Hampshire County Council

Social Care Policy Review Committee Item: 7

12 September 2003

Update on Recruitment and Retention within Social Services

Report of the Director of Social Services

Contact: Helen Dunn / Pauline Lucas Ext: 5389

1. Summary

1.1. The purpose of this report is to update Members on the recruitment and retention initiatives being undertaken within Social Services.

2. Background

2.1 Social Services Departments continue to face ongoing national and local recruitment difficulties with many posts proving difficult to fill.

2.2. Key national issues are:

· The severe shortage of qualified applicants

· Changes to the social work qualification from the two year Dipswa to the new three year degree, which in the short term will affect the pool of qualified and available staff

· Lack of competent agency staff to fill critical vacancies especially in Children's & Families

· Image of the social care profession, although this is being addressed by a further Department of Health social care recruitment campaign due to be launched later in the year. This campaign will target early retirees and women currently at home.

Key local issues are:

· Increased demand for care staff to support the Intermediate and Nursing care strategies

· Competition from the private sector & major retailers also offering flexible packages and training

· Increasing use of accelerating recruitment and retention initiatives among neighbouring authorities. This can affect retention by encouraging staff to `shop around' and move jobs more frequently.

2.3. 2002 saw another increase in social care jobs advertised - from nearly 26,000 in 2001 to just over 29,000. Both voluntary and local authority jobs increased - unlike the previous year when the charity sector declined. The big growth area in local authorities continues to be in the children's sector. Second is in the sector working with people with mental illness.

2.4 Research conducted last year by Community Care suggests that in spite of the challenges, a career in social work is still satisfying many. The national survey found that 81% are fairly or very satisfied in their current job. Just 28% cited pay as a reason for satisfaction. The key motivators for staying or moving are:

· Interaction with people

· Making a difference to people's lives

· Making a difference to the community

· Challenge

· Variety of tasks

2.5 The acute staff shortages in London (up to 40% in some boroughs) and the South East are pushing up wages and local authorities are being forced to use more creative measures and incentives packages to attract and retain staff.

3. HCC Social Services Recruitment

3.1 For the period 1 March 2003 to 30 June 2003, the centralised Social Services Personnel and Training Recruitment Options team have dealt with the following:

3.2 There have been a number of national advertising campaigns within specialist journals such as Community Care and Care & Health and the Guardian newspaper during the period April to end July 2003, in particular:

3.2.1 Children & Families

a) 62 Senior Practitioners and Qualified Social Workers

Result:

21 appointments

8 offers outstanding

3 offers declined

Cost per hire: £1,313.00

b) 34.5 Deputy & Assistant managers & residential care workers

Result:

22 appointments

Cost per hire: £780.00

3.2.2 Adults sector

21.5 posts in the Mental Health Service

Result:

13 appointments

Cost per hire £931.00

4 senior posts in Learning Disability Service.

Result: 4 appointments

Cost per hire: £3,007

3.2.3 Older Persons

1 Strategic Service manager post

Result:

1 appointment

Cost per hire: £6,690

3 Senior Practitioner posts

Result:

2 appointments (1 interview outstanding)

Cost per hire: £2,438

3.3 Retention

The Children and Families care group implemented recruitment and retention packages to all qualified social workers across the County in December 2002. The scheme was a mixture of golden hellos and retention bonuses This scheme has recently been reviewed against leaving rates before and after the implementation date. Current figures show a 30% reduction in social workers leaving Children & Families.

Approval will be sought to continue with this initiative for a further year. The retention bonus element of the package will be changed to reflect a monthly payment (market supplement), rather than a lump sum paid in instalments throughout the year. This offers advantages to staff in the sense that monthly salary additions are recognised more readily for mortgage applications and also provide a regular monthly supplement to income which assists in planning work/life balance measures.

Market supplements can be withdrawn more easily should market conditions change and are easier to administer, saving personnel resource time.

4. Overseas Recruitment

4.1 Although the Department has undertaken an extensive recruitment campaign for Children & Families since November 2002, coupled with the introduction of recruitment and retention bonuses county wide for the Children & Families sector, a number of vacancies still exist in the north of the County. The decision was therefore taken to use the services of a recruitment consultant to recruit from Australia and New Zealand.

