behalf particularly with developments in civil law and procedure in Europe; and is also involved in development and training programmes for the Judiciary in newly joined member states of the European Union. A current or past Director of Social Services: Nigel Richardson Nigel Richardson has over twenty years Child Welfare experience and has worked in a variety of operational and managerial positions, culminating in his appointment to the post of Director of Children and Young People’s Services for Hull City Council. Nigel was previously Executive Director (Social and Housing Services) for North Lincolnshire Council he also spent five years outside local government employed as a social care consultant working with a large number of local authorities. At the invitation of the Department of Health, he was a member of the National Advisory Group which contributed to the development of the ‘Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families.’ In April 2001, Nigel was seconded to join Lord Laming as his social care advisor on the Victoria Climbié Inquiry Panel. A current or past head of children and young people’s services: Raymond Ciborowski Raymond Ciborowski was appointed Registrar and Head of Administration at Swansea University in 2008. In this role he has strategic leadership of the central administrative functions of the University, including academic registry, administrative computing, estates, finance, human resources, library and information services, marketing, planning, research and innovation, and student services which employ more than 1,000 staff. Before joining the University Mr Ciborowski’s professional and managerial career focussed upon services for children and young people. After 10 years as a frontline social worker Mr Ciborowski held a number of managerial posts within West Glamorgan Social Services before being appointed as the first Head of Children’s Services for Neath Port Talbot in 1995. After more than 8 years in that role Mr Ciborowski moved into the voluntary sector with his appointment as Director, Barnardo’s Cymru in 2004. Mr Ciborowski is Chair of the Neath Port Talbot Children’s Rights Unit and a member of the Board of Neath Port Talbot Council for Voluntary Services. He was previously a Trustee of Children in Wales. Mr Ciborowski has recently acted in an advisory capacity in establishing the National Independent Advocacy Board. Mr Ciborowski has lived in the Swansea Valley for the past 30 years. A current or past Chief Executive of a local authority Colin Berg Colin Berg was born and educated in Barry and then completed his degree and professional training at Swansea University. He has had a varied career in public services, beginning as a Probation Officer in the North West of England in the 1970s. He moved into Training and Development with Cheshire County Council when he reappraised his career choices in the mid 1980s. For the next 20 years he worked in Social Services, initially in Cheshire before moving back to his home Country of Wales in 2000 when he became Corporate Director of Social and Housing Services with Monmouthshire County Council. During this time he took the national lead on resources for the Association of Directors of Social Services (Cymru), and the South East Wales regional lead on workforce development. He was promoted to Chief Executive with the same Council in 2004, a post he continues to hold. He now leads on Health and Social Care issues for SOLACE(Wales). He has a strong interest in engaging with citizens and communities, and making partnerships more effective and productive. An individual with current or past experience as an elected member in local government with experience of social services matters Rose Seaborne Rose was formerly an elected member for the Torfaen County Borough Council serving from 1998 to 2008. In her role as Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care and Wellbeing she was a member of a number of Partnerships and these included being the Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Partnership, Chair of the Early Years Partnership and member of the Children and Young People Framework and Young People’s Partnership. She was also a member of Torfaen LHB. During her time, she led the Social Services Department and Council through enormous change including the second Joint Review achieving excellent results. She also played a role in achieving the Corporate Health Gold Award for the LHB and Torfaen County Borough Council. I am grateful to all those who were prepared to put their names forward for my consideration and were ready to assist in bringing about the improvements which are needed in Swansea. The Board I have appointed carries the credibility necessary to fulfil the responsibilities I have set out for it. It will begin its work as soon as possible and I shall be keen to receive reports from it on the progress the authority is making. However, as I have stressed throughout, the responsibility for bringing about the improvements needed is not affected – it remains with the City and County of Swansea. Every one of its members are elected to ensure that the authority can provide social services capable of safeguarding and responding to the need of the children and young people of Swansea and of supporting their families. Strong political and corporate leadership is essential if this is to be achieved. Swansea must give priority to this work and I have asked the Care and Social Services Inspectorate for Wales to inspect Children’s Social Services there again in January 2010 or earlier if that becomes necessary. .