The 11% vacancy rate for social workers across England's councils, revealed by our exclusive investigation, is both shocking and not unexpected.
We have known for some time that recruitment and retention has been increasingly difficult but at the same time the actual figure, obtained through Freedom of Information requests, gives one pause for thought. These are the vacancy levels that can cause a vicious circle with the pressures on remaining staff being so great that they too leave the profession - or at the very least consider moving from high pressured areas such as London and the Midlands to regions where the vacancy rate is lower.
So far much of the discussion about recruitment has been around the shortage of child protection social workers, but what is striking from these figures is the similarity between the vacancy rates in adult and children's departments. The adult recruitment problems have been overshadowed by the headline making problems around children's cases.
This imbalance urgently needs correction. That means equivalent government investment in increasing the adult services workforce as the children's. And, as Essex looks overseas to address its recruitment problems, it means fairness in the rules for recruiting from other countries due from the Migration Advisory Committee - not the rumoured bias towards children's staff.
But this should not just be left to Westminster. Individual local authorities have to take on responsibility here. In recent weeks we have reported the high levels of recent social work graduates who remain unemployed, in part because they did not have a placement in a statutory setting. We have also reported the difficulties of obtaining such placements from local authorities. If councils really want to solve their recruitment problems, providing suitable placements for students or rethinking their approach to extra training for recent graduates. The current, defensive but understandable, stance of wanting to recruit only experienced staff requires a radical rethink because that supply is simply not there at present.
The long-term aspect of these issues will surely fall under the remit of the Social Work Taskforce and all its recommendations must be listened too. But the situation is now so acute that government and individual local authorities cannot wait for another report, some radical action must be taken today.
I agree with most of the points that Bronagh has raised. Newly qualified workers need to be supported supported when they obtain a post whether working in children's or adult services.
Local authorities need to support and invest in their staff. There is still a mentality amongst senior managers that staff are expendable and you can either go to agencies or recruit if the current lot don't work out.
There is a shortage of experienced workers, but within organisations there are staff still there working hard over many years who get little or no recognition from their employers.
Also no one seems to ask why experienced workers are either working as independents or leaving the profession?
I recently read on the website disciplinary action taken against workers who are alleged to have ignored referrals. I am not condoning such behaviour, but it has been known for workers to be allocated work without their knowledge , then if they complain the wrath of the gods falls on them. A complete overhaul of the culture in Children and Adult Services is required. Politicians, Senior Managers and Social Workers all have a role to play in dealing with the shortcomings of the current culture, which is clearly not protecting or delivering in many ( but not all) places the services that should be delivered.
Support for experienced staff is indeed aan important issue. We are already planning to look at why social workers change jobs, or leave the profession, what support they need and what they actually receive. We will giving a lot more space to these issues in the coming months.
I am very concerned about myself as I am about to qualify this year. there seem to be a lot of controversy surrounding us Newly qualified social workers. the last couple of years I have been working as a RGN and have never come across such differences in our profession let alone such publicity. I dont want to regret my decision of leaving nursing but I would like confirmation that I would get support from my manager and the rest of the Team as a NQSW... from my experience I feel confident with myself and looking forward in working with children and their families but now Im very sceptical with my choice of specialist practice. Why is there shortages of Social Workers? My Uni passed +-100 social workers last year what has happened to all those qualified social workers. Can i urge all social workers not to allow the media to tarnish our role to the society and what we stand for.
I will be waiting to read of the reasoning behind the flight of social workers from the profession in the U.K., because here in the U.S. social workers are also moving away from what the U.S. has termed "generalist" social work and getting specialized in a particular field of social work. So specialized that many cannot be bothered to work entry level social work positions anymore. This has left the U.S. with entry level postions being filled by new graduates who usually fail to stay put long enough to gain adequate knowledge to be effective.