Hammersmith and Fulham: local authority assessment

The local authority had a workforce strategy with an implementation plan, which included improving recruitment and retention, and learning and development. There was also a focus on professional development and career paths. We saw these areas correlated with the staff surveys from July 2023, with initial actions being taken; for example, a weekly newsletter from the DASS and updates from the Principal Social Worker.

The local authority had identified the dual pressures of being a London borough, and this being a highly competitive marketplace for workers, and having a high number of professional staff over the age of 50, meaning retirement would reduce this experienced workforce. Therefore, they were succession planning as well as looking at packages that would make Hammersmith and Fulham more attractive as an employer. Opportunities for career development and social work apprenticeships were in place to attract new social workers to the workforce. For example, the local authority was part of the national Think Ahead programme which supported people moving into mental health social work.

There was a reliance on temporary contracts and indirectly employed staff, who accounted for 39% of the workforce. This impacted the stability of the workforce and there were not enough experienced or senior staff to support apprenticeship or newly qualified staff, this meant at times these staff felt unsupported.

The Principal Social Worker was developing a training needs assessment for the adult social care directorate and there was mandatory training was available for all staff, as well as optional training which was encouraged. Following recent audits refresher training had been held on carers assessments, safeguarding and domestic violence, and hoarding.

The data provided on the local authority workforce showed that 32% of frontline staff were Black, Black British or Black other and for senior roles, this was 14%. This reflected a lack of representation from these communities in senior roles. There was a management development programme which had 50% Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic representation, however, ongoing work was needed for leadership to be representative of the workforce. The local authority had an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) lead who had implemented several initiatives. These included staff networks to support inclusivity in the work place and other groups to support career development. However, not all the staff we spoke with were aware of these groups or how to access them. Weekly online wellbeing sessions had been introduced to support staff and further initiatives were being considered.

The local authority had collaborated with a disabled people's organisation and a college for more than 5 years to deliver the Supported Internship Programme. Work placements had been created at the local authority and other partners for young adults with learning disabilities aged 16-24 to develop the skills they need for work. There were 40 Supported Internship Programmes open to Hammersmith and Fulham residents with a total of 39 placements made across the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years.

The co-production groups within the local authority had been recognised nationally for their innovation which had provided opportunities for disabled people to voice their concerns and drive changes. The ‘Nothing About Disabled People Without Disabled’ vision, based on the social model of disability, was established as a group in 2017. Prior to this some of the group had supported the local authority’s decision around the removal of charges for homecare services in 2014. A priority area had been on the development around independent living as a foundation, which covered transport, employment, housing, leisure, health as well as peer support. In 2023, the local authority opened a local Centre for Independent Living, which was designed in co-production with local disabled people. The centre now acted as a hub and provided direct payments support, employment, welfare benefits services and training.

The co-production group had supported, with partners and the local authority, the development of Disabled People’s Housing Strategy 2021 and the Dementia Strategy 2021-2024. Both these involved people and unpaid carers who had a lived experience in these areas. Some co-production groups we spoke with identified that although the local authority was listening some service areas were slower at developing opportunities through commissioning services or implementing direct changes. For example, the autism and carers strategies had been slow to be developed with several delays, which has meant changes or developments had not progressed.

The local authority was improving their approach to learning from people’s feedback. They planned to link feedback to a data dashboard from May 2024 to capture themes and use them to identify any training needs or developments. We saw the feedback form was available in easy read and electronically.

The local authority had reviewed 106 complaints received between June 2023 to May 2024. The largest number of complaints related to service delay and quality of service in social work teams. A 2-stage process had been introduced which gave people the opportunity to have their complaint reviewed again by a senior manager. This process resolved more complaints and reduced the need for people to refer to the Local Government Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO).

In the last year, 3 complaints were referred to the LGSCO, which were all closed after initial enquiries. An action was to improve communication between hospital social work teams and the safeguarding team about hospital discharge. Procedures were updated and changes were made to the joint working process with senior colleagues in the 2 teams to ensure a more robust approach to discharging people with complex care needs. There were no risk flags identified by the LGSCO and no ongoing detailed investigations.

The local authority had recently changed its leadership structure and was opening feedback mechanisms for staff and making themselves available so they could hear about what was working and how they could make improvements. Work to improve engagement between the senior management team in Adult Social Care and frontline staff included discussion on the development of the ASC vision statement and feedback from the Principal Social Worker drop-ins used to contributed to the development of the policies and procedures portal.

There was a transformation program that was looking at several areas of change to pathways of access, safeguarding, and service provision. Some of this had been influenced by complaints that had been received about assessments and waiting times. We saw developments had commenced around these areas, however, were not yet embedded and some staff felt they lacked the opportunity to feedback on the new initiatives or changes to leaders. For example, the safeguarding changes had been made and communicated to staff by email and staff felt they had not been consulted on the pathway or how the changes might affect the flow or risks.

The staff survey in July 2023 reflected 80% of staff received supervision and 70% an annual appraisal. The Principal Social Worker had an aspiration to increase these percentages and for managers to focus on staff development through the introduction of an audit tool along with a supervision and appraisal tool.