Wood is out but Wirral Children’s Services are not out of the woods…

This is a big week at Wirral Council. So many comings and goings we can hardly keep up. Unfortunately some high profile departures will mean that some Wirral Council senior managers will be leaving before we get the chance to publish what we believe to be the real reasons behind some of the sudden departures.

We understand that one who has already slipped out the back door is John Wood who was brought in to help with Children’s Services ‘improvement journey’ last July as the head of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) at Wirral Council. Read more here : SEND for Help

Now just after 9 months in post we understand that Wood has gone. Although it must be said the writing was on the wall when he himself hinted at the challenges he faced at Wirral Council in our  Special Educational Needs and Disability : ‘ The best interests of the children have definitely not been at the forefront of everyone’s thinking…’  story.

What we do know is that there is an impending Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman report which won’t make pleasant reading for Wirral Council and particularly those in the SEND Department formerly headed by Wood. We anticipate that the Ombudsman will find that Wirral Council were at fault and recommend urgent actions following a serious complaint involving a child with special educational needs. From what we understand it is unclear whether Wirral Council staff have had any training in SEND law.  The law is clear, as is the guidance to which the department must adhere. However it would appear that Wirral Council are simply making up their own rules as they go along – no change there then. Hence the Ombudsman ruling and need for ‘urgent actions’.

Moreover we also understand that John Wood was involved in leading an investigation that is being described to us – and with apparent justification – as a cover up by Wirral Council. The case involves an allegation of abuse at a special needs school.

Much,much more on both of these stories over the next few weeks.

All we will say for now is that whilst Wood may have found a way out but it would appear Children’s Services are not yet out of the woods when it comes to their ‘improvement journey’! …

 

‘Bring It On’ – The Brand New World of Wirral Council

The only way to start this journey was to bravely use honesty of the past in order to present a different future

They call it ’employer brand’

We call it ‘reputation management’

Nowadays the ultimate goal in personal achievement is to become a ‘brand’. From royalty to rock stars to multi-nationals to public institutions. A world where a logo and a strapline become a recognisable saleable commodity and human worth is counted in economic units.

Now if any organisation needed a re-branding we all know its Wirral Council especially after several lamentable attempts in the past which have done nothing to shift the public perception of a toxic,dysfunctional organisation. Those of us who remember ‘What Really Matters’ and ‘Destination Excellence’ might be forgiven for thinking that yet another costly shit-glittering exercise couldn’t any more woeful. We were wrong.

We’ve previously posted a link to Bring It On Wirral  and we would implore you to  particularly view  The Roles .  We think you’ll find it hard to disagree with an apoplectic reader who wrote to us with the following questions :

What the fuck is this????

Who is paying for this?

Why is it only officers, are elected officials irrelevant? 

What is the purpose of this website?

How much is it costing to set up and run?

All we do know is that the media geniuses behind this farrago are Penna . On their website they tell us :

A very recent example of bold EVP development is the work Penna has developed for its client Wirral Council. On a big change journey Wirral asked us to create a leadership employer brand that truly positioned the Council in a fresh, more dynamic and commercially focused way. Through research and fact-finding meetings reviewing their past, present and future we developed some compelling messages aimed at both supporting and challenging some of the perspectives the external audiences held.  

Centred around a leading strapline of “Bring in on” (sic) we developed advertising collateral, a microsite and a video. The investment in attraction will be realised when people have a different view of Wirral and start to see them as an employer of choice. The only way to start this journey was to bravely use honesty of the past in order to present a different future

www.bringitonwirral.co.uk  – Still live the campaign has so far received over 1.25M impressions with 1,500 clicks through to the microsite for more information. Enormously satisfied with the applications so far (and with fresh and new people coming through), we are confident that finding ways of embracing a brand identification (or re-identification) can be fundamental to any such strategy being a success.

