Midlothian Council The Municipal Journal Achievement ... · Midlothian Council . The Municipal...

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Page 1 of 12 Midlothian Council The Municipal Journal Achievement Awards 2017 Local Authority of the Year Entry Midlothian is Scotland’s fastest growing Council area. With a proud history rooted in mining, paper making and agriculture, Midlothian is today being transformed as a world-class centre of excellence in biotechnology and science. As a Council we are ambitious and aspire to be world class, transforming the way we deliver services through: an aspirational and shared vision effective partnership working engaging and empowering our staff and working with our communities strong leadership at all levels Delivering excellence is a journey. It is about looking at how we do things, focusing on what really matters to people and ensuring that resources are targeted on delivering the best outcomes for our communities. Midlothian is on that journey and we can demonstrate significant progress in reshaping and redefining the way we plan and deliver services. Midlothian is becoming a great place to live, work, learn, visit and grow.

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Midlothian Council

The Municipal Journal Achievement Awards 2017

Local Authority of the Year Entry

Midlothian is Scotland’s fastest growing Council area. With a proud history rooted in mining, paper making and agriculture, Midlothian is today being transformed as a world-class centre of excellence in biotechnology and science. As a Council we are ambitious and aspire to be world class, transforming the way we deliver services through:

• an aspirational and shared vision• effective partnership working• engaging and empowering our staff and working with our communities• strong leadership at all levels

Delivering excellence is a journey. It is about looking at how we do things, focusing on what really matters to people and ensuring that resources are targeted on delivering the best outcomes for our communities. Midlothian is on that journey and we can demonstrate significant progress in reshaping and redefining the way we plan and deliver services.

Midlothian is becoming a great place to live, work, learn, visit and grow.

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Midlothian’s population is 86,200 and growing. By 2037 it will be over 99,000.

The number of people aged 75 or over is expected to more than double by 2035.

Introduction

Recent years have seen significant changes across local government and we continue to face unprecedented challenges as a result of constrained funding combined with demographic and other cost pressures. There have also been a number of significant national and local challenges, including welfare reform, health and social care integration, the early years collaborative and the need to address significant differences in social and economic equality. As a council, together with our Community Planning Partners (CPP), Midlothian has embraced an ambitious and innovative approach in response to the growing demands and challenges and this is encapsulated in our vision ‘A great place to grow’.

Our vision underpins the Single Midlothian Plan (SMP), the core strategy document encompassing the Single Outcome Agreement, the Community Plan and the Council’s Corporate Strategy. 2015/16 saw the end of a 3 year cycle prioritising the need to improve outcomes for young people leaving school, improve lives of children in early years and their families, and expand the local economy. In line with the CPP planning cycle a full review and engagement process was undertaken in 2016 resulting in new and ambitious priorities for covering 2016-19. The overarching aim is to address inequality of outcomes within our communities:

Reducing the gap in learning outcomes Reducing the gap in health outcomes Reducing the gap in economic circumstance

Three key delivery approaches have also been identified:

Prevention Co-production Accessibility

By 2037, the number of households is projected to increase by over 7,000 to 43,312.

The number of people living with dementia will nearly double by 2035, from 1,475 to 2,833.

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Key Achievements 2015/16

Work associated with the Single Midlothian Plan resulted in a number of key achievements, including:

Positive Destinations

The number of young people in positive destinations rose from 78% in 2008 to 93.9%in 2014/15, the most improved performance in Scotland;

93% of leavers remained in a positive destination 6 months after leaving school - thehighest figure achieved in Midlothian. The percentage of young people enteringemployment rose from 20% to 30% over a 5 year period.

Early Years

International recognition for Midlothian’s ground breaking Big Bedtime Read project;

Establishing multi agency Family Learning Centres in our top three priority areas ofWoodburn, Gorebridge and Mayfield.

Delivery of a new Permanence Framework (see appendix 2) securing permanentfamilies for children more quickly and its success recognised nationally as the winnerof the Policy Development Award, Scottish Public Services Awards 2016;

Significant reductions in children and young people on the Child Protection Registerfrom 10.1 in 2012/13 to 3.1 per 1000 children;

Implementation of the Family Resilience project (supporting eighteen children andtheir families with greater levels of need);

Delivery of significant budget savings in excess of £500k.

Economic Growth

Midlothian played a central role in the development of the new Borders Railway(longest new domestic railway to be constructed in Britain for over 100 years) with afocus on inward investment for key growth sectors;

Approval of Shawfair new town development (the biggest in Scotland for 25 years)creating 4000 homes in an unprecedented £200 million development securing 4,000new jobs;

We have an ambitious economic strategy that fosters growth across various sectorsincluding science and technology and the world-leading animal health cluster, andtourism and construction.

We have built and delivered two new primary schools and are on track to deliver twomore in the coming year plus a new community high school.

