Press Release
Management changes improve already good social work services
The people of Shetland are receiving good social work care, according to a follow-up report by the Social Work Inspection Agency, though there is room for improvement in management and the service has been under pressure due to last year’s wider council crisis.
This follows an initial investigation in February last year which resulted in a new workforce plan being agreed and the introduction of the new single shared assessment process. However, the new report indicates that further improvements are necessary in self evaluation, quality assurance, and the out of hours service.
“Social work services continued to provide a good service to the people of Shetland,” the report concluded, despite some administrative difficulties. In particular , there was “strong evidence that assessment and care management was of a good quality across care groups.”
The report stated:
“We saw no significant risks in the areas of outcomes, assessment and care management, and risk assessment. Across community care, children and families and criminal justice services, Shetland performed well in delivering good outcomes for people who used services.
“We found the concerns raised in the initial scrutiny level assessment were largely being addressed. Important progress had been made since February 2010”
Cecil Smith, Chairperson of the Council’s Social Services Committee said that work was already advanced in dealing with the concerns raised by the report.
“Front line social work services have been performing well and that has been recognised, “ he said. “The management and evaluation issues identified were largely a result of the temporary governance problems at the council, and are being thoroughly addressed. I am confident that social work in Shetland will continue to provide the effective and professional care the community is accustomed to.