There’s more to do to change and embed new perceptions of Wirral, but the campaign is a real positive start. Paul Satoor, Chief Operating Officer said ‘I recognised that we needed to a bold and impactful employer brand if we are serious about what we wanted to achieve. By creating ‘Bring it On’ Penna have captured the essence of our ambition and aspiration, and although we have a long way to go it is an employer brand that we can be proud of and we are already seeing a positive impact on our recruitment campaigns’

Read more here

If you managed to view members of The Senior Team (and some random extras) repeatedly uttering the immortal words ‘ Bring it on’ without gagging you’re doing well – for us it was not so much a case of ‘Bring it on’ but ‘Bring it up’ !  Our first impression was that we don’t know what filter Penna were using on ‘the Senior Team’ but can we suggest that ‘slapped across the face with a frozen kipper’ is not a good look.  We also noticed that it was left  to a kiddiewink to read the line ‘no fibbers’ . Might we suggest that after  finding out that Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy don’t exist that Wirral Council having ‘no fibbers’ will be the poor boy’s third big disappointment in life.  More significantly what is Children’s Services Director Paul Boyce doing talking about the Wirral Growth Company? And as for the performance of Wirral Council CEO Eric ‘Feeble’ Robinson is there anyone less suited to uttering the gung ho expression ‘Bring it on’ ?

Bring it on ?  Wirral Council should be careful what it wishes for , whatever the branding Wirral Leaks doesn’t need any further encouragement, especially as we ain’t buyin’ what they’re sellin’…

Special Educational Needs and Disability : ‘The best interests of the children have definitely not been at the forefront of everyone’s thinking…’

Cllr Bernie ‘The Bruiser’ Mooney is characteristically bullish about the turnaround in Children’s Services that have previously been rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted and is telling us children’s services are ‘much improved’   . However ,even after £20 million of additional funding has been pumped into this vital area of work ,  dare we suggest that there are areas of Children’s and Young People’s Department  , such as Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) – see SEND for Help  and further correspondence we have received including from a concerned parent below,  where it seems there’s a long way to go on the ‘improvement journey’…

This is particularly in light of the fact we all wait with breath held for Ofsted to finally drop in on the department.

Both of mine were failed considerably by the department and have ongoing concerns as a result – being out of school since May and July 2018.  Whilst Mr Boyce has refused to share the report with the parents, I know the concerns I took to the ‘whistleblower’ and these are very serious actions – which continue with my children to this day.

I have tried to approach Mr Wood – new SEN lead and purported to be ‘the one’ to change the department around.  Rather than be the hero to uproot the failings of the department and exact the change that the citizens had hoped for, it seems he is just overseeing the demise of the department whilst the children suffer.  

Whilst he arrived with a ‘considerable number’ of tribunal cases when he started in August and his ability to influence them was ‘very limited’ what he is now willing to acknowledge is that “the best interests of the children have definitely not been at the forefront of everyone’s thinking”.

Now let’s pause here for a moment.  As a parent who had tribunals lodged at that time and knowing that my children’s interests were most definitely at the forefront of my thinking, it is clear from this admission that Mr Wood knows the SEN department do not have children’s interests at the forefront of their thinking.  Wirral SEN department – part of ‘Children and Young People’s Department’.  Worrying at best.

In light of the report that led to the letter sent to parents in October 2018 – some 2 months later, it would appear that the children’s interest continued to remain ‘not at the forefront of everyone’s thinking’

Mr Wood then goes on to state that he has secured extra funding but it is ‘ironic’ that so much of the departments time remains committed to tribunals.  Unsurprising given his assertion in the previous paragraph – this being the only recourse available to parents when it appears staff within the department ‘definitely’ do not have the ‘children’s interests at the forefront of their thinking” and therefore refuse the support that is so obviously needed.  Please forgive me for failing to get my violin out at this point!

Given his background is in digging up fossilised tortoise droppings, perhaps attempting to write Wirral history rather than simply study it is a step too far for Mr Wood…

                                                     

SEND for Help

You know we are always happy to oblige with enquiries such as this:

Could you get any information on Wirral Councils new SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) manager John K Wood

From Huddersfield has he been drafted in on big wages to plug the holes on the sinking ship for the special education needs department as Margaret Morris and Paul Arista have recently departed with a SEND Ofsted inspection on the horizon

The answer to which is  – well, other than we know this particularly expensive consultant named above got the gig in July we haven’t got a lot to go on …which usually means Wirral Council are keen to keep something under wraps .

