Agenda item

This report details the issues, actions and journey travelled for Children’s Services regarding the workforce. It dives deeper into the activity within Children’s Social Care and Education and Skills separately.

The Corporate Director of Children Services presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'B' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The report detailed the issues, actions and journey travelled for Children’s Services regarding the workforce. It dived deeper into the activity within Children’s Social Care and Education and Skills separately.

Children’s Social Care

·            Recruitment and Retention remained a high focus area of attention in the Children’s Services improvement journey. A Recruitment Campaign was launched in January 2023 which was proving successful with a 62% increase in permanent social work qualified staff across Children’s Social Care services from Team Managers, Assistant Team Managers and Independent Reviewing Officers seeing the most success. The service still struggled to recruit experienced Social Workers within the broader context of a national social work crisis, which was reported widely in the UK.

·            5400 social workers left the profession in 2022 (9%) rise on 2021

·            Number of social work vacancies in 2021 was 7900 (21% increase from 2021)

·            Common reasons for leaving included more challenging caseloads stemmed from the lack of resources, pandemic, and the cost-of-living crisis.

·             

Education and Skills

It was within the Educational Psychology Service that recruitment and retention pressures were felt in this area of Children’s Services. Both nationally and locally, requests for Education, Health and Care needs assessments had risen significantly in recent years. This caused additional pressure on local authority educational psychology (EP) services. Nationally, councils were reporting that there were insufficient EPs to meet this demand.

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

·       In response to Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) and the challenges with resources, the Committee was advised of the support and training that was provided to them, which included reduced caseloads, workforce development support, the opportunity to work in the different teams whilst responding to the required standards

·       In response to a query regarding the use of Assistant Education Psychologists, the Committee was advised of their role and that their work was fully supported by a trained Education Pyschologist in a work experience protected manner

·       In response to a query regarding the budget and the projected budget for 2024/25, the Committee was advised of the staffing increases in terms of cost of living and how that would be managed against any efficiency savings.  The Corporate Director of Children’s Services advised she could provide the projected budget to the Committee. ACTION. 

·       A Committee Member highlighted, that in response to the public question, he would like to understand more about the SEND service’s improvement journey and how it was delivering and the need for the Safety Valve to come back to Committee for consideration before any decisions were made. ACTION.

·       In response to a query about any barriers preventing the service from recruiting the necessary permanent workforce, the Committee was advised of the positive impact the increased pay which could be offered, together with a speedier recruitment process had had to progress recruitment of permanent staff.

·       In response to a query regarding the development of the workforce and the need to increase communication with staff, the Committee was advised that the culture was positively changing which could be demonstrated through various forums including Ofsted inspection results and by the recruitment of more permanent staff.  In regard to communication, the Committee was advised the service now had a dedicated Children’s Communication Officer who would consider this further.

·       In response to a query regarding social workers being frontline workers and potentially working from home, it was acknowledged that there were social workers who lived outside the BCP area, however there was a clear expectation that they were available to see the people they were serving in person.

The Chair concluded by acknowledging there had been some actions discussed which would be considered further under forward planning and thanked all the staff for their work.

RECOMMENDED that the report be noted and any areas for further scrutiny be identified.