CLAIMS of a ‘toxic’ and ‘bullying’ culture in Tameside Council’s children’s services department have been disputed.
Andy Couldrick stopped just short of placing the unit, rated as inadequate by Ofsted, into either a centrally-run trust or under the responsibility of another local authority.
However, he claimed: “Many staff and partners have frequently used similar words to describe the culture, including ‘fear’, ‘bullying’, ‘intimidating’, ‘toxic’. There is nervousness to speak out.”
That has been met with contention by Tameside Council’s chief executive, who is now in charge of children’s services until a full-time director is appointed, Sandra Stewart.
That comes despite Mr Couldrick writing: “I have held more than 80 meetings, with over 150 people: parents and carers, young people with care experience, frontline practitioners, first line and middle managers, service leaders, senior council officers, local elected members and national politicians, service leaders in neighbouring authorities, and partners from the statutory, voluntary and community sectors.”
Sandra Stewart said at a meeting of the children’s services scrutiny panel on Wednesday, September 18: “I’ve had feedback from staff already that they don’t agree there’s a toxic working environment.
“That’s reflected in our employee survey, which we had last year, where 74 per cent of employees said they were satisfied with their job.
“So, we’re doing another survey because if that’s what the commissioner’s heard, we still have to tackle that.
“He doesn’t always set out his evidence and not everybody agrees with that, or where it’s from.
“We don’t really know whether he spoke to just children’s services staff, that’s what I mean about not being clear on the evidential basis. It doesn’t say.
“One of the reflections from Ofsted was that as well as supporting staff, we need to challenge poor practice.
“They say in poorer authorities, where you become desperate for social workers, you don’t necessarily do that.
“While there probably are differing views on some of the judgments or the evidence, which isn’t always necessarily clear, we all agree on the recommendations.
“We’re working towards ensuring they’re delivered.”
Cllr Phil Chadwick said he had spoken to social workers who told him they felt threatened that if they didn’t complete the surveys in the way bosses wanted them to, things like shift patters and holidays would be put in doubt.
However, that was answered with: “I’m really surprised to hear that because nobody is forced into responding and we don’t know who is responding.
“And social workers don’t work by those arrangements, so I’m a bit confused by them saying they’d lose them.
“I can absolutely, categorically assure you we have no idea who responds. They’re entirely anonymous and we can’t trace them back.”
Mr Couldrick will not be a full-time commissioner for Tameside. He will still be chair of Birmingham Children’s Trust, which will not be the council’s strategic partner that will be brought in.
Tameside Council is advertising for a new director of children’s services and is receiving advice from Julie Towers, director of Penna – the organisation that handles such positions – about the best way of going about it.
And the hope is one will be appointed by the beginning of November, with notice periods meaning they would not be expected until January.
In the meantime, Karen Simmons and Marie McGuinness have been brought in to assist Alison Montgomery, the current assistant director, after interim head Allison Parkinson resigned.
But the main point is to attract permanent staff members as 63 per cent of heads of service jobs – of which they are looking to fill seven – are currently occupied by interims.
“I’m hoping a number of people currently doing jobs as interims will apply for those positions,” Sandra Stewart added. “We’d truly welcome them to do that.
“And we’ll soon have a strategic partner to support us – they get paid to provide some additional capacity to us.
“So, you need to be careful you don’t have to many people on the pitch. That’s been a constant problem for Tameside as well, everybody having a different view.
“We don’t want someone coming in who wants to prove something. We need to have a consistent, constant approach. That hasn’t been happening over a long period of time.”