Performance Evaluation of the City and County of Swansea 2006
This evaluation is based on evidence collated by CSSIW and material submitted by the authority.
The authority continues to make good progress in many areas and is
developing more examples of good practice, but is still confronted with some
serious challenges particularly in its children’s services. One of the most
immediate concerns is the continuing growth in the number of children looked
after. The authority is well aware of this problem together with the dangers of
it continuing to grow. Work has been undertaken to analyse the problem and
an ‘Invest to Save’ strategy has been formulated. The authority has started to
make the appropriate investment to achieve the right balance of services to
provide family support and preventative services as well as good quality
services for Looked After Children. This needs to remain a corporate priority. Progress has continued in relation to the time taken to complete initial and
core assessments in relation to children. Although the authority’s performance
is heading in the right direction the pace of improvement needs to increase,
as the level of performance remains poor.
The workforce is one of the barriers towards improving performance in
relation to children’s services with the high rate of vacant posts. The authority
will need to continue to focus attention on this to address this problem.
All local authorities across Wales face the challenge of coping with an ageing
population and the authority is working to ensure that it has the right balance
of services to promote the independence of individuals. The authority has
many examples of good practice particularly in relation to services for people
with learning disabilities. This innovative thinking needs to be expanded to
services for other client groups. The authority is continuing to make progress
with the unified assessment.
developing more examples of good practice, but is still confronted with some
serious challenges particularly in its children’s services. One of the most
immediate concerns is the continuing growth in the number of children looked
after. The authority is well aware of this problem together with the dangers of
it continuing to grow. Work has been undertaken to analyse the problem and
an ‘Invest to Save’ strategy has been formulated. The authority has started to
make the appropriate investment to achieve the right balance of services to
provide family support and preventative services as well as good quality
services for Looked After Children. This needs to remain a corporate priority. Progress has continued in relation to the time taken to complete initial and
core assessments in relation to children. Although the authority’s performance
is heading in the right direction the pace of improvement needs to increase,
as the level of performance remains poor.
The workforce is one of the barriers towards improving performance in
relation to children’s services with the high rate of vacant posts. The authority
will need to continue to focus attention on this to address this problem.
All local authorities across Wales face the challenge of coping with an ageing
population and the authority is working to ensure that it has the right balance
of services to promote the independence of individuals. The authority has
many examples of good practice particularly in relation to services for people
with learning disabilities. This innovative thinking needs to be expanded to
services for other client groups. The authority is continuing to make progress
with the unified assessment.
