01 July 2008
The Social Services Improvement Agency (SSIA) was officially launched during the Social Services Summit during March 2006. It was set up to support local authorities increase the pace of improvement and promote excellence within social services. Hosted by the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) the Agency comprises of a central team focussed on Social Services improvement across Wales.
The SSIA has a strong emphasis on:
- improving service delivery and enabling members and officers to better
understand their performance; - enabling councils to improve their decisions and to make changes to
services based on a better understanding and interpretation of evidence
based practice; - increasing council’s knowledge of their own performance through self
assessment and through the design and implementation of workable
local solutions for improvement; and - Councils working collectively to enhance the sharing of good practice to
ensure that vulnerable groups within their communities receive first
class services.
The SSIA will not be the sole source of improvement available to councils,
but it is envisaged that it will be the ‘first port of call’ for advice and
support.