Commissioner recommends creation of children's services trust at council with dysfunctional corporate culture
Nina Jacobs and Derren Hayes
Tuesday, December 17, 2019
The extent of the problems in children's services at West Sussex County Council have been laid bare by a damning report into the department's failings by a government-appointed commissioner, who has recommended that services be handed to an independent trust to run.
The report by John Coughlan, who was appointed by the Department for Education in June to oversee changes at West Sussex County Council’s children’s services following its “inadequate” rating by Ofsted earlier in the year, details a long list of problems at the council and department.
Coughlan, who is chief executive of Hampshire County Council, said he was recommending handing children's services to an independent trust because urgent action was needed to avoid improvement being held "hostage" to wider problems at the council.
“A children’s trust will take considerable time and resource to establish," he states. "That is why the work required should commence immediately, otherwise children’s services will remain hostage to corporate progress.”
Coughlan's report includes criticism of the corporate culture at the council. He concludes its "idiosyncratic structural model has consciously relegated and denuded the statutory role of director of children's services (DCS) and of the department the DCS should oversee".
"The top of the wider corporate organisation has lacked an embedded, authoritative and expert voice for vulnerable children for several years," he states.
"The leadership of the organisation has put forward a rationale for the idiosyncratic position which they have stood by throughout the Ofsted process, most of this process and in the face of alarming service failure.
"This specific point is just one but a critical indication there could be limited confidence in [the council’s] leadership capacity to address the children’s service failings and change its course."
Despite criticism of ongoing “inadequate and ineffective” leadership of children’s services, Coughlan said he was not laying "simple blame at the door of individuals, including former children’s services leaders and senior managers".
"We would defy the best leaders and managers to deliver good children’s services in the recent corporate circumstances in West Sussex County Council," the report states.
In October, unions claimed there was a "bullying and blame culture" at the most senior levels of the council.
The report states there is a "clear, shared perception" among several current and former members of staff of a significant problem.
"Some of these are stories about unacceptable behaviour by senior managers and politicians which is perceived to be modelled from the top of the organisation, politically and managerially," it states.
"Doubtless individuals would strongly deny many of these stories and issues, or suggest the causes lie elsewhere. All we can do in this report is reference the variety of sources and stories, and the consistency of messages which describe longstanding almost casual disrespect for individuals, from the top down, which must say something about how the organisation functions."
In September, the council's leader for more than a decade, Louise Goldsmith, announced she was stepping down from the role.
Coughlan's report highlights that “inadequate and ineffective” leadership had contributed to the council receiving the lowest Ofsted rating for children’s services.
“The features of that leadership include a proliferation of managerial tiers; a wasteful and incoherent approach to the use of what should be adequate resources; coupled with a lack of coherent and informed management oversight," it states.
“That is not to say there are not good people working [in the council] who are trying their hardest – but they are doing so without effective leadership and without conditions conducive to good practice,” the report states.
Despite the criticisms, Coughlan praises the council’s interim DCS, John Readman, for implementing “significant changes” in the departmental leadership with “positive appointments” at assistant director level to help bring about medium-term improvements.
“The DCS is also supported by a recently appointed lead member who, while a relatively inexperienced politician, is immediately displaying a sophisticated and determined grasp of his role, and is commanding considerable early respect.
“Both of those critical postholders together with the new children’s leadership team bode well, but there is much work to do,” the report concludes.
Coughlan, who recommends the appointment of an “improvement partner” at the council to support progress in the medium term, has been reappointed by the DfE as children’s commissioner for West Sussex after officials approved his findings.
