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Social Services Annual Report

Published: 08/07/2021

Later this month, Flintshire County Council’s Cabinet will be asked to approve the Social Services Annual Report.

This is the fifth year of a new format for the Social Services Annual Report which is prepared under the requirements of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 and the Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Act 2016 (RISCA).

The report is intended to provide the public, the regulator and wider stakeholders with an honest picture of services in Flintshire and to demonstrate a clear understanding of the strengths and challenges faced. The report illustrates how services have met the challenges presented by Covid-19.

The Council has much to celebrate in the work being done to promote and improve the wellbeing of people in the County, including:

• The implementation of Micro-care, with currently 20 Micro-carers delivering services in the county (up from 12 in March).
• Further developing our actions to support people living with dementia.
• Taking a stand to end all male violence against women by becoming White Ribbon Accredited.
• Recognition of our Learning Disability Services in the Social Care Wales Accolades and shortlisted for the APSE Awards.
• The employment of two graduates, young people with Learning Disabilities from the Project SEARCH programme, in our own services, with others entering in paid employment.
• The implementation of Foster Carer support Model – ‘Mockingbird’.

Neil Ayling, Chief Officer, Social Services, said: 

“This comprehensive report lays out a positive position for social services in Flintshire and demonstrates that despite unprecedented pressures on services, our staff continue to provide excellent services to support the most vulnerable residents in the county.   Our workforce should continue to be celebrated as heroes alongside the health workforce, those in the food production supply chain, delivery and postal workers, volunteers and the many others.

“As we move forward, we know that Covid-19 will continue to impact our community and services into 2021/22.  A theme running through the report is our continued response to this and the recovery of services when safe to do so.”

Flintshire’s Cabinet Member for Social Services, Councillor Christine Jones, said: 

“This is an excellent report and a fair assessment of our performance as a service last year. It has been particularly pleasing to see how our officers have adapted and continued to support our residents during this difficult time.  And I want to say, as ever, how proud both myself and Neil are of our workforce when we have all faced unprecedented challenges, and yet were still able to continue to support our most vulnerable residents. This is testament to the hard work and dedication of our wonderful employees.

“However, we are not complacent, and we will continue to seek ways to improve, particularly during such challenging times which show increasing demands on our services.”

The annual report outlines the improvement priorities identified for 2021/22. These include:

• Developing a Strategy and Action Plan to support people living with dementia and their carers and continue to be recognised as a Council ‘Working Towards Becoming Dementia Friendly’;
• Implementing the new model of care and support at Arosfa;
• Encouraging employees to complete the Welsh Government’s elearning module “Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Against Women” to achieve 100% completion rate;
• Further developing Project SEARCH;
• Developing opportunities for autistic individuals to access services locally;
• Continuing to work to safely reduce the numbers of children in care and improve outcomes for those in care;
• Further roll out of Mockingbird model of fostering;
• Progressing in-house residential care expansion schemes;
• Launching a short term residential service to inform the most appropriate move-on placement and support package for young people;
• Developing the ‘Small Homes’ scheme for children.