The Social Work Inspection Agency (SWIA) is currently undertaking its first round of performance inspections of social work services in Scotland. These inspections aim to:
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improve local social work services for people who use them and for their carers
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secure greater public confidence in such services
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inform social work policy development
Falkirk Council's performance inspection, which is taking place across all parts of the Social Work Service (except for Criminal Justice), started in February and will conclude with a two week fieldwork phase, scheduled to begin on 16 June.
This SWIA inspection will provide our Social Work Service, already committed to continuous improvement, with a robust tool to examine its effectiveness.
Focus
The inspection will focus on the Service's approach to continuous improvement and will evaluate how good services are now as well as the capacity for improvement. In particular, inspectors will focus on the following aspects:
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What key outcomes have Social Work services achieved?
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What impact have our services had on people who use our services and other stakeholders?
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How good is our delivery of key processes?
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How good is our operational management?
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How good is our strategic leadership?
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What is our capacity for improvement?
The process
The performance inspection will take place in three phases, over a period of 36 weeks.
Pre-inspection phase (weeks 1–14)
During this phase the service provided inspectors with contextual information about Falkirk Council.
Survey questionnaires were sent to a random sample of Social Work staff, service users, carers and key partners/stakeholders. These completed questionnaires helped the inspectors to obtain views about our Social Work Service from a wide range of people.
The Social Work Service also completed a self-evaluation questionnaire, which included examples of evidence to support the evaluation outcomes.
During this phase, the inspectors also undertook a case file reading exercise, along with some members of staff. Approximately 100 social work cases were selected for scrutiny.
Fieldwork phase (weeks 15–18)
During this phase the inspection team will undertake a comprehensive programme of visits to externally and internally provided services, will observe meetings and will hold interviews with a range of people including Elected Members, staff, managers, partners, stakeholders and external providers. This phase is due to begin on 16 June 2008.
Analysis, report completion and follow-up phase (weeks 19–36)
Initial feedback is provided after the fieldwork stage. Then a draft report will be produced for comment. Thereafter, a final report will be published that will identify strengths and good practice as well as areas for improvement. It is anticipated that the report will be published later this year. The Social Work Service will then develop an action plan to deliver the recommendations made by SWIA in its report.