An interesting piece today on the politics.co.uk website on how local authorities are struggling to recruit social workers – and using Essex as an example:
It’s one of the most worrying symptoms of a malaise which has been steadily worsening since the turn of the century – and has now been pushed closer to the edge by the Baby P tragedy.
No one will deny the tragedy of the 17-month-old’s death has justified its hype ten times over. It’s quite right that society has been outraged by its failure to safeguard this victim of his mother, her partner and their lodger.
But, equally, no one can also deny its knock-on effect for the future of the social work profession is deeply, deeply worrying.
It’s hard to overstate quite how bad the current situation is. Research by the Conservatives in February showed local authorities’ social worker vacancy rates stood at an average of around 15 per cent. In some councils this has increased to up to 40 per cent….
….The recruitment crisis worsened by the Baby P furore will, the government hopes, eventually lead to improved conditions for social workers. That won’t filter through just yet, however, meaning local authorities are being forced to deal with the reality of high vacancy rates – and the ever-pressing need for someone to get the job done.
This is the context within which they have opened their arms to social workers from countries like Australia, New Zealand and the US.
Essex county council is the extreme example, launching a full-on recruitment campaign from abroad earlier this spring.
Its leader Lord Hanningfield was uncompromising in his warning to the government at the time.
“The recruitment and retention of social workers is now an issue of national concern experienced not just in Essex but in every council in the country,” he said in April.
“Social work can be an immensely valuable and rewarding career. However this country faces some difficult choices if it is to get the profession it wants.”
Four months later and 52 staff from Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and the US have been taken on. As Lord Hanningfield’s comments show, they know this solution is not sustainable. They just don’t have any choice.
In the meantime the British Association of Social Workers is pretty scathing about Essex County Council:
MESSAGES FROM SOCIAL WORKERS IN ESSEX ? 29 JUNE 2009
Child Protection:
Staffing levels are very low in children?s services, especially child protection, with team members working very long hours to keep up with targets (on which there appears to be a great emphasis). People feel demoralised and unsupported.
Baby Peter means that other professionals ?emotionally blackmail? social workers and use phrases like ?if something happens, it will be your fault? although child protection is supposed to be multi-agency. Other professionals seem to have little understanding of their joint responsibility and are unaware of what social workers can and cannot do.
Staff turnover is high and even if all the vacancies were filled there would not be enough social workers.
and it seems that the County Council can’t even provide decent fax machines:
The computer equipment is very poor and when combined with hot desking makes life very difficult. It can take half an hour to log on and the Swift system is often unusable as it does not have enough memory and crashes. Faxes take only one sheet at a time so reports take a long time to pass on and admin support is lacking. Complaints are met with the cry that there is no money.
While I see no problem with bringing in people from elsewhere to cover an urgent need, long term we need to be looking at putting right the points you have made on this and giving every opportunity and financial assistance to anyone considering social work as a career or career change. In view of the amount of people being made redundant at the moment some of these people may consider social work if they where able to be taken on as assistant social workers on a fair living wage while training. I believe that social work is a career that lends itself to the mature applicant with plenty of life experience.
I agree that social work tends to be given a very bad press when something goes wrong. While it is true that people need to be held to account when a tragedy occurs, there is also the fact as stated in one of the articles that there are other professions involved in child protection too and yet it is always seen as almost entirely the fault of social services when something goes wrong.