CHILDREN’S Service bosses are taking a tougher approach with their staff to improve the service, with one telling Councillors they no longer take social workers on their word.

Bradford Council’s Children’s Service department was judged inadequate by Ofsted last year, and since then work has been underway to improve the key service.

At a meeting of the Council’s Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday, members were given an update on what is being done to turn the department around.

They were told bosses were taking a tougher line with staff, requiring them to show them the work they were doing, rather than relying on their word that they have done it.

A recent monitoring inspection by Ofsted - the first since the critical report, found that although things were improving in many areas, there was still much more work to be done to improve others.

Work to turn around Children's Services department may have left staff 'confused'

Interim Director of Children’s Services Gladys Rhodes White told the committee work had been done to reduce the caseloads of social workers.

She said they had taken a “back to basics” approach with social workers adding: “We need to be doing the basics well, and that hasn’t been happening consistently enough.”

Chair of the Committee Councillor Mike Gibbons (Cons, Ilkley), said: “It is disappointing to hear that the basics haven’t been as well applied as they should be.”

Mrs Rhodes White said: “If you have an increase in caseloads for social workers, it is often the basics that suffer. We need the basics done well all the time.”

Speaking of the improvement plan, Anne Chester-Walsh, interim assistant director for improvement, said: “It is not a little task, but it is not an insurmountable one. Our staff aren’t coming in every day to do the job badly, some have just forgotten how to do it well. That is what has let us down.

“We now work on a basis that if you don’t show me you have done something I won’t believe you. Just taking people’s word they are doing the work needed of them hasn’t worked so far.”

On hearing that, Cllr Gibbons said: “That is what we need to hear.”

They were asked how staff were responding to the tougher line. Mrs Rhodes White said: “We had a staff briefing recently, and it is fair to say its a bit of a mixed picture. Some staff are feeling the benefits of reduced caseloads and clearer expectations of standards. We still have workers in some areas where they have case loads that are not where we want them to be.”

Members were told that around 25 per cent of the staff in the department were currently agency workers.