Social work recruitment and retention

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Examples of local practice Managing agency costs through regional agreements Directors of the 14 local authorities in the West Midlands have joined forces in a regional initiative - www.wmadcs.org.uk/our-activities/social-work-agencyworkers-project/ - to gain greater control over spend on, and to improve the quality of, agency staff. The geography of the region means that agency workers have considerable freedom to move between authorities. From January 2015, all 14 local authorities in the region have signed an agreement that sets out: The maximum hourly rate they will pay for five different levels of agency worker. The impact of this salary ‘cap’ will be monitored, with a view to reducing rates over time. A new process for references. One of the local authorities will administer a regional registration process. A ‘Quality Record’ that sets out the employment history will be compiled for each agency worker. References for each placement will be stored alongside this record on a central database and will therefore only have to be supplied once by the placement manager. A regional commitment not to recruit NQSW agency staff routinely but to seek evidence of ASYE. The support that will be provided to agency workers (induction, supervision and training) to ensure they have the knowledge and skills required to carry out their role. The authorities have engaged social work agencies in this process. Their reactions have been positive; agencies are enthusiastic about the ‘Quality Record’ as a means of improving their own reputation. Evaluation processes are in place but it is currently too early to assess the impact. 11 local authorities in the Eastern Region have signed a similar ‘Memorandum of Cooperation’ which sets out common minimum standards of referencing as well as standard rates of pay for temporary staff. The authorities have also committed to working together in a regional approach to workforce planning. Training NQSWs in Hertfordshire In 2009 Hertfordshire County Council implemented a ‘Social Work Academy’ programme exclusively for Child Protection Social Workers. This has allowed them to recruit from the pool of NQSWs whilst maintaining a high standard of practice. Each team within the Academy consists of six NQSWs, a Team Manager and a Senior Social Worker. The NQSWs are linked with an Assessment Safeguarding Team and take cases from them. However, the Academy Manager has overall responsibility for these cases as well as the training and development of the new workers. New recruits spend six months in the Academy Team, the first month of which is induction and basic training activity. For the next five months they undertake further training on one day a week and spend one day with their Assessment Team, shadowing more experienced workers and being involved in more complex work. They work their own caseload on the remaining three days. Action Learning Sets are mandatory in year one and take place every six weeks. Work produced by those within the Academy is scrutinised to ensure good practice standards are upheld. If workers successfully complete their six month probationary period they join one of the safeguarding teams, though continue with the Academy development programme. The selection process is rigorous and includes a personal interview, a competency interview, an interview with service-users and a written exercise. All NQSWs in Hertfordshire complete their ASYE during their first year of employment. The expectation for workers who have been through the programme is that they will remain with Hertfordshire for two years and many have gone on to senior social work posts within the authority. Managers are very positive about the standard of practice of these workers and the subsequent impact this has on the wider team. For this reason, they are keen to appoint staff from the Academy after the six month probation. The programme has been greatly beneficial for recruitment and retention. 14 Research in Practice Social work recruitment and retention
Ensuring career pathways for workers in Surrey Recognising the advantages of the ‘grow your own’ approach to recruiting social workers, whereby workers bring local and organisational knowledge and have established relationships with professionals and communities, Surrey County Council offer five places a year for Family Support Workers (FSW) wanting to become social workers. The successful applicants remain on their FSW salary and continue to do some work for their FSW team. Under this arrangement, the organisation finances their training via the Open University and provides workers with sufficient time to undertake the study. Placements required as part of the training are undertaken in-house. Once qualified, the workers are committed to work in Surrey for a further two years. Surrey also has clearly documented career pathways for social workers. The pathways look at progression within a role through the development of skills and additional responsibilities, and at progression to management or advanced practitioner roles. The aspiration is to link these pathways with the appraisal process, the setting of targets and performance-related pay. Generating new initiatives in Walsall Walsall Council has a well-established working group on recruitment and retention that includes representation from frontline staff. A number of initiatives have emerged from this group. Some of these have been progressed and others are in the development process. They include: The creation of a pathway that allows a social worker within adult social care to move across to children’s services. This pathway consists of a tailored and extended induction period as well as inclusion within the ASYE programme. A more creative approach to recruitment, raising the profile of the service by generating a following on social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc). The service also holds breakfast and evening drop-in sessions for those interested in finding out about working for the authority. These have been very well attended and generated TV coverage. An attractive relocation package allows a payment of up to 25 per cent of a starting salary. These payments come with a two year commitment to remain with the authority. Twilight development sessions for managers. Market supplements for specific ‘hard-to-recruit-to’ areas of the service. www.rip.org.uk 15
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Page 17 and 18: Next steps By looking at research,
Page 19 and 20: Holmes E, Miscampbell G and Robin B

Social work recruitment and retention

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