And sure enough and also happy to oblige are Liverpool Echo – who came up with a recent article with the snappy headline  Wirral becoming safer for vulnerable children as borough takes first steps to addressing chronic failings that left too many at risk of abuse

Yeah – if you say so. Or more accurately if Children’s Services Director  Paul ‘ Boycey’ Boyce and Cllr Bernie ‘The Bruiser’ Mooney say so – ‘Council chiefs believe vulnerable Wirral children are safer ‘ Well that’s alright then ! All we’ll say is that seeing is believing – and whilst it may be true that vulnerable children are safer let’s face it, in the words of the pop philosopher Yazz, ‘The Only Way Is Up’!

For balance the Echo report curiously references the infamous historical episode of financial abuse of disabled people and asks whether the claims of improvement are yet another ‘false dawn’  –  but it should be mentioned that it wasn’t £440,000 that was stolen by Wirral Council – it was about £300,000 more than that but hey, why bother with facts when the article is predominately about allowing ‘Boycey’ and ‘The Bruiser’ to go on at great length about the bad old days and the dawning of a new golden age for the vulnerable children of Wirral :

The department Mr Boyce walked into was “quite scattergun” and “largely non-compliant” with local authority regulations, he said, describing it as “a service that was disorganised, fragmented, that was unclear in terms of what it was trying to do and the sequence in which things needed to be done to improve things.”

Which is all a bit of a bitch-slap for Boycey’s predecessor Julia Hassall isn’t it? The Echo goes on to tell us that Mr Boyce has ‘wrought the changes’.

Efforts to turn the department around have been dramatic – and boosted by £20m of funding.

There have been suspensions and improvement processes launched, the removal of one whole tier of management from the structure and a massive drive to increase the number of permanent staff within the department.

New management appointments have been made to tackle concerns about a lack of direction from senior figures, while more than 400 workers have been moved under one roof to the Cheshire Lines building in Birkenhead.

So in the interests of balance we thought we’d particularly highlight public perception about how some of £20m has helped with SEND . Firstly from the source who raised the question above who goes on to say :

Is Phil Davies going to leave the council on a high of most improved council 2018 ? It’s an absolute sham with social care improvement – it’s worse now than it’s ever been …

Also providing a counter-balance to the relentless positivity is ‘SEND mum’ who can be found on Twitter @mum_send

Therefore might we suggest that even with a rucksack full of public money and regular upbeat travelogue news about the Children’s Services that there is still a long way to go on that ‘Improvement Journey’ before Wirral Council and their partners reach the long -promised land of adequacy…

Wirral Leaks Election Selection – 2 weeks to go

PEACHEZ ‘N’ POLITIX 

So after being open for 6 months Wirral Council ‘s Planning Committee unanimously pulled the (butt) plug on Birkenhead ‘gentleman’s club’ Peachez . However the other Birkenhead ‘gentleman’s club’ was out in force bemoaning the bump’n’grind. Council ‘leader’ Phil ‘Power Boy Pip’ Davies even put in an appearance . Might we suggest this was more in support of Birkenhead & Tranmere ward candidate Paul Jobson – for whom the decision was described by Pip as a ‘fantastic victory’ – than a genuine concern that Peachez was turning the town into a hotbed of moral turpitude. Remind us , wasn’t Pip part of the crew who flew to sleazy Reno hoping to be twinned with a town who’s main attractions are booze,strippers and gambling? Whatever happened to that hook-up ? The only stripping Wirral councillors now seem to be in favour of is the stripping of public assets.

We think that Power Boy Pip’s appearance in the Liverpool Echo video included in their Pip on Peachez story should itself be x-rated. Inevitably Wirral Labour described his performance (and it was a performance ) as ‘powerful’. Pip once again used the phrase ‘sordid business’ and it was hard to tell whether he was describing Peachez , his blatant electioneering or Wirral Council’s modus operandi.

However we had to laugh at the inevitable inane comment from that ultimate exemplar of political and personal decorum Cllr Steve ‘Foulkesy’ Foulkes:  “I don’t know much about these places but I’ve not seen one in Liverpool on the main thoroughfare” he said sounding like a snooty, teetotal maiden aunt all of a sudden.

Bizarrely the refusal for planning permission was moved on the grounds that it would “not promote a positive image of the area”  – which prompts us to wonder whether any of the councillors involved in the decision leading to Peachez going tits up have actually been to Birkenhead lately? Just sayin’ !