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Single Midlothian Plan

The Single Midlothian Plan (SMP) approach was introduced in 2013/14 and its development is informed by an annual data collection exercise which produces the ‘Midlothian Profile’. The profile is used for an annual strategic assessment of Midlothian which is undertaken by five thematic partnership groups.

Adult Health and Care – Responding to growing demands for adult social care andhealth services

Community Safety – Ensuring Midlothian is a safe place to live, work, learn, visitand grow

Getting it Right for Every Child – Improving outcomes for children, young peopleand their families

Improving Opportunities for People in Midlothian – Creating opportunities for alland reducing inequalities

Sustainable Growth – Growing the local economy by supporting business growthand responding to growing demand for housing in a sustainable environment

Adopting the Single Midlothian Plan ensures strong partnership working and a shared endeavour to deliver better and improved outcomes for Midlothian’s communities. Engaging and working with our communities ensures a cohesive approach which has delivered significant improvements in outcomes for our communities and provides the framework to transform services across services such as our Health and Social Care Partnership.

Adult Health and Care

• Recent years have seen a successful transformation of services, adopting a wholesystem approach, embedding the principles of co-production and delivering savings of£5.3 million since 2007.

• Older peoples services has achieved a major reduction in longterm hospital provision for older people – down 53 beds since2010, reducing demand for care home places – 477 in 2007 to409 in 2016 and reductions in length of stay in care homesdespite rising numbers of older people. Our ‘rebalancing care’approach has delivered much improved outcomes andsignificant savings whilst achieving national delayed dischargetargets – 66 people over 6 weeks in 2003 to 2 people over 2weeks in 2017.

• With partners, the Council has initiated a major shift to recoveryorientated systems of care for people with mental health need,substance misuse needs and offenders including theestablishment of a recovery network, peer support models and aRecovery College. The national target of three weeks fromreferral to treatment (90%) is now exceeded at 100%compliance.

• Self Directed Support and moving towards a personalised outcomes approach hasbeen the focus in reshaping services and improving staff culture. The commitment todevelop socially inclusive models of care guides the reshaping of local services forpeople with learning disabilities, focused on reducing health inequalities, internetsafety and combating hate crime.

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• Our approach to health and social care integration ensures that individuals get theright care and support whatever their needs at any point in their care journey.

Community Safety • MIDSAFE is a resident’s consultation and engagement group which has successfully

implemented community safety and antisocial behaviour strategies.

• Our Public Protection Team joint service with East Lothian Counciland police ensures a lifespan, trauma-informed approachsupporting people at risk of harm. The collaborative approachincreases the level of scrutiny and ensures best practice.

• Establishment of SPRING service for women provides support foroffenders with complex needs.

Getting it Right for Every Child

• Midlothian Council was recently selected to become a test site by the Permanenceand Care Excellence (PACE) programme. Our Family Resilience Project has reducedschool exclusions and improved attendance; reduced police referrals and anti-socialbehaviour; Midlothian’s Big Bedtime Read, part of the Early Years Collaborative,achieved international recognition and received a COSLA Excellence Award for‘Tackling Inequalities and Improving Health’.

• In Early Years we have flexible choice for 600 hours provision.The ‘I Can’ provision at Mayfield Nursery School continues tooffer high quality support for our youngest children with speechand language disorders and was assessed as excellentprovision in a recent inspection.

• Midlothian Council’s innovative work in learning and teachingreceived national recognition with our teachers presenting at thefirst world conference on Visible Learning in London.

• In August 2016 our primary schools embarked on a major newproject funded by Scottish Government – Inspiring LearningSpaces – that will allow learners to use some of the leadingedge technologies which will help them develop the skills theyrequire for learning life and work in the digital age.

• Attainment in our high schools continues to increase with level 4Literacy & Numeracy improving by 11.3% in 2016. Attainmentin level 5 Literacy & Numeracy also improved by 10.6%.

• Our Pathways to Success Service supports and develops young people with Social,Emotional, Mental Health and Behaviour Needs

• An outcomes focused approach for children and families ensures they have a voice in‘what matters’ in their lives.

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Improving Opportunities in Midlothian

• Midlothian has a dynamic approach to work experience, positive destination placementsand apprenticeships. Through the South East Scotland Academies Partnership theCouncil ensures effective transitions between schools, college, university andemployment and supporting key growth sectors.

• Customer Services are being reshaped by the learning from the Mayfield Library andCustomer Hub launched in 2015 as a pilot project in developing new ways of workingand delivering accessible services within localities.

• Funding was secured for participatory budgeting programmes in Dalkeith/Woodburn, twoof our most disadvantaged communities.

• Midlothian Library Services was awarded UK Libraryservice of the year in 2014 and introduced aBibliotherapy project to promote improved mental healthand well being.

