Recruiting and keeping hold of social workers who perform ‘high-stakes' statutory functions in the midst of a sector-wide workforce crisis is one of the many challenges on councils' to-do list

Calderdale MBC is far from being unique here. But the council has given serious consideration to what can be done to address the scale of the problems it faces.

It has come up with a new approach that it hopes will shore up capacity and develop its cadre of social workers across both adults' and children's services.

And perhaps nationally there is at last more chance of better prospects and improving workplace environments for children's social workers. Last week the children's social care reform implementation strategy and consultation emerged from the Department for Education (DfE). This was published alongside separate consultations on new proposals for the children and family social worker workforce and a children's social care framework and dashboard.

The workforce proposals invite views on a range of issues, including capping the rate that local authorities pay for an agency social worker and what post-qualified experience is needed for an agency assignment.

In Calderdale, recruitment of new social workers is already under way.

Director of children and young people's services Julie Jenkins tells The MJ that nationally 20% of children's social worker roles are vacant and a number of people have left the profession after the pandemic, as has been the case in other professional areas. Putting new qualified social workers in place is crucial to making a difference for families and to offering a good service, she believes.

She adds: ‘We are looking for social workers at the "front door", as we call it as part of the assessment team.

‘We've got quite a number of vacancies there, but also in the long-term teams, such as the people who do child protection work and the looked-after children work. But less so there – those teams tend to be very settled in terms of the practice models and the managers and support they get. But we've got vacancies across the piece.'

There will be new pay levels, as the council has done a substantial amount of work to be ‘the best employer we can' around recruitment and retention.

Ms Jenkins sees this as the best way to avoid having to use expensive agency staff, and to instead develop a permanent workforce. ‘Agency staff are coming at a premium at the moment. We very much believe in investing in our Calderdale staff who have been very loyal to the council. We've been doing a lot of work looking at our salaries and benchmarking them, particularly with our neighbours within the local area.'

The council's chief executive Robin Tuddenham ‘really gets the social care side of it and is very pragmatic and very supportive' and managing social worker workload has always been a priority, she emphasises.

‘The council is very switched on in terms of asking "what do you need to run a good service?". We have a cap on caseload levels for children's workers. It can't go above a certain level, particularly when you are newly-qualified.' Ensuring flexibility and a good work/life balance for staff are also a priority.

Speaking to The MJ alongside Ms Jenkins is Cath Gormally – Calderdale MBC's director of adult services and wellbeing. On funding, she says local authorities may have been in a tight position for a long time. ‘But strategically, the workforce is a real priority across all our system. In adults' and children's social care we are struggling with the same things.'

She adds: ‘In adults, we're losing people post-Covid. It has been such a difficult time for staff. I think some people have taken an opportunity to retire. Some people have just had enough and burnt out and have left. Having that real focus on the wellbeing of staff is really important.'

And underlining her colleague's earlier point, she says: ‘It's really important we grow our own Calderdale social workers as opposed to using agency workers.'

The new pay and remuneration offer will go to all staff – both to the existing workforce and to new recruits, and Ms Gormally believes that will make a vital difference.

She highlights feedback given by staff at a recent social worker staff engagement session that was also attended by the chief social worker for adults at the Dfe Lynn Romeo and the council's chief executive.

‘Staff are really pleased that we've done the work on salaries and that's going to be a real uplift for them, especially in the context of the cost of living crisis. We will also be competitive with our neighbours. I think some staff were genuinely saying "we will stay now"', she says

But what Ms Gormally calls the council's ‘unique culture' is vital too, with one manager speaking very movingly about the reasons why she had stayed in Calderdale. ‘It was because there was such opportunity and because it was such a genuinely nice place to live'. She says senior leaders and the council really ‘walked the walk as well in terms of those values around kindness and community'.

She concludes: ‘It was about feeling valued and that focus on public service came across very strongly. It was interesting and very moving.'

Let's hope Calderdale will be able to build on a solid foundation of goodwill among existing staff as it works hard to bolster its social work teams.