THORNY ISSUE FOR LABOUR ROSE

Tory Wirral Council group leader Ian Lewis managed to get a front page from Wirral Globe ‘blasting’ reports that 170 foster children went missing in 2016/17. The revelations gave further insight into why Children’s Services have been deemed inadequate by Ofsted.  In response Paul ” Boycey’ Boyce , Wirral Council’s Director of Children’s Services was in in full ” that was then,this is now”  “right direction” “moving forward”  mode  – you know the drill by now. However taking things even further in her local election campaign leaflet Labour Rose (no sniggering at the back) Cllr Christine Spriggs simply rewrites history when it comes to the past failures in Children’s Services.

We readily acknowledge that since 2010 the decimation of local authority funding under Tory rule has had a severe detrimental impact upon local services.  However we would ask local politicians to be honest  – a big ask we know – and acknowledge in return, that many of the failings in recent years with regard to vulnerable people, both young and old on Wirral, have had more to do with bad management and poor scrutiny.  Consequently the £20 million (of your money) that Wirral Council are putting into Children’s Services are because they have had to remedy these past failings are less to do with “Tory cuts”.

Children’s Services : The ‘Real’ Reality Check

In the light of information we had received about Wirral Council’s Children’s Services we thought we’d do a bit of further research which included reluctantly checking out the John Brace footage of Children’s and Families Overview Committee held on January 25th .

We admit we couldn’t get past ‘Part One’  – but it was enough to introduce us to the new Director of Children Paul Boyce (forgive us but his title is giving us flashbacks to ‘The Childcatcher ‘ character in ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’). Wirral Leaks readers will remember that Boyce was appointed back in October 2017 following the long overdue departure of the previous Director Julia Hassall. For further information read here :  Old Boyce Network

So what was our first impression of Boycie? Well, put it this way – as far as we’re concerned it’s never good when you can’t remember the original question asked by a councillor after Boyce has answered it .The repeated use of the terms ‘ improvement journey ‘ and ‘narrative’ didn’t help. So in answer to your question we thought the BS quotient was particularly high , even for a Director of Wirral Council .

Needless to say the councillors present appeared to be soothed and reassured . Laughably (and tragically) Cllr Moira ‘Matron’ McLaughlin thanked Boycie for his ‘realistic’ presentation. Because as we know Matron spent many years being duped by incompetent,dishonest Directors in the Department of Adult Social Services (DASS) and thus allowed vulnerable people to be abused over a prolonged period of time .

In the understatement of the year so far Boycie admitted there was ” a bit of work to do” and ” we’ve got a way to go” in Children’s Services . There was some ‘tough talk’ about not wanting social workers who don’t know what good practice looks like to work for Wirral Council anymore .

Whilst Boycie reminded councillors of the reality visits they would be undertaking to check the claims that Children’s Services was heading in the right direction on their ‘improvement journey’ and that there was ‘depth to the rhetoric’ ( see what we mean about the BS quotient?) can we ask him whether Sandra Dykstra is what ‘good social work looks like’ ?  (see below)

Misconduct

Therefore we challenge Wirral councillors to consider the ultimate Children’s Services reality check. In answer to the simple question “Why are there so many looked after children in Wirral”  this is the response they won’t get on their carefully managed visits. Simply because the quality of management in Children’s Services is – and always has been – appalling and your much lauded new agency recruits are motivated simply by money and we guarantee will be out the door when it all gets a bit messy. And believe us – it will.

Wirral Council and the Maximum Wage

It was whilst we were researching our piece on the appointment of Paul Boyce, Wirral Council’s new Director of Children’s Services , that we came across an interesting concept that cash-strapped Wirral Council would do well to heed.

Old Boyce Network

Of course you can read the Cllr Bernie Mooney approved version of the appointment in the following local media outlets :

You may remember that we mentioned that following an Ofsted inspection in 2010, which identified children’s services at Cheshire West & Chester ( CWaC) to be ‘inadequate’ , a certain Gerald Meehan was one of the people brought in to oversee the Ofsted improvement plan. Indeed between  2010-15 Mr Meehan was somehow working at both Halton Council as head of the children and enterprise and as strategic director of children’s services at CWaC . According to The Taxpayers’ Alliance lobby group in 2015, Mr Meehan was on £168,700.

