What are the vacancy rates like in your area? How are they affecting your job?
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There is a freeze on recruitment - even filling vacant positions. We have three people leaving within the next couple of months and won't be able to replace any of them. Effect is obvious. More work!
Well, you're not alone - we've published some research today which has found a 1 in 10 vacancy rate for social work in the UK. But the figures vary greatly with one council running vacancies at 38%. You can check out all the figures here.
I've been qualified for 9 years and also have an AMHP qualification. I took voluntary redundancy from my last employment following a period of 9 months sickness due to stress. I have now been trying to get a social work job for the past 7 months but had no success because they are either too far away from my home or in childrens services. So I'm an out of work experienced highly qualified downhearted social worker.
The vacancy rate in the west midlands is largely due to an almost total jobs freeze across the region and many social posts being covered by agency labour The local authorities have the money to fill the vacancies but are not prepared to recruit. Evidence for this, for example can be found in the west midlands local authority jobs web site (https://www.wmjobs.co.uk/). This week, out of 13 councils who subscribe to the site, there is just one solitary social work vacancy. There is also simply no political will, with the possible exception of Sandwell who have just completed a big round of recruitment, either at local or national level, to take annex A of the social work task force seriously. The most constructive role social workers can take in the months and weeks ahead is to join the resistance of the growing anti-cuts movement.
This is staggering!
When I was working before doing my degree, our 2 assistant managers left and then they (senior management) decided that those posts were not important and were very well paid so they chose not to fill them again... leaving the team in a situation with no senior workers to deal with the most complex of cases. Poor decisions being made, in my opinion. And as someone a year away from graduating, im a little worried (ok, not a little, bricking it in all honesty), also because if I dont get a job, and choose to do some post grad stuff, who is going to touch an NQSW with (1,2 or 3 years) no post qualifying experience. Particularly when I see comments like the above when experienced workers who have taken time out are struggling to find work. I have honestly never worried so much about getting a job, lets hope it picks up over the next year, but for some reason I doubt it. Looks as if I will be doing post-grad study after all whilst doing agency or form F assessing, just to keep up some sort of social work skill. How else can I stand out amongst the other thousands of graduates without a job?
We always have problems recruiting qualified workers in adult social care - but maybe not so much now that our neighbouring authority has reduced its adult social care staff by 40% across the board!
I am concerned that social work is so uncompetitive in terms of salary - my daughter, a maths teacher of 5 years experience is on £34,000 this year and is having her student loan paid off at 1/10 a year as Maths was a 'shortage subject' - this is £5,000 less than any level 3 in our authority earns no matter how many years they've worked.
We need a stronger trade union/professional association.
My local council appears to have a 28.5% vacancy rate in adults services, yet has not advertised an adults job in all the time I've been looking- about a year. It's not much different for children's services.
The neighbouring authority where I am on my final placement has no vacancies in children's at all, and a 5% rate in adults- because they are currently having a reconfiguration of teams/ offices so are not recruiting until that is done.
The vacancy rates are reflected in the inspection ratings of the two councils- the first is a 2 star council, the latter a 4 star. I know which I'd rather work for....but sadly as neither are taking on, doesn't seem very likely at present.
It seems so ironic that authorities are willing to employ agency staff which cost more than permanent/ fixed term staff, rather than recruiting and having all the extra benefits, in terms of staff loyalty & commitment etc.
I have been qualified for a long time and this was a problem then and continues now. The image of social work was also discussed then and Community care looked at this same issue in the early 1990's.
I still maintain that you need to relocate social workers to where they can work most effectively and naturally with the people that need their support and those that need to be watched on a very regular basis.
If a child doesn't come to school within a couple of hours these days parents are contacted but the schools in my area have little faith in the local social services thinking that often what worries them won't fit the social work criteria.
The knock on effect of not picking things early lead to the mountain of work and trauma for everyone concerned.
I am going back to working 5 days a week for the first time for 20 years and why because up until now my children have come first.
I will still only be working for 20 hours a week but in that time my contact time with children, their families or other professionals will be about 95% of my working day.
So when the different groups consider why there is a 10% vacancy why don't they 'Get real' and realise that people like me worked for agencies in the past because it was a way of putting our children first.
I know of a social worker who didn't put his children first and now one of them who is a similar age to one of my children is in prison whilst my child is enjoying life as a University student.
