Agenda item

Report of the Director of Children’s Services for the Committee to note the implementation of the recruitment and retention monetary reward as previously delegated by the Committee, to agree a recruitment and retention monetary reward to take effect from 1 January 2016 and to agree further incentives and initiatives to improve the recruitment and retention offer for social workers in Haringey.

The Committee considered the report on the Children’s Services Recruitment and Retention Offer, as introduced by Jon Abbey, Director of Children’s Services. Andy Briggs, Interim AD Business and Resources, gave a presentation outlining the benchmarking findings and feedback for recruitment and retention incentives, quotes from the Haringey CYPS Social Work survey 2015, staffing statistics, the financial and non-financial benefits of the proposed offer, implementation methods and costs, other proposed  recruitment and retention initiatives and performance indicators. The Interim AD Business and Resources also circulated some draft promotional recruitment brochures to the Committee for reference.

The Committee felt that this was a positive piece of work, and welcomed the focus on non-financial benefits as well as financial benefits. The Committee asked about the decision of Enfield to withdraw their social work recruitment and retention benefits, and noted that there was as yet no information and that this would be closely monitored. The Committee asked about caseloads, as this was known to be an important factor in social work recruitment and retention, in response to which the Director of Children’s Services acknowledged that this was a very important factor and that benchmarking of caseloads was currently being undertaken. It was noted that there was a cost implication associated with lower caseloads and that it was therefore essential to find a suitable balance.

The Committee asked whether introducing such incentives for children’s social workers would have a knock-on effect in adult social care, however it was reported that the recruitment issues facing adults social workers were significantly smaller than those in children’s services and that only a small number of local authorities had schemes in place specifically targeted at adults social workers. The Interim AD Business and Resources advised that there were other options available in respect of recruitment to adults social care, which had already been exhausted in relation to children’s social care.

In response to a question from the Committee regarding proposals for a scholarship scheme and how this would be funded, it was reported that discussions were taking place around the possibility of asking organisations with significant contracts with the Council to consider funding scholarship places. It was noted that it would be important to introduce controls to ensure that people stayed working for the Council for a period after their training was completed, and that this could be a cost-effective way of attracting and retaining talented individuals for several years.

It was noted that there were concerns around introducing such measures in the current climate of reduced resources, however there were clear issues which it was essential to address. The Committee requested a review of the effectiveness of the measures in January 2017, and that a report be brought to the Committee before that time, setting out the scope and methodology of how this review would be undertaken. The Director of Children’s Services advised that it was hoped that with the assistance of such measures, the Council could achieve a ‘Good’ rating from Ofsted and could then become increasingly competitive in respect of recruitment of social workers.

It was agreed that the Committee would be provided with copies of the draft promotional brochure in order to provide more detailed feedback; an initial view was that a greater ‘people focus’ would be beneficial.

In relation to retention and development of staff, it was noted that the Interim AD Business and Resources, Mr Briggs, was a good example of an officer who had been given the opportunity to develop and take on a number of different roles across the Council, and that this was a model that should be further developed and adopted in order to ensure a flexible and capable workforce.

RESOLVED

That the Committee:

i)             Note the implementation of the recruitment and retention monetary reward as delegated, subject to consultation, to the Director of Children’s Services, by the Committee on 14 September 2015;

ii)            Agree the recruitment and retention monetary reward, as detailed in paragraph 3.13 of the report, to take effect from 1^st January 2016 and to replace the recruitment and retention monetary reward referred to in paragraph 3.12 of the report;

iii)           Agree the further incentives and initiatives to be implemented to enhance the recruitment and retention offer for social workers in Haringey, as detailed in paragraphs 4.7 onwards in the report.