Meehan then replaced departing CWaC  CEO  Steve Robinson in 2015 . Curiously Meehan was appointed on £30,000 less than his predecessor with a salary of £150,000. According to a report about the appointment in the Chester Chronicle

Mr Meehan will earn £150,000 compared with Mr Robinson’s £180,000 wage as it is argued the task is less onerous compared with that of Mr Robinson who helped set up CWaC from scratch in 2008 before it became a fully fledged authority in 2009.The huge restructuring of council services that followed saw thousands of posts made redundant so it is also claimed Mr Meehan will be in charge of a smaller organisation.

The full report can be read here

Meanwhile that same year neighbouring Wirral Council ,who as we know operate in a parallel universe ,actually INCREASED the CEO salary by £40,000 to £175,000 following the departure of slash and burn CEO Graham Burgess. Apparently the justification for the increase was that Wirral Council wanted to ‘attract the best’.  We suppose it all rather depends on how you define ‘the best’ – certainly best for the ruling Labour administration – but for the people of Wirral ? Is it any wonder that current CEO ‘ Stressed’ Eric Robinson has a lower profile than Lord Lucan?

And so with Wirral Council continuing to slough off  staff and services like a snake shedding its skin isn’t time we asked whether the CEO and senior officer remuneration should be exponentially lowered ? Will we look back in years to come and think that rewarding public servants to facilitate a free for all for free enterprise was a shameful period for public services. It’s not only about how central government (of all political hues) has encouraged outsourcing and asset stripping it’s also about how public servants in local government getting paid very well for placing public assets into private hands.  So whilst there are rich pickings at the top of the tree it seems that everyone else in public service are at the bottom waiting for windfall in the form of their P45.

 

 

Old Boyce Network

The day after our update on children’s services A Reality Check For Children’s Services  which followed a meeting of the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee , Wirral Council issued a press release to announce the appointment of Paul Boyce as the new director of children’s services rather than do so at the aforementioned meeting.

Welcoming the news of Mr Boyce’s appointment, Cllr Bernie Mooney, cabinet member for children’s services, said: “Paul is an excellent appointment.We said we wanted an outstanding candidate and that is exactly what we have.

Everywhere he has worked he has driven major improvements…….

Getting someone of Paul’s calibre – he has a national reputation as a leader in this field – to come to Wirral and help us improve even further is a real coup for us.

I know he will hit the ground running and very quickly deliver the excellent children’s services we all want for our young people and families.”

As you can read in full HERE Boyce Appointment  the Wirral Council press release reveals that Paul Boyce is the current executive director for children at Knowsley Council . It also states that :

“he led improvement in children’s services at Knowsley, Cheshire West and Chester and Halton councils improving the services and Ofsted rating in each area cementing his position as one of the most sought after leaders in the UK within children’s services”.

Needless to say our curious readers wanted to know more about the appointment and the claims made about Boyce.  Consequently it has been discovered that Boyce left Halton Council in 2009  for Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC) and acquired the responsibility for a wide range of children’s services from July 2009 to September 2011. As you can see here CW&C Ofsted Ofsted judged the services as inadequate in 2010 under 9 categories including safeguarding children. Subsequently from September 2011 to March 2013  Boyce moved into a new post of Head of Strategy and Commissioning  whilst the overall responsibility for children’s services was transferred to Gerald Meehan (now CWaC CEO ) and Sandra Campbell who were brought in to oversee the Ofsted improvement plan which followed the inadequate judgement. Mr Boyce left CWaC when that post was removed under a reorganisation in March 2013 with a rumoured six figure redundancy payment.

The following month Boyce was appointed as interim director of children’s and adult services in Knowsley and at a later date he was permanently appointed to the post. Lucky for some , eh?

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/paul-boyce-97130257

April 2014 Ofsted judged the overall effectiveness of Knowsley’s children who need of help and protection, children looked after and care leavers as inadequate  – this after Mr Boyce had been in post for exactly a year. Whilst a subsequent Ofsted inspection published earlier this year identified that there had been significant improvements in children’s services and they were no longer rated inadequate, the report identified that improvements were still required in some key areas , specifically , children who need help and protection and children looked after and achieving permanence Knowsley Ofsted

It remains to be seen whether future improvements in Wirral’s children’s services bear testimony to the stellar reputation that Paul Boyce is claiming for himself and repeated by Wirral councillors desperate for someone to remedy the current inadequate status of children’s services. But then with things as they currently stand the only way is up for a highflyer like Mr Boyce.