Chief Social Work Officer Lindsey Byrne informs elected members that the level of need and complexity of the county's most vulnerable citizens has never been higher.
On Tuesday 25 February, East Lothian Council’s Chief Social Work Officer Lindsey Byrne presented her Annual Report 2023-2024 to elected members highlighting the level of need and complexity of the county’s most vulnerable citizens has never been higher.
Between April 2023 to March 2024 there was a clear increase in demand for services, specifically adult social work and for children with disabilities. This is reflective of the growth experienced in East Lothian. As communities expand, the population inevitably includes an increase in people with a range of complex needs.
The report reflects that the long periods of austerity have resulted in significant numbers of people struggling to manage daily living, which is often heightened by coexisting factors such as addiction, mental health problems, physical ill-health, disability and poverty.
Ms Byrne advised Council Members, “Residents are facing significant challenges that make day-to-day life increasingly difficult to manage. The cost-of-living crisis, barriers to accessing mental health support and with more people than ever facing poverty and disadvantage, demand for social work services in East Lothian continues to be significant.
“It’s important to remember that behind every statistic within this report, there is a real person, whose life circumstances have resulted in something significant happening to them, meaning they require support, care, resource or protection from social work services.
“Social work is never an optional extra, it is a critical frontline service with responsibility for the care and protection of our most vulnerable citizens. We strive for positive outcomes, in very difficult circumstances.
“However, I am confident that as a collective service, despite current financial challenges, we are prioritising the right evidence-based practice and strategic development to ensure we are in the best position to continue delivering high quality services.”
The report makes special recognition of the significant efforts of the social work and social care workforce who work tirelessly to protect people from harm and to support them to live safely and as independently as possible in their own homes and communities.
Ms Byrne commented, “I am endlessly inspired by our workforce who truly want to make a difference to people’s lives. I wish to place on record my sincere gratitude for their hard work and commitment. Through this annual report, I am pleased to be able to showcase the life-changing impact our social work services have made, and in doing so celebrate their value to the individuals and communities they support.”
Key features of the report
Children’s Services
Continuing its commitment to ‘Keep the Promise’, children’s services focused their service delivery and improvement efforts to support children to thrive within resilient and loving families.
The data indicated that there was a slight reduction in referrals to children’s services during 2023-24, however it looks unlikely this trend will continue, with referral forecasts for 2024-25 already on the increase.
The Care Inspectorate-led joint inspection of services for children and young people at risk of harm proved to be a key achievement for children’s services. The report provided East Lothian with a grade of ‘Very Good’, highlighting that children and young people were safer because of staff’s effective recognition and response to risk and concerns. Praise was given to the inter-agency referral system in place and, having engaged with children and young people directly, inspectors were pleased to learn of their positive relationships with staff, and the opportunities provided to give children and young people a voice and involve them in decision-making.
The report made specific reference to the service’s ongoing commitment to develop the Signs of Safety practice model, to develop effective relationships and use a strength-based, family-first approach to keep children living safely within their own families wherever possible.
Embedding a trauma-informed and responsive approach continues to be a priority, with active staff development in this area to ensure the supervision policy includes a greater emphasis on supporting employee wellbeing.
Adult Services
During 2023/24, the priority for adult services was to support people in their own homes and communities, while ensuring their needs are identified quickly, to provide early help to those requiring support, reducing the potential of escalation in concerns.
Approximately 9200 referrals were received to adult social work during the year, an increase of 8% from 2022/23. This is reflective of the increase in service demands from the growing population, and complexity of needs due to disability and/or older age.
The joint adult support and protection inspection praised East Lothian in its robust partnership approach to inquiries. Praise was also given to the evidence of person-centred engagement and consultation with the adult at risk of harm throughout the delivery of key processes that supported effective consideration of risk.
The report also reflected on the introduction of a new ‘Home First’ project which aims to increase the proportion of people being discharged from hospital to their own homes, rather than a care home placement, so care home places can be used by people with the highest level of need. Although this approach was driven in part by the need to deliver financial savings, it also results in better outcomes for individuals and reflects the desire for people to remain in their own homes for as long as possible.
Justice Services
The Justice Social Work service activity includes supporting people leaving custody and those given a community sentence. In 2023/24, the team developed their service plan for 2024-2027 setting out clear expectations to ‘balance the risks and needs of people on the justice pathway to promote public safety and social parity’.
Focusing on early intervention and prevention activity, the justice social work team expanded to include a variety of professional and paraprofessionals delivering services on risk and need-based interventions. This has enabled the team to develop co-working and mentoring opportunities to keep more people out of the prison system by delivering alternatives to prosecution, using structured deferred sentences and increasing the use of supervised and/or electronic monitoring as an alternative to remand.
The Mental Health Officer (MHO) Service provides a statutory function to support the provision of guardianship applications, renewals and intervention orders under the Adult with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000, where orders relate to the personal welfare of adults.
Throughout the year, the service managed to meet the target of no guardian applicant waiting more than six weeks for an MHO to be allocated to their case. This is a huge achievement, which was recognised nationally and has impacted positively on team culture.
Read the full Chief Social Work Officer Annual Report 2023-2024 here.