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Pay is a key issue for many children’s services staff but is often not the determining factor over whether they stay in their jobs, a Children’s Workforce Development Council report has found.

Council chief executive Jane Haywood said the report showed that pay was only part of the solution to recruiting and retaining high quality staff because, for many, job satisfaction overshadowed lower levels of remuneration.

The report, which looked at the impact of pay and rewards on recruitment and retention, found that many qualifications were role specific and not transferable to other occupations, which prevented people moving within the sector.

A lack of diversity was also identified as a problem because it restricted the potential size of the workforce and failed to provide a range of role models for children.

It also said that the “lessons from other workforce modernisation programmes indicate that the children’s workforce is not yet ready to manage a similar change.”