Role of the Performance Improvement Framework

The performance improvement framework (PIF) for children and families social work services has been developed to help secure continuous improvement in services and lead to improved outcomes for children. The outcome that we are aiming for is that all children and young people in Scotland are Safe, Nurtured, Healthy, Achieving, Active, Respected & Responsible and Included. Development of the PIF was led by the performance improvement subgroup of the 21st Century Social Work Review Group, and taken forward by working groups including representatives from all 32 local authorities, voluntary organisations and the Scottish Executive. The focus of performance improvement is on the delivery of outcomes, with processes important in so far as they contribute to these outcomes. This framework provides a systematic and evidence based approach to assessing performance, and changes in performance, by children and families social work services. Its use is not mandatory but we hope you will find it a useful tool.

Approach

The performance improvement framework (PIF) for children and families social work services is structured around 6 key questions and ten areas for evaluation. These are the same questions used by SWIA in their performance inspection model (PIM) and by HMIE Services for Children Unit for the evaluation of services for children and young people. (See diagram at the end of this section.) This explicitly makes the link between rigorous inspection procedures and your on-going monitoring and self-evaluation of progress through the PIF.

The 6 key questions are:

1. What key outcomes have we achieved for children and families?
2. What impact have we had on children and families and other stakeholders?
3. How good is our delivery of key processes?
4. How good is our management?
5. How good is our leadership?
6. What is our capacity for improvement?

Our working groups were clear that this framework should comprise a mixture of quantitative indicators and quality indicators (QIs) against which local authorities should self evaluate their progress in delivering high quality services, and in doing so answer the 6 key questions. The quantitative indicators provide examples of performance from the wide range of important issues in children and families services. Local authorities may have other issues and indicators that are important for them to consider to compliment those in the PIF which is summarised in a diagram (click here). On the quality side the PIF draws on existing material (for simplicity and to avoid duplication). HMIe Services for Children Unit provide generic quality indicators in 'A guide to evaluating services for children and young people using quality indicators'. SWIA has quality indicators in its Performance Inspection Model (PIM) (click here) and is currently drafting illustrations of very good and weak practice for social work services. These are intended to be consistent with HMIe's generic quality indicators, with service specific tailoring where required.

Use of the PIF will compliment use of the Quality Improvement Framework for Integrated Services for Children and Young People (QIF), published in March 2006. All of the QIF indicators are relevant to achieving the vision for children, therefore for children in receipt of social work services (but for ease we have marked some particular references to QIF alongside PIF indicators.)

Applying the PIF

Through the PIF you are asked to evaluate your contribution to the vision that all children and young people in Scotland are Safe, Nurtured, Healthy, Achieving, Active, Respected & Responsible and Included. You are asked to consider the evidence on outcomes and impact for the children and families receiving a social work service and to self-evaluate your performance under each of the 7 vision headings of Safe etc., as well as your capacity for improvement. The other key questions on processes, management and leadership should be used to consider these particular aspects of performance and how they contribute to outcomes, impact and capacity for improvement.

The PIF should be seen as a tool that could be used in its entirety when considering all of children and families social work services delivered by or on behalf of a local authority, and also as a tool that could be used in its constituent parts to consider a particular aspect. For example it could be used by a team to consider outcomes for their particular service users, or perhaps how well they were achieving on one aspect such as nurtured. The application of the PIF will provide evidence on outcomes and impact for children and families that is necessary when it comes to the inspection of children's services, and would be valuable as an annual self evaluation exercise.

We suggest that your self evaluation should consider performance using the vision headings (Safe, Nurtured, Healthy, Achieving, Active, Respected & Responsible and Included.) To do this we suggest that you use evidence from a variety of sources and consider your performance against the following

• Themes listed for each vision heading
• Quality indicators in the PIF
• Quantitative indicators in the PIF
• Your own internal service standards, protocols and procedures and service level agreements (which will take account of relevant standards and guidance)
• Other relevant evidence such as local indicators, Quality Improvement Framework (QIF) indicators, inspections reports, other statutory indicators, user surveys, other research findings, and quality assurance.

We would stress that the PIF indicators are not the only relevant source of evidence for the self evaluation, but use of the PIF will provide a systematic and evidence based approach to establish the outcomes achieved and improvements/ changes in outcomes each year.

From your self evaluation you may wish to come to a view on your performance using the 6 categories used for inspection. These are set out below:

6	excellent	excellent or outstanding
5	very good	major strengths
4	good	important strengths with some areas for improvement
3	adequate	strengths just outweigh weaknesses
2	weak	important weaknesses
1	unsatisfactory	major weaknesses

More detail on these categories is provided in the guide 'Self-evaluation in the Context of Social Work Services'.

More detail on the indicators
Have a look at the suggested quantitative indicators, and click on more detail to get information on their definition and use, or to hear some explanation and views from members of the working group. There are also references and links to standards and guidance as a starting point for identifying relevant material on the quality side, but this should not be seen as an exhaustive list.

If the framework is to evidence the delivery of high quality services it requires good quality data - it is important that data capture is carried out in an accurate and efficient manner i.e. avoiding unnecessary re-keying, using standard definitions etc. Where appropriate, data collection should be consistent with existing data categories used in the CLAS return and social work staffing return. You will see that for ease in reading the PIF we have used the following terms as shorthand:
Accommodated children - should be taken to mean children looked after away from home
Looked after children - should be taken to mean children looked after away from home and children who are looked after at home

Views on Performance Improvement

Here are some views on the performance improvement and self-evaluation from some of those involved in the development of the framework.