Leeds council: ‘Social work is about relationships. If it’s not about that, it’s not about anything’

Steve Walker, director of children’s services at Leeds council, talks to Community Care about the ‘outstanding’ judgment the service recently received from Ofsted.

The council was praised by Ofsted particularly for its commitment to investment in children’s services, including the development of what the regulator termed “innovative” initiatives, its well-established partnership arrangements and its “highly motivated” and “loyal” workforce.

Walker describes the considerable journey for the service since its ‘inadequate’ rating in 2010, but how the focus has been on consistently good practice, rather than an Ofsted rating. He explains how the council has been working to get caseloads down to a manageable level for frontline staff, and how career development and learning has been embedded within Leeds children’s services.

The full list of questions, posed by Community Care associate editor Sarah Dennis, is:
1)What would you say were the core contributors to this latest inspection grading and how confident were you of the pending result?

2)Can you tell us more about the what Ofsted termed the well-established multi-agency arrangements at the front door, how this has enhanced the service, and how communication and understanding is maintained across partnerships?

3)How has the council been successful in developing and maintaining relationship-based practice and what would you say makes this essential?

4)Can you tell us a bit more about what Ofsted termed the clear Leeds Practice Model and how and why this was implemented – and what the benefits have been?

5)Ofsted has noted that the council’s leaders have identified an improvement plan for its care leavers services – what steps have already been taken on this, and how has the transition into a distinct service been managed?

6)How has Leeds managed to secure and embed a learning culture within the service – what are the key tools/resources it uses and how are staff encouraged and enabled to continue development?

7)How has the council managed to secure and ensure investment into initiatives such as the restorative early support teams and MST-FIT – how have these supported social work practice and what is being done to ensure these remain?

8)How has the council maintained manageable caseloads – I know it’s difficult to pin down an ‘average’ – but can you say this has improved for practitioners over the past three years and if so, how has that been managed?

9)And finally, how is Leeds going to maintain and develop its outstanding performance, and do you see any challenges ahead on that front?