It's hard I know ...but you have to try.....go on
Don't know which area you work in but have you tried agency work? I left my Child SW post of four years after becoming
disolusioned with CP proceedures and management directives and found a temp post immediately. There are many
agency posts around in my area (Yorkshire). I'm earning a third more and feel refreshed and energised by making
the tough decision to move on. Trust you find an outlef for your obvious considerable skills very soon!
Dear Queen B,
Services I speak to have more than expressed that agency Locums are a more cost effective solution as opposed to a Permanent member of any service. They do not gain holiday accumulation, paid sickness, training allowance or even a lucrative Public Sector pension. Agency staff will always be used due to the length of time it takes to get CRB clearance for permanent staff (usually 2/3 months), as the agency representing the Locum has already completed this check via their processes.
I cant understand this. How come the media are saying vacant posts are not being filled, and at the same time it is said their a 'freeze on recruitment'? I understood that Social workers are now in mental health anyway, focussing on acute and generic work, safeguarding adults etc, and CPNs seem to be taking over Enchanced, complex care cases - so wouldnt that automatically mean fewer social workers will be required, and fewer are being employed?
Newly qualified and have sent dozens of application, scrapped an interview with one counci. Why dont we get the jobs then.l
It comes down to the training? in my opinion some students that come out of college just dont have the skills required to do statutory work, also newly qualified workers register with an agency but dont have the working knowledge/experience to run with a full case load....having said that good luck to you I hope you get the break you need....
I agree with this, i'm just waiting to get my results and have applied to a couple of agencies, where there seems to be the vacancies, however have to point out, why cant the newly qualified social workers take on the work that we did as students, this may take the overstretched work load off the experienced social workers and give the newly qualified some experience. plus why does it take so long to get a crb back and why cant we have a universal one that covers us for a period of 3 years and then its renewed.. it could be like a driving license photocard with all the relevent details on a data base.. this might help to get those vital vacancies filled and give social work the value that it deserves.
we have a team of about half agency, given the wages are about £56.000 for agency (if you are looking at a purchase of £30 an hour), against s/w on about £32.000, the agency want to stay but wont sign on the dotted line due to massive wage drop and there is added conflict between the two as the wage difference is so great but the work distribution is the same, my view is get rid of agency and pay £5000 more per s/w, good staff will flock to an LA where there is a good reputation and wages, there would still be a massive saving, but no --- the alternative is to freeze all perm posts??
Hi Simon Cardy,
Are you sure that the work is being placed with recruitment agencies for s.w. posts? Is that your understanding within the Midlands area? I would like to ask what you mean by there being no political will? And, because I am currently out of the scene, what is Annexe A of the social work task force?
I look forward to hearing your response.
Hi Pasha,
Can I ask what work you were doing as a student? Are you saying that the students carried more of the workload than n.q.s.w.'s? Re the database for crb checks - I hear what you are saying, although there is the national database and there are also local checks to be carried out as well. I would have thought that the existing database would have needed to be utilised but as a bolt-on, photos could be added. I wonder, amongst those who are computer literate, how long this would take? I would have thought quite awhile just to get everyone's photo for a start, unless of course the bolt on comes across from the DVLA as the photos are already on file - a spot of multi agency working here then?
I think the councils are struggling alongside the rest of the country, but I definitely agree that social work definitely needs to be given the value it always has deserved.
Yes I am quite sure. Just look at the jobs pages on this web site: http://www.communitycare.co.uk/jobs/default2.aspx If you do a search for 'social worker' there are 81 jobs in the west midlands today - all of them agency ads. ironically often stating they are 'urgently required' ( I'm not so sure they are).
Annex A was the best we got out of the Social Work Task Force report who rejected the idea of caseload ceilings. Instead of caseload limits they came up with the idea of each employer carrying out a 'health check' see http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/swrb/
I stand corrected but to the best of my knowledge not one local authority in the west midlands has commenced let alone completed a 'health check' dispite a clear directive from Government to do so (see the governments implementation plan which said: " we expect all employers of social workers to work with their staff to conduct a local ‘health check’ of the support they have in place, and to take action for improvement where necessary, using the tool that was developed by the Task Force" see:
http://publications.education.gov.uk/eOrderingDownload/00306-2010DOM-EN.pdf
Since then we have seen a change of government - who seem to be directing their energy into Prof.Eileen Munro's review of child protection rather than the 15 recommendations of the task force. The coalition has also said very little about the task force reform board programme. This, combined with the non-activity around the health checks on the ground, combined with the waiting game being played out for the chancellors spending review on October 20th (the really big cuts), all adds up to a lack of political will at all levels - that's why the reports about vacancy levels shows that the crisis is social work remains much the same as it has since the the first Laming report. I'm not saying I'm right but that's how it looks to me as things stand - the real question is what can we do about it?
