A 'challenge' over recruitment and retention of social workers in Calderdale, councillors told

It is a regional and national as well as a Calderdale concern, councillors heard.

Coun Diana Tremayne (Lab, Todmorden) said she worried about the cumulative effect on managers, staff and the council’s social work service “of constantly being under pressure to recruit people, to keep people to try and maintain everything while constantly dealing with not having enough people.”

Louise Ambler, principal social worker, said it was a challenge as, being a relatively small local authority, pods and teams were small and felt it when a member left.

But the pod system offered good support and options were constantly explored, including student placements and bringing in newly qualified social workers.

Getting in highly qualified agency staff to help for short periods while new recruits settled in was also an option used, members of Calderdale Council’s Children and Young People’s Services Scrutiny Board heard.

The authority had to balance this with keeping pay levels manageable, with shortages leading to an element of which authorities would pay the most, said officers.

With some gains and some losses, the picture is similar to the last quarterly report but caseloads have remained steady.

Pay is not everything and support levels counted for a lot, but Calderdale still needed to be competitive particularly with its neighbours and work done by the authority’s recruitment and retention group to ensure it was an attractive place to work remained important, councillors were told.