Agenda item

Report of the Director of Children’s Services to outline the recruitment and retention challenges in relation to Children’s Social Workers and seek approval for the Director of Children’s Services to implement a monetary retention reward to attract new social workers managers and retain the existing social worker workforce.

The Committee considered the report on the Children’s Services recruitment and retention officer, presented by Jon Abbey, Director of Children’s Services, and Andy Briggs, Interim AD Business and Resources. The report set out the challenges in relation to the recruitment and retention of experienced children’s Social Workers and proposed implementing a financial offer to attract new social workers and retain the existing workforce. The report set out different options that had been looked at, and the Committee also received a presentation on the recruitment and retention offers in other London boroughs. It was proposed that a more detailed social care recruitment and retention offer be brought back to the Committee for consideration in December 2015.

In response to a question from the Committee, it was confirmed that exit interviews had been carried out with children’s social workers leaving the Council, and that the reasons given for leaving had included salary, ways of working, training and development opportunities, greater stability and having contacts at other authorities. A more detailed analysis of the reasons staff gave for leaving would be reported up to the Committee in December, although in response to a question from the Committee regarding the weighting of financial incentives relative to other factors, Mr Abbey advised that pay and stress were the top two issues raised at social work forums.

The Committee asked what would happen if no improvement in recruitment and retention rates was demonstrated in the 12 to 24 months after agreeing to implement a financial offer as recommended in the report. It was reported that it was intended that a review be undertaken in 18 to 24 months time, which would tie in with the wider work on the Council’s reward strategy. Without prejudicing this wider reward work in any way, it was reported that it was important to start to address the shortage of experienced social workers as quickly as possible.

It was noted that it was essential to improve stability in the service by being competitive in terms of remuneration, but also in terms of the wider offer such as links with higher education authorities, mentoring, coaching, succession planning and offering manageable caseloads. It was suggested by the Committee that positive aspects of Haringey such as schools and childcare could form a part of the offer for attracting people to work here, and it was agreed that this was something that would be considered as part of the report to the December meeting. The Committee also suggested that succession planning should be one of the issues covered as part of My Conversation.

The Committee asked about performance monitoring, and how to ensure that new recruits stayed for a reasonable period of time. Mr Briggs advised that the models set out in the report proposed rewards on an incremental basis to encourage retention, with performance being monitored as part of My Conversation. The possibility of whether certain payments could be recovered if people left within a certain period was also being explored. The Committee advised that any proposed reference to staff contracts regarding the possibility of payments being reclaimed needed to be worded very carefully so as not to act as a disincentive for new staff to join, as there was a risk that this could damage trust between the employee and the Council.

Some concern was expressed that there was insufficient evidence that financial incentive was the most effective way of addressing the issue, and that there was a need for more information on what was being done on the non-financial side. The Chief Executive clarified that the current report set out the need to address the recruitment and retention issues for experienced social workers as a matter of urgency, and that adopting a financial incentive was proposed at this point as the Council was currently competing to recruit alongside other authorities who had already adopted similar offers. It was agreed that considering the wider offer, including non-financial elements, was necessary and this would be considered by the Committee at its December meeting.

In light of the Committee’s discussion, it was suggested that the recommendation of the report be amended such that delegated authority sought for the Director of Children’s Services be in conjunction with the Cabinet Member for Resources and Culture, Cabinet Member for Children and Families and the Section 151 Officer, and it was agreed that this was a sensible way forward.

RESOLVED

That the Director of Children’s Services be given delegated authority to implement Option 3 as described in the report, in conjunction with the Section 151 Officer, Cabinet Member for Resources and Culture and Cabinet Member for Children and Families.