Agenda item

Briefing Note of the Director of Children and Education

The Scrutiny Board considered a Briefing Note of the Director of Children and Education on the Social Worker Recruitment and Retention implementation and the impact to date.

The Briefing Note outlined that Recruitment and retention of social workers continues to be a national problem and accepted in the government's response to the Independent Review of Social Care. The workforce profile over the past few years has led to Children and Education Services supporting a “grow our own” approach, with a key focus on enabling social workers into the profession and developing into experienced social workers with high quality practice standards.

Therefore, the local picture in Coventry in many ways mirrors the regional and national picture. Coventry has continued to face challenges to recruitment and retention of social workers, which has impacted the stability of the workforce, and the number of agency staff required to cover vacancies. Coventry is based within the West Midlands but also within commuter distance to East Midlands. It is therefore in an area where there are several local authorities all competing for the same pool of social workers, which makes it a competitive market for social workers.

Previously, in 2023/2024 investment was approved for Children and Education Services to support the recruitment and retention of social workers. This was in response to a challenging period, where a mix of high case levels, difficulty recruiting experienced social workers and a limited supply of suitable agency staff meant that children’s social worker vacancies were significantly high.

Importantly, Coventry Children and Education Service’s vision for the Social Work workforce is to secure a stable, permanent, highly skilled and capable workforce. Coventry’s practice approach has evolved since the launch of Coventry Family Valued, as Coventry Children and Education Services has become more relational and restorative, and more recently, Rethink Formulation has been introduced as a tool to support practitioners to rethink practice ‘with’ children and families further, and to support the growing relational and restorative culture in Children and Education Services and across the partnership.

As officers outlined in the Briefing Note and during the meeting, the key recruitment and retention initiatives implemented over the last twelve-month period have included but were not limited to:

·  In 2023/24, a retention payment was paid to experienced social workers, advanced social workers and senior practitioners who remained in post for a period of twelve months up to 31 March 2024.

·  A Progression Pathway for experienced social workers launched in April 2024 to provide experienced social workers the opportunity to progress to Advanced Social Workers.

·  A Progression Pathway for newly qualified social workers launched in September 2024 to provide newly qualified social workers the opportunity to progress six months earlier subject to meeting ASYE and competences.

·  A review of the Social Work Academy has been completed to embed a structure to support delivering the workforce to meet service demand and the needs of our children, families and communities.

·  A total of 25 Apprentices are undertaking a Social Work Apprenticeship (5 commenced in in September 2024; 6 Apprentices complete in June 2025, and 14 complete in June 2026).

·  Flexible Working 9-day fortnight has been piloted and rolled out to the wider service area to support staff/social workers with maintaining a work life balance.

·  A successful wellbeing offer for all staff continues to be offered to support wellbeing and retention of staff.

·  Regular Social Worker Recruitment open evenings, held jointly with Adults Social Care to increase the number of social workers.

The Board questioned Officers and received responses on a number of matters relating to social worker recruitment and retention including:

·  How flexible working arrangements operate for staff and the benefits of this new system.

·  Coventry as a challenging geographical location for recruiting social workers in terms of its capacity to various other local authorities.

·  The competition with other local authorities over retention payments.

·  Adopting progression models to provide new starters with an assurance of progression.

·  Coventry’s grow our own approach making us slightly higher on average compared to the national average of retention when benchmarked against other local authorities.

·  Coventry being slightly higher on average compared to the national average of retention when benchmarked against other local authorities due to:

o  The grow our own approach of training and development including the social work academy model.

o  Good starting salaries.

o  Good retention payment offer.

o  Coventry being highlighted for good standards and practices.

·  The primary reasons for staff leaving – namely work/life balance and money – and circumventing this through flexible working arrangements and wellbeing offers.

·  The positive impact of flexible working on levels of sickness that continues to be a national issue.

·  The cost, both financially and time with the children, when staff members leave.

·  The proportion of staff members leaving the profession completely and being confident that Coventry’s offer is enough to retain staff members.

·  Possibility for a cap on social worker’s case load and the difficulties in this approach because of the legal requirements for provision.

·  1 year restrictions on agency staff who have previously worked for the local authority.

·  Rotating social worker roles and encouraging staff to gain experience in multiple areas and with multiple families.

·  Tracking social workers for their safety and the piloting of the oyster device.

·  The balance of experience within our staff and the average age of the staff.

RESOLVED that the Board notes the current progress.