• Excellent progress has been made implementing thepriority areas identified by Midlothian’s Developing YoungWorkforce Board including:

- Increasing vocational pathways in the senior phase; - Strengthening school/college partnerships; - Improving young people’s employability skills; - Promoting science, technology, engineering, and maths- Strengthening school-business partnerships;

• Midlothian’s Lifelong Learning and Employability Service was inspected in 2016 andachieved the best evaluations of any Council in Scotland.

• Midlothian’s pioneering work on digital learning has been recognised nationally, includinga COSLA gold award for Excellence. In 2016 Midlothian created a Digital LearningStrategy which was developed throughout session 2015/16 following extensiveconsultation with technology experts, teachers, learners and parents.

Sustainable Growth

• Midlothian is recognised as ‘open for business’ with strongperformance in planning and business support and CustomerService Excellence award for Building Standards.

• Significant investment in affordable, fit for purpose housing inMidlothian with a total of 1,368 new homes developed by theCouncil since 2006.

• Local Government benchmarking indicators show 99.8% ofcouncil houses are energy efficient and 93.1% of dwellingsmeet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard which rises to100% when excluding exemptions.

• Delivery of a food waste plant and approval for a residualwaste plant provides facilities for the Council to achieve zerowaste targets with less than 5% of waste to go to land fill.

• Successful bid for £3.4 million of EU funding through the LEADER programme to

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support rural economic development in Midlothian and East Lothian.

• Current initiatives including LED lighting, building consolidation, and the use ofbetter insulation materials have resulted in saving 1000 tonnes of CO2.

Sustaining Service and Improving Outcomes

The scale of the financial challenge facing the public sector continues to grow. For Midlothian Council, the reduction in government funding for 2017/18 is expected to create a budget shortfall of £10.018m. On current estimates, this is expected to reach £40.981m by 2020/21. Alongside this our population is growing at the fastest rate in Scotland with a new house being built every 10 hours.

So far, we have made savings by reshaping the Council and changing the way we work. Savings since 2010 total £24.8 million with £9.9 million of this delivered in 2015/16 and 2016/17. Our ongoing ‘Delivering Excellence’ framework, a programme for change and continuous improvement, reinforces the need to do things differently and to reshape our services in order to make them sustainable and fit for the future.

Midlothian is delivering excellence by building on previous transformational successes and looking at how we do things, with an unyielding focus on improving outcomes for our residents and our communities. Alongside employee engagement we will continue to strengthen our partnership working with others organisations and our communities in the recognition that this will enable us to develop joint sustainable solutions to the challenges we face.

Midlothian may be a small Council but we have an unswerving commitment to improving services and outcomes for our communities. There is significant evidence to show Midlothian is a great place to grow and that we are delivering excellence across all our service areas.

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Highlights of the year forMidlothian

Education

Transport

Pupil attaintment is upB 52B92A of S4 pupils in 2E16 achieved aNational 5 pass in literacy and numeracyI up 16B2A from the previous yearBMidlothian also witnessed an increase of 9B86A in S6 pupils having a National5 pass in literacy and numeracy compared to the previous yearB

93A of school leavers went on to have a positivedestinationI continuing a 5 year trendB

Gore Glen and Bilston opened in August 2E16B

This year the Paradykes hub will open after the holidaysB The facility willincorporate a primary schoolI after school&wrap around careI libraryI leisurecentreI medical centreI early years provision and external workB

The Borders Railway has brought jobsI visitors and economicopportunities to the areaB

In the first six months of 2E16BBBBB

Visitor days in hotels and BTBs 12.3%

Visitor spend on food and drink 6.5%

Employment related tourism 4.1%.

Appendix 1 - Highlights of the year

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Family

Housing

TheWoodburn family learning centre was opened in March 20163The first£class facility will allow families to work in partnership with a teamof professionals in early learningG childcareG family supportG the healthservice and third sector3 Family resilience lies at the heart of the model3

The Family Placement Team recently won aScottish Public Service Award in the Policy andDevelopment Category for work with admin and legal

teams to make sure children had the best possibleexperience going into long term care3

The fostering team is also on track to recruit20 new carers over the year3

Midlothian Council leaders have approved plans to deliver 1,441 newaffordable homes through the Strategic Housing Investment Plan2017418£20214223 This is a huge increase from the previous plan whichis a result of the Scottish Government increasing the housing budget to

£3billion3

Midlothian Council have committed to a thirdphase of new council housing

development3

In Spring 2017G Pentland House will open in Penicuik and will offer40 new bedrooms for homeless people3

Cowan Court extra care housing opened in 20143 Thedevelopment has been shortlisted or recognised by numerous awards3

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Recreation

Recycling

Midlothian boasts some of the finest green spaces inScotland, including the PentlandsRegional Park.

Five of the council2s parks also have green flags.

