CWDC: adverts cue for surge in applications

More than 30,000 people have registered interest in becoming children’s social workers following the launch of the Children’s Workforce Development Council’s “Be the Difference” recruitment campaign.

The CWDC said its television advertisements depicting a bouncing ball and a boiling kettle, with a voiceover outlining how social workers can use such everyday objects to communicate with children, have led to a surge in applications for information about the job since September.

This is despite many councils finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain children’s social workers, as reported by the Local Government Association earlier today.

Six out of 10 of those applying for more information from the CWDC said they were seeking a career change, with 10% looking to swap a business role for one in frontline social work.

The scheme has also attracted graduates and students of law, psychology, sociology and education.

“We recognise that it takes time to attract, recruit and train the number of candidates needed to do this highly qualified role,” said the CWDC’s director of strategy, Keith Brumfitt.

“We need the skills that social workers offer in order to strengthen the children’s workforce and to help to provide a world class service for children and young people.”

Alongside the advertising campaign, CWDC is spending £36m this year to strengthen the way social workers are recruited, trained, supported, including a scheme for newly qualified social workers.

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