The recent article in The Times about the West Midlands and East of England regions co-operating to place a cap on social worker pay has generated a lot of interest, and for good reasons. With so many organisations across the country facing ever-increasing difficulties in finding permanent social work staff, there has to be collective action in trying to find a solution to one of the most critical risks facing children’s services.

Buckinghamshire’s children’s services has recently been rated as inadequate by Ofsted and one of the key issues found by the inspection team was the lack of success in recruiting and developing a stable workforce.

There has been much soul-searching about why we are failing to attract sufficient qualified social workers, particularly into critical child protection roles.