Agenda item

The Committee received an update on the current staffing position of qualified children’s social workers in the Children’s Social Care Division as well as work being undertaken on recruitment and retention, with a view to having a more permanent and stable workforce in this area.

There continued to be a national shortage of children’s social workers, and the Local Authority struggled to recruit experienced social workers with one year or more post-qualifying experience and found it difficult to compete with the buoyant locum market.  Despite establishing a recruitment and retention package that offered a range of incentives including salary enhancements and a relocation package, the Local Authority had found it difficult to recruit experienced qualified social workers for a number of years and had a high level of locum social worker practitioners in most teams within the Children’s Social Care Division.  Following the publication of the Ofsted Report, the Local Authority had focused on ensuring that the majority of posts were filled by recruiting experienced qualified social workers via agencies on a short term basis to bring stability to teams and to lower caseloads, and through longer term measures such as the ‘Step Up to Social Work’ programme and Senior Practitioner Progression Pathway.  The Local Authority had also increased the total number of social worker posts across the Division. 

In considering the update, a Co-opted Member was concerned that work to reduce locum staff would result in a higher number of vacancies or new starters in the short term which might affect the delivery of the Improvement Action Plan over the six month period of scrutiny.  The Director of Human Resources confirmed that work to recruit permanent staff had included meetings with existing locum social workers to promote joining the Local Authority as permanent staff members which would provide continuity of service provision.  The Executive Director stated that he wanted to attract social worker practitioners who were passionate about their work and excited about getting things right for Bromley children.  The need to support Bromley social workers to identify and deliver consistently good practice had been recognised, and a number of measures had been trialled as part of the recent introduction of the Courts Team, including training and capacity measures, which would be rolled out to the wider service.  Consideration was being given to an holistic package of measures to attract permanent staff including caseloads and management culture.  The number of ‘true’ vacancies was very low and was primarily due to staff turnover, and the Chairman requested that unfilled posts be monitored closely as any vacancies would counteract other work streams in place to support the management of caseloads. 

A Member highlighted the high cost of housing in the region as a barrier to recruitment.  The Director of Human Resources confirmed that the Local Authority offered a £6k relocation allowance for experienced social worker practitioners, and was part of the Key Worker Scheme which helped key workers in London, the South East and East of England to buy or rent a home at an affordable cost, and which included social workers.  Additional work was also being undertaken with the Director: Commissioning and the Assistant Director: Housing Needs around how these existing incentives might be used more flexibly.

In considering support to the existing workforce, a member noted that a range of training sessions had been introduced for practitioners, including those relating to good practice and queried whether the impact of this training was reviewed to confirm if it improved practice.  The Director of Human Resources confirmed that reviews were undertaken following training sessions, and that it had been identified that social worker practitioners required space to reflect to translate their learning into practice, which would be supported by the reduction in caseloads.  A Co-opted Member of the Education Select Committee emphasised the importance of ensuring that social care staff were able to identify and manage risk, and the Director of Human Resources was pleased to inform Members that the Local Authority was considered to be a centre of excellence for the quality of its social care training programme, which included risk identification and management training.  Action was also being taken to improve working conditions, including a ‘breakout’ space which was expected to be available from early 2017 and improvements to work place facilities.

RESOLVED that the update be noted.