Hi Eddison.j
I'm not saying that, however as a second placement student, i was doing similar work to a newly qualified albeit supervised. What i am saying is that there are over stretched social workers and maybe by employing newly qualified social workers who lack experience as this is what seems to be asked for when applying for jobs to take on some of the low end work would help the profession. In my experience, when looking for jobs, they all want you to have 12 months p.q how can this be achieved if no-one wants to give you a chance. After all we have all done placements and this should be classed as experience shouldn't it!
The idea for the CRB, could be utilised more as you suggest.. not only would it save money, but it would save time and get those posts filled...
P.
Your own map shows 10.1% the national mean. I think the 'Professional vacancy rates in England in 2010’ say it all...Why are vacancy rates so low in comparable professions?
The answer is either they're better paid and/or have better working conditions...or probably both.
I know the echo is - SW starts off paying less but ends up paying more or equivalent; but anecdotally this is not true, in my area a connexions advisor starting pay is nearly the ceiling for a qualified SW. And even if the pay becomes comparable the stress of child protection is I believe at such a scale that SW in that field at least should be rewarded proportionately (A NATIONAL PAY REVIEW IS LONG OVERDUE)
I agree jobs are placed within agencies and yet councils are not recruiting. The question is who do these agencies belong to?????. Grabbing from the left hand to feed the right hand.
The agencies are generally working through a middleman, a Vendor Managed Service (VMS), commensura, Matrix, Hays etc, who share the saving on the original agency margin with Procurement. It is a share-gain model or they charge 3-5% on top for managing the process. The VMS sends the vacancy to many agencies whom respond as quickly as possible with whatever is available, as its first come first presented (we all know that this doesnt really address the quality!).
As the agency has had their margins reduced greatly, they generally cant afford to pay a qualified, experienced recruiter with good sector knowledge, so it becomes a CV chucking excercise!
Procurement look great as they save a few %percent, bums are placed on seats and all looks rosey until it goes wrong. To note - the worst payers of agencies in England via their VMS are/were Haringey, Doncaster and Birmingham (who have just reduced rates again),
the 'true cost' of a permanent member when you take into consideration 'true' pension cost, NI, holiday, sick cover and employment liabilities i.e. removing poor workers or paying for long-term sick, agency staff can workout a cheaper, safer option.
Schools do not work with any similiar systems as they have all failed, as they have never been able to service the quality in a professionals market that requires more human interaction to assess the suitability of a worker. the same should be true for social & children services, that is if it is seen in parity to education?
Hi Entener,
If you go to JobCentre Plus you will see jobs for s.w.'s there. In fact I would say that both the amount of s.w. posts as well as the location has now broadened from just London and the Home Counties, as it was just a few weeks ago, to more nationwide. There still seems to be a dearth though within the North West. Has anyone got any comments on this?
Hi clearandconcise,
Sounds like you speak from experience within procurement? You say that it all looks rosy until it all goes wrong? What do you mean by this?
Are you saying that Haringey, Doncaster and Birmingham are recruiting the worst s.w.'s?
I appreciate what you are saying about "true cost" with regard to permanent staff, but most jobs have a 3 month probationary period which allows for a trial period on both sides or do you not agree with this?
Education has been highlighted within the media this week in trying to segregate out the wheat from the chaff. You speak of the historical situation viz-a-viz this, clear and concise - can you enlighten us? I do not appear to be as enlightened as you and would appreciate hearing what you have to say.
eddison.j: I appreciate what you are saying about "true cost" with regard to permanent staff, but most jobs have a 3 month probationary period which allows for a trial period on both sides or do you not agree with this?
actually the probationary period can be longer than this, I think it is usually 6 - 9 months. However, it is not as simple as you think to dismiss a poor performing Social worker and there are costs in letting people go. You need to take into account that the recruitment process for permanent staff is an expensive one. you need to advertise, look through CVs, organise the interview, appoint, do the CRB, references, contract, person givews notice in their current place of work if they are already working and then they start. This takes some months during which you have costs but nothing back from the worker - you may end up getting an agency worker for that time. Then they start. They need to have an induction and do all the training, including the ICS software, mote frequent supervision (ideally, i know, but that's how it is supposed to go) and then gradually build a caseload as they get more familiar with the area. With unexperienced staff this might take a long time and with NQSW you can easily see the end of the month before they are anywhere near lone working, particularly if they do not have any prior knowledge of the work environemnt.
