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Children’s social workers will leave for less pressurised posts unless their salaries are increased, delegates at a child health and care conference were warned last week, writes Amy Taylor.

Steve Love, assistant director of social services at Hampshire Council, told the conference, organised by Community Care’s sister magazine 0-19, that social workers were being attracted towards adult and youth services rather than children’s because they were often seen as less stressful environments.

“We have to increase [children’s social workers’] salaries,” Love said. “You can get the same money as a Connexions advisor. Unless we make it an attractive choice to work with children, social workers have got other options open to them.”

His pleas follow the confirmation by community care minister Stephen Ladyman in July that the Department of Health are considering encouraging local authorities to increase the pay of social workers who take on tougher cases (news, page 8, 31 July). The children’s green paper published earlier this month reiterated plans to move towards a framework that “fairly rewards skills and responsibilities”.

Love went on highlight the need for a better workforce strategy, pointing out that agencies currently provided better rates of pay for social workers than many local authorities. “We see agency staff, who can work less hours, earn more money. And that is enticing away some of our own staff.”

He added that the government needed to put more money into children’s services to ensure the measures in the green paper were met. “We are concerned that if we don’t see any additional funding, we are not going to meet the requirements that are being set out,” he explained.