Welsh plan to boost pay

Pay scales for social workers could be developed to tackle
Wales’s recruitment crisis, the long-awaited report into the
Welsh social services workforce recommends.

The Welsh Local Government Association also said a collective
approach to tackling the shortage of social workers was needed.

The report, written by Tony Garthwaite, chair of the Association of
Directors of Social Services Wales workforce committee, says
setting a national pay scale will be difficult. It suggests that,
until one is agreed, councils should bring all basic social worker
pay rates up to a minimum of £22,265 and maximum of
£29,004 for the most effective professionals.

The most experienced and qualified could rise to a top salary of
£30,747, the report recommends.

Local government unions have backed the plans. Unison Cymru
regional organiser Dominic MacAskill welcomed the recommendations.
“There is evidence of a need for this type of pay
scale,” he said. “Councils are assessing social
workers’ jobs and this is an opportunity for them to use the
interim scale as a benchmark.”

MacAskill said pay levels were “all over the place”,
with some councils using scales set in the 1980s.

• Social Work in Wales: A Profession to Value from  www.allwalesunit.gov.uk