Eden Brown Service Delivery were commissioned by North East Lincolnshire Children’s Service to provide a Child Protection & Children in Need (CIN/CP) team as a Managed Service.
The Challenge
Eden Brown Service Delivery were commissioned by North East Lincolnshire Children’s Service to provide a CIN/CP team as a Managed Service, consisting of 1 Team Manager and 6 qualified Social Workers. The Managed Service was initially commissioned for a period of 24 weeks, however, following a review of the teams’ impact and outcomes, the contract was extended for a further 11 weeks.
Solution
An initial consultation took place with the Local Authority Sponsor to understand the Local Authority’s aims and requirements.
The proposal, pricing, duration and KPIs were agreed and a team of six were mobilised within two weeks with a clear project delivery plan in place. An implementation day was held prior to the project commencing, ensuring effective team integration, familiarisation with internal managers, systems and processes and IT set-up.
Results
The team successfully balanced quality alongside compliance throughout the duration of the managed service. The vast majority of work was audited as ‘good’ and risk was managed alongside delivering throughput. Upon exiting, two thirds of children had safely progressed to closure/stepdown, with only one third of the teams’ caseload requiring ongoing social work intervention. In the main, these were children supported by CP/PLO planning or children looked after. The team consistently delivered against the agreed KPIs, often going above and beyond in their roles to secure safety and improve outcomes for children.
- Swift implementation of a CIN/CP team to address lack of capacity within the service.
- EBS Management Team provided daily performance and tracking of the team’s progress.
- Themed audits and dip-sampling were undertaken by the Team Manager and Quality Assurance Manager.
- Weekly performance reports were provided, evidencing good performance and throughput.
- Regular senior management ‘risks and issues’ meetings were held throughout the project to ensure effective communication and to identify and resolve any emerging issues swiftly.
- Midway and end-of-project meetings were held to evaluate progress and outcomes against agreed KPIs.
- Comprehensive reports were provided at these stages.
- A helpful and collaborative working relationship developed between the EBS senior manager and the sponsor, in which suggestions and feedback were shared and explored.
- 100% of children’s cases allocated on the date of referral/transfer
- 100% of records had management footprint on allocation
- 100% of case supervisions were recorded on children’s files every 4 weeks
- 100% of assessments completed within the agreed timescales
- 100% of children had an active allocated Social Worker with no child in the team being unallocated
- 83% of audited case work was graded as ‘Good’
“Eden Brown Service Delivery were commissioned by North East Lincolnshire Children's Service to provide a fully managed Child Protection/Children in Need Service for a fixed period. Throughout the duration of the service, Eden Brown provided weekly and monthly management reports outlining their progress against the KPIs. Bi-weekly risks and issues meetings were chaired by Eden Brown to evidence their effective safeguarding of children and younger people. Themed audits were completed by Eden Brown showing timely assessments and a good level of direct work with children/young people. Engagement has been good with reflective communications. Thresholds have been accurate and proportionate".
- Head of Service, North East Lincolnshire Children's Service
“Thank you – it is fair to say I have loved having the team and I have nothing but praise for the way they have come in and picked stuff up. It's been a pleasure all round and we will miss them. They are awesome."
- Service Manager