You then need to give them time to adjust and she their professional skills. That takes more than a couple of months, so 3 months is not realistic for a probationary period.. A worker needs to outrageously poor to be let go at that stage and even then you need to demonstrate what support you have put in place to boost their confidence and support them make use of their skills. Most often than not if they perform poorly the probationary period gets extended, they are not just dismissed. By the end of the 6 - 9 months you would have already invested so much in their recruitment and development that it is not feasible to let them go.
With agency, it is much more straightforward. Ad out today, hopefully get a lot of responses if there are enough people around, already CRBed, terms of contract already set out, if they need to give notice usually is within one and two weeks and if they do not perform well they are dismissed with one or two weeks notice. The process is not necessarily better and it does not motivate employers to invest in staff, frequently they do not get any training past the ICS and maybe the safeguarding training. Agencies hit the ground running, there is a general expectation that agency workers are very experienced and do not need a lot of guidance to perform complex tasks. This reduces the costs involved by the supervisor's time, time away from office on shadowing, training, can take high caseloads quite quickly etc. Downfall is this speed is not always service user friendly, particularly when children have to say goodbye fairly quickly after they just met their new worker and obviously when they do not know how long the Social Worker will stay.
In my area the Councillors have decided that we must have Vacancy Management which means that each vacancy cannot be recruited to for a minimum of 3 months but in effect delays mean much longer until recruitment. I have never known time n the past 6 years when we have not had at least 10% vacant posts. But we have also employed incompetent agency staff who have then made decisions that cost tens of thousands from the Community care budget as well as costing inflated amounts themselves from staffing budgets.
Both Vacancy management and agency staff are a false economy in my opinion!
Hi Phikl (not sure this name is going to do you much justice!!!)
How does agency management work then?
How did incompetent agency staff have the authority to make decisions costing that amount of money?
How much were they being paid then if you know they were being paid over inflated amounts?
I look forward to your views.
Hi Eddison,
Haringey, Doncastor and Birmingham won’t have intentionally hired the worst staff, but agencies aren’t incentivised to send good candidates there. I cost agencies a lot of money on overheads as with any business but also in to advertise, market, vet, clear, reference etc therefore is they can get better fees for good workers they will do so. The VMS work ratchets where they reduce the margin of the agency again after several months or invoke clauses to take the worker, again making the agency look elsewhere for better staff. The areas then suffer from high turnover of poor agency staff, which leads the permanent members and managers to look upon them as very short term, or hold onto bad (cheap) staff and therefore they don’t invest their time or emboss the lines of communication which are key to departmental success and the safety of their charges. Attitudes are contagious and this breeds an environment set on failure which delivers the self-fulfilling prophecy! Procurement strong arm for a few % , but end up costing the public far more when they have to pay for intervention action and high level leaders to turn it around.
Is 3 months enough? Or do most managers say…..’well we’ll see how they improve’ or ‘ do you know how hard it is to get permanent staff’ the cost of an open vacancy, i.e. starting the process again, getting back fill, pressure on colleagues, increasing sick days etc is estimated at double the original salary.
I’m not in procurement I’m a pragmatic resource specialist who believes that recruitment and retention has much to do environments and emotional intelligence, we all perform best when in the right place. Knee jerk recruitment, biased views of public or private and flat cutting of cost on a subjective, not objective views cost 10 x the intentional saving when they go wrong. To make good resource decisions on the frontline one must understand the nuances that effect areas, roles and individuals, but not be so empathetic to not see a solution. One must have good, decipherable data that can be used to measure real success, not management of numbers. There are good and bad in all work environments, but as long as the environment improves, through more good than bad, more stability than attrition, everyone will improve through natural progression and the virtuous cycle can begin.
Schools have an independence that allows them to recruit individually, some do well, some don’t, but all recognise that unless the individual they talk to understands their environment, area, skills, USPs and need, they are guessing when sending over an applicant, that’s why they WONT touch a VMS.
Hi Trixie,
I suppose there are several ways of looking at everything - hence the need for flexibility. So you are saying that there are social workers on your team, working as social workers as well as managers? How many are doing this out of the different teams in your dept.? Do you think that there is a need to be able to prioritise what needs to be done, given that some tasks require more time before they will bear fruit and the need for being able to balance your time effectively. This, against the ability to manage risk and prioritise that in front of all else? You seem to feel that the two roles should be separate. Obviously delegation is a key feature as well.