The council is on target to meet its Zero Waste of no more than 5%of waste to go to landfill by 2025

.

Work is underway on the Edinburgh andMidlothian Recylcing and Energy

Recovery Centre.

Generating energy from the 135,000 tons of waste from Edinburgh andMidlothian, alongside 20,000 tons of commercial and industrial waste, will

provide sufficient electricity to power nearly 27,000 homes..

40 jobs will be created once the plant is open, and between 300 to350 construction jobs during the peak construction phase.

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Appendix 2 – Permanence Framework

Overview

National and local research has highlighted that ‘looked after’ children are among the most disadvantaged and vulnerable groups in our society. As a consequence, these children experience poor outcomes and are a costly burden on all public services.

At both a national level and local level there was growing political and financial concern about the delay and drift in securing permanent families for ‘looked after’ children. In 2010, the Social Work Inspection Agency highlighted significant delays and missed opportunities in securing families, which resulted in poor outcomes for children.

A study by the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration in 2011 found that for many children, legal permanence was not achieved quickly, taking between one and ten years from their first involvement with social services. This was despite the growing awareness of how a negative early years experience can impact on a child’s development.

By 2013/14 Midlothian had fully embraced the early intervention approach and our local agenda and systems were underpinned by the “Getting it Right” methodology

This submission will describe what Midlothian Council Children’s Services and its partners did to address the drift and delay in planning and making decisions for ‘looked after’ children.

Criteria

In developing a more qualitative and evaluative approach in Children’s Services Midlothian recognised; as with other Councils, that there was a significant knowledge and skills gap with reference to permanence planning. To address this gap, a comprehensive road map to navigate the complex and confusing legal framework was required.

Whilst the scope of the task was considerable and involved a number of different work streams; given the relatively small size of Midlothian Council, we were confident that we could deliver something that was innovative and recognised nationally as sector-leading.

The work required a great deal of political, financial and emotional investment from all project team members. Key actions included;

• Establishing a core working group that included: Service Managers; Team Leaders;Legal Services, Business Support and IT.

• Developing and agreeing a vision statement and a set of objectives that wereunderpinned by an ethos of securing, stable and permanent families for children

• Reviewing individual child care plans• Reviewing existing policy, systems and practice,• Developing a project plan incorporating regular meetings and review• Developing a workflow chart that incorporated all the relevant guidance, legislation;

regulations and policy that is applicable from the point that a child is accommodatedby the local authority through to a child being adopted

• Developing a standalone Permanence webpage• Developing a rigorous over-arching Permanence Policy with a number of hyper links

to guidance, knowledge and practical working tools for all staff• Developing a set of key performance indicators.• Developing a series of events to launch the ‘Framework for Permanence’• Continuing to work collaboratively to develop learning and development opportunities

across the sector

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The Project Team was viewed as a fluid construct and membership changed accordingly depending on the stage of the work and the challenges, barriers or gaps encountered. However the differing values and service priorities were resolved through robust leadership and direction and adherence to the original objectives.

Key to the delivery and implementation of our ‘Framework for Permanence’ was the role of frontline workers and frontline managers in leading on key areas of activity. These were to,

• Pilot and test the developed materials• Provide appropriate feedback to the Project Team members• Participate in the development of training material; presentations, slides, webpage,

etc• Support and champion the ‘Framework for Permanence’ launch• Support the wider ‘roll out’ of staff learning and development.

Benefits

The ‘Framework for Permanence’ has had a significant impact in Midlothian. Prioritising securing local permanent families for local children is reflected in our wider Community Planning Partnership and policy direction; Midlothian Integrated Children’s Service Plan; Corporate Parenting Strategy. The Permanence agenda has been a key driver in the review of Midlothian’s Children’s Services.

Recent data demonstrates that we have reduced the length of time children are awaiting a permanent family. This has led to improved outcomes for children and families, better use of resources and, as a consequence a reduction in spend.

Furthermore, we have

• Raised the profile and priority of permanence work within the authority.• Increased understanding of the whole system.• Improved co-operation and inter-disciplinary working.• Promoted practice development.• Improved quality of assessment and report writing.• Provided robust evidence for decision-making• Increased the knowledge of practitioners and decision-makers.• Increased the skill and confidence of practitioners and decision-makers.• Improved management information and performance data• Shared Policy developments with other Councils.

Midlothian Council Children’s Services can demonstrate they can rise to the challenge of ensuring that every child has a stable home that offers them nurturing relationships as early as possible.

Testimonial

In Midlothian we are proud of what we have achieved so far and other local authorities have asked us to share our work with them. Nevertheless, we believe we can still do more to improve our systems. In early 2017, we have been invited to work with the Centre of Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland (CELCIS/PACE) with a view to building a Quality Improvement Framework which can be used by other councils. We look forward to working with them as we continue on our improvement journey.