Wrexham Council continues to make improvements to children’s social services.
In February this year, Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) raised concerns about children’s services in Wrexham, and said we needed to be more consistent in responding to children’s needs.
As a result, we took two immediate steps:
- We allocated an extra £1million to help ensure the department has the resources it needs.
- We built on the work of the ‘Accelerated Improvement Board’ – which includes our chief executive, senior councillors and senior managers – by establishing a support team to give the board the ability to implement the changes needed, and to monitor progress and drive forward change.
In October, CIW carried out an inspection to look at the progress made.
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The inspection report has now been shared with the council, and notes significant progress, with good prospects for continued improvement next year.
Councillor Andrew Atkinson, Lead Member for Children’s Services, says: “The inspection report provides positive feedback on the work we’ve done so far.
“For example, it talks about how the extra funding is helping us recruit key social work posts, and how improved working between employees, councillors and partners is having a positive effect.
“There’s still a long way to go, and CIW would like to see more consistency in some of our social work, but the report says we’re making progress as quickly as possible and moving in the right direction…which is really encouraging.
“We’ll continue to work with CIW over the coming months so we can build on these positive steps.”
Adult social care
CIW has also fed back on improvements to adult social care since their previous inspection in 2018, including reduced waiting lists for some services.
Councillor Joan Lowe, Lead Member for Health and Adult Social Care, says: “There are still areas where we need to make improvements, including how we work with the health sector to make it easier for people to access services in one place.
“However, CIW recognises the progress made over the past couple of years, and says that adult safeguarding in Wrexham is effective, and that social work practice is generally good.
“It’s very encouraging and we’ll keep working hard to provide effective adult social services across the county borough.”
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