4.2 The trip was conducted between 19 July and 29 July. A Children's & Families service manager and senior personnel adviser accompanied a recruitment consultant. Interviews were conducted in a number of cities in Australia and New Zealand. The cost to the Authority for travel and accommodation for each HCC representative was approximately £1.500.

4.3 The quality of the overseas candidates was high. 11 provisional offers for two year contracts have been made to posts mainly in the North of the County. Expected start dates are between October 2003 and January 2004.

4.4 The expertise gained by the Social Services staff will be used to develop future overseas recruitment campaigns which could be totally managed in house in order to further reduce costs.

5. Community Care Live

5.1 The Department had a stand at this year's Community Care Live exhibition held in the Islington Design Centre, London, on 21/22 May. At this event, the Department launched its "Choices" advertising campaign, signposting candidates to a microsite address www.hampshirechoices.co.uk , which detailed all qualified vacancies across the Department. The event was very successful and a stand has been reserved at next year's exhibition.

6. Open Days and Recruitment Fairs

6.1 The Department worked jointly with the Health Service and New Forest District Council in holding a recruitment fair in Totton, Southampton. This event was held in June and work is still ongoing in following up interest

generated from the event. The Department was also represented at this year's New Forest Show, promoting career opportunities within the Older Persons Service.

6.2 A number of Open Days will be held over the next couple of months in order to raise the profile of job opportunities within Older Persons residential homes. These Open Days will be publicised in the local press.

7. Learning and Development

7.1. This year's placement students will be joining us on 8 October 2003. The centralised recruitment team continue to work closely with colleagues within Learning and Development to ensure that maximum effectiveness is achieved as a result of the placement programme, attracting placement students to the Department on a permanent basis once they complete their DipSW qualification.

Number of DipSW students

7.2 Work is also underway to review key roles within the department to see whether changes can be made to address workload issues and assist career development and job satisfaction. This work is part of a larger project which is concentrating on the development of career pathways and entry routes into social care. It is intended that engagement with potential recruits will begin from age 14 onwards and that staff in other sectors such as administration, will have clearly defined career routes should they wish to make a move into social care work.

7.3 A first line management/leadership programme is being developed for all unit and team managers across social services, to be rolled out in January 2004. This will be a mandatory, modular programme addressing core business skills such as finance, people management, coaching and mentoring as well as managerial behaviours and competencies. This programme will link into the corporate leadership programme and is being developed in conjunction with Hampshire Learning Solutions. This work is funded through the new Department of Health Human Resources grant.

8. Key Worker Housing

8.1 Equity loans for qualified Social Workers employed by Hampshire County Council made available under the Government's Starter Home Initiative have been increased from £10,000 to £20,000. This has generated much interest with a number of staff applying for funding under the scheme. Funding under the Starter Home Initiative will cease at the end of March 2004 and Swaythling Housing Association, who administer the scheme, will continue to process applications under the scheme until the beginning of December 2004, funding permitting.

8.2 Ongoing work continues with the Authority's Estates Department, in trying to identify viable opportunities for Key Worker Housing, particularly in the north of the county, where the Department has the greatest difficulty in recruiting staff.

8.3 The department is also developing a range of options to try and attract candidates from the North of the country to come and try working in Hampshire. This could involve offering short term six month contracts with guaranteed rented accommodation. This would allow the candidate time to make an informed decision as to whether they wish to move down to Hampshire.

9. Exit Interview Procedure

9.1 The revised exit interview procedure has recently been published as a Departmental Policy document and circulated to managers. Care group personnel teams will be working closely with managers over coming months in order to provide assistance and guidance in implementing this policy, thereby ensuring that meaningful information is obtained from staff leaving the department.

10 Management Information

10.1 The progressive functionality of SAP is now allowing more sophisticated and up to date management information to be provided on a regular basis. Social Services DMT will now be receiving monthly reports and analysis against their workforce plans.

11. Conclusion

11.1 Competition for staff within the Social Care sector remains intense, necessitating the need to constantly review our recruitment and retention strategies.

12. Recommendation

12.1 That Policy Review Committee endorse the current range of recruitment and retention initiatives being developed and implemented in Social Services

12.2 A further report be made to Committee in March 2004

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - Background Documents

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important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the

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