Minutes:
The
Mayor and Lead Member for Children’s Social Care, Adult Social Care and Public
Health and the Executive Director of Children’s Services submitted a report for
the Executive’s consideration.
The
purpose of the report was to request agreement to commission ‘Audit to
Excellence’, at a cost of £216k, to ensure that the programme could continue
until March 2022 (the end of the current financial year). The submitted report
did not request for additional finances, as the programme could be funded from
current budgets, namely the Improvement or Change funds.
The
‘Audit to Excellence’ programme had now been rolled out across the whole
service with team plans/performance clinics and non-negotiables in place with
strong endorsement of the approach across the service.
Ofsted
had commented:
“The ‘Audit to Excellence’ framework
successfully builds in learning from audit, with clear links to individual team
planning, wider service improvements and performance clinics. Social workers
and early help practitioners provided inspectors with examples of how they had
made positive changes to their practice as a result of their learning from
audit.” (Focussed visit in May and published in July 2021.)
OPTIONS
The submitted report
set out the reasons why ‘Audit for Excellence’ could not be delivered in-house.
Securing different
auditors was not an option because it would have taken a significant period for
them to become familiar with the ‘Audit to Excellence’ approach and it was
important to maintain the pace of the improvement programme.
ORDERED
That the content of the
report be approved and the required commissioning takes place at a cost of
£216k.
REASON
The finances allocated
for auditing purposes ceased in March 2021 and the agency auditors had formed
their own business called ‘Audit to Excellence’ with the aim of working with
other authorities to develop similar bespoke approaches. However, there was
still a significant amount of work to be carried out in Middlesbrough to fully
embed the ‘Audit to Excellence’ approach and in particular equipping the
workforce with the skills to carry out internal audits to a good standard.
Therefore, it would be detrimental to Middlesbrough’s improvement programme if
the Council could not retain the auditors’ skills and experience. Sufficient
funds had been identified to commission them for nine months until March 2022
at a cost of £216K, which compared well with the auditors previous daily rate
as agency workers. A commissioning arrangement would give Middlesbrough more
security as agency workers could leave an authority in two weeks, which would
again be detrimental to the improvement programme.
The Overview and
Scrutiny Board had not examined the report or a Scrutiny Panel as there was an
urgent requirement to secure the necessary resources needed to consistently
improve outcomes for Middlesbrough’s vulnerable children. However, the
fundamental aspects had been discussed and agreed by Mayor Preston in his role
as Lead Member for Children’s Social Care.
It was important to
note that the ‘Audit for Excellence’ programme was for the whole of Children’s
Services i.e. for children’s social care and education and partnerships not
just the former. Education services played a significant role in improving
outcomes for vulnerable children, indeed all children in Middlesbrough.
Supporting documents: