Agenda item

In the December 2021 Ofsted ILACs one of the areas of improvement for Childrens Services was;

The recruitment and retention of a workforce that is experienced, competent and confident to deliver improvements, so that children no longer have multiple changes of social worker or personal advisor.

In the June Monitoring Visit this was also an area covered by the inspection.

The HR Business Partner presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'D' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

In the December 2021 Ofsted ILACs one of the areas of improvement for Children’s Services was the recruitment and retention of a workforce that was experienced, competent and confident to deliver improvements, so that children no longer had multiple changes of social worker or personal advisor.

In the June Monitoring Visit this was also an area covered by the inspection.

The Committee discussed the report and comments were made, including:

• In response to a query about the stability of the Senior Leadership Team, the Committee was advised that at the most recent monitoring visit it was noted that all the SLT were permanent and committed to the improvement journey and beyond.  It was also noted that all the Service Manager posts were recruited to bar one which interviews were soon being undertaken.  Ofsted considered that to be a stable SLT.
• In response to a query regarding the staff turnover rate, it was noted that this was tracked monthly and was improving through the recruitment and retention of permanent social workers and the work being undertaken on retention was detailed
• In response to a query regarding the MA training scheme, the Committee was advised of the ‘grow your own’ workforce development strategy and how it worked in practice.  The enquiring Committee Member was advised that the full details of the scheme could be provided to them after the meeting. ACTION
• In response to a query about when a social worker leaves or goes on sick leave, it was clarified that there would be a handover and the family and young people would be notified, although may not be possible with sick leave due to the short notice. 
• The different HR payroll systems were discussed including the difficulties they caused and the Committee was advised that the new system should be in place within the next year
• In response to a query regarding staff turnover rate of the neighbouring local authorities, it was noted that there could be a difference in the way the data was being recorded and provided and the Committee was reassured that conversations had been undertaken with them to support and improve the recruitment and retention programme.
• The Committee discussed the pay review and structure and the urgent need to address it within Children’s Services, however also the need for balance and fairness for other Service Directorates, the implications of this were being considered by Corporate Management Board.
• Recruits from overseas were discussed and it was noted it had been broadly successful, although some lessons had been learnt and the plan moving forward was to recruit nationally within the UK.
• Clarification of over-establishment was provided which meant posts which were not part of future structures and planned budgets and would usually cover vacant posts or to meet a particular/additional demand.  The Committee was reassured that a robust structure was being put in place to ensure that the new structure would be adequate to meet the need of the service.
• In response to a query regarding agency staff, the Committee was advised that most of the agency staff were based in the assessment team which was very difficult to recruit to due to the nature of the work.  It was noted that other teams had much higher rates of permanent staff and staff could move between teams to enable learning, development and progression.

 The Chair summarised discussions as follows:

• Stability through the SLT moving down
• Looked at monthly staff turnover rate and difficulties in systems for monitoring
• In house training social workers
• Pay grades and pay review across BCP
• Other directorates and the impact on them
• Over-establishment definition

RESOLVED that the Committee note the update report.