1 Summary

This report updates Members as to the progress the Social Services Department is making in addressing the difficult recruitment and retention problems identified in the last report to the Committee in September 2003.

Whilst good progress has been made, achieving the required establishment level to meet business requirements, in respect of Social Workers in Children and Families, Occupational Therapists, Approved Social Workers and Care staff in the Older Person's sector, continues to be a challenge.

2 Recruitment and Retention Strategy

To support the need to make further progress, a Recruitment and Retention Strategy was agreed by the Department's Management Team in April this year. This contains a number of actions aimed at improving the recruitment and retention of Key Workers.

2.1 Performance Improvement

2.1.1 The report identified that good progress has been made this year. An example of this in Children and Families where there was a net loss of 8 Qualified Social Workers last year; this year, if the trend continues, a net gain of nearly 50 appears achievable.

2.1.2 High turnover was a feature last year, and this continues to be a problem with some occupational groups, particularly Home and Residential Carers. The trend in leavers for Qualified Social Workers in Children and Families however, appears to have slowed down, noticeably over the last few months.

2.1.3 The improved performance in recruitment and retention of Qualified social workers in children and families coincides with the introduction of a range of market related pay supplements for this group.

2.2 Retention

2.2.1 Further work is being undertaken as part of the strategy to establish the root causes as to why people leave; strengthening Exit Interviews and speaking to past leavers who have not disclosed their reasons for leaving, form part of this work. We are also strengthening our induction arrangements and are looking at the possibility of job swaps based on lessons learned from New Zealand.

2.3 Reporting progress

2.3.1 Further work has to be undertaken to gain confidence in the reporting ability and accuracy of information contained on the SAP system. There are some difficulties in this area in obtaining supporting information to confirm both progress and continuing problem areas. Each sector of the Department is working on more clearly defined establishment levels, vacancy details and input mechanisms to SAP.

2.4 Image

2.4.1 There is often a significant gap between the numbers of people enquiring about a job advertisement and the number returning applications. The Recruitment Team are attempting to establish the reasons for this gap and to identify action points to improve the way the Department and its work is conveyed. We will also be making a quality assessment later in the year as to both the speed in which the recruitment process is undertaken and obtaining feedback from applicants as to how they felt about the interview process.

2.5 Pay

2.5.1 As part of the Pay and Benefits review, the Social Services Department has recently responded to a request to consider changing pay levels in advance under this exercise to occupational groups where posts are hard to fill and retain. The Department identified the following groups in this category:

· Qualified Social Workers - Children and Families

· Approved Social Workers - Mental Health

· Home, Residential and Day Care Staff

· Occupational Therapists

2.5.2 The Cabinet will consider in due course how best to respond to all of the above. This has the potential to assist considerably in competing with neighbouring authorities for these groups of staff in the market and retaining existing staff.

2.6 Benefits

2.6.1 The Recruitment Team will continue to utilise the Relocation Policy and Key Worker Housing initiatives as part of recruitment campaigns. In addition, Childcare Voucher arrangements to be launched by the government in
April 2005, are a further benefit to be promoted.

2.6.2 Work is currently being undertaken within Children and Families, to establish possibilities for extending flexible working to support recruitment and retention. The outcomes of this exercise, whilst piloted in Children and Families, will if successful be extended to other care groups.

2.7 Overseas Recruitment

2.7.1 Successful overseas recruitment took place last year resulting in 6 people joining the Children and Families Social Work Team which enabled us to fill key vacancies in the north of the County. In addition the Department visited India with the Department of Health in November to recruit Nurses as part of the Nursing Care Investment Strategy, the first of which have now joined the Department. The Strategy itself will require a high profile recruitment campaign targeting 125 Nurses and 300 Care staff.

2.7.2 There is a potential to develop a partnership with the Romanian Teleorman County Council for the employment of Care Assistants in the Older Persons Sector. Initial discussions are currently underway to establish the practicalities of offering Care Assistants work placement experiences for a period of between 1 and 2 years, permanent opportunities may also emerge. The viability of this programme will depend on the outcome of work permit restrictions on people coming from Romania to work in the UK and Cabinet approval. If successful, the recruitment of 50 Care Staff is likely to commence December 2004 - January 2005.

2.7.3 A further report is to be provided to the Departmental Management Team soon on the importance of having an Overseas Recruitment Strategy as part of continuing recruitment and retention success. The report will identify potential new markets including the opportunities arising from the expansion of the European Union. It will look at countries that are net exporters of trained Social Care staff and is therefore not depleting that countries own resources.

2.8 Job Design

2.8.1 Work is being carried out by each care group examining and reviewing the work undertaken by Qualified Social Workers and associated posts with a view of redesigning the work to better support both business requirements and recruitment and retention needs. A key aim is to redesign the work of a Qualified Social Worker, thus reducing the dependency on particularly hard to fill positions.

2.8.2 Similar work is to be undertaken in respect of Home Carers.

2.9 Learning and Development

2.9.1 An important part of the Recruitment and Retention Strategy is to both support existing staff through an employment based route for obtaining the new Social Work Degree qualification, and introducing a trainee scheme over two years for external recruits obtaining the degree.

2.9.2 Additionally we will continue to utilise the recruitment of Students on placement. 11 were appointed to Qualified Social Worker positions in Children and Families this year.

2.9.3 A new initiative is to introduce a `Careers in Social Care Trainee Scheme', based upon attracting a wider range of untapped potential for people who may be contemplating a career change.

2.9.4 The Department is making use of the Council's Apprenticeship Scheme in obtaining Apprentices as part of the Nursing Care Strategy and the Department is expected to make further bids under the scheme later this year.

3 Recruitment of Qualified Social Workers in Children and Families

The most critical group in respect of meeting service delivery and key performance indicator requirements are Qualified Social Workers within Children and Families. Whilst this report has identified good progress in recruiting to these positions, taking appointments in progress into consideration, filling the remaining vacancies still provides the department with a strong challenge given the national difficulty in recruiting to these types of posts. An ambitious target of recruiting an initial 50 Qualified Social Workers, potentially rising to 75, has been set. Over and above the Recruitment and Retention Strategy, further work specifically aimed at this group is being undertaken. This includes:

· Looking at the recruitment opportunities through Agencies who have Qualified overseas Social Workers on their books.

· Contacting leavers from Hampshire County Council between the last 6 months and 3 years with the aim of convincing them to return to the County.

· A continuing presence at recruitment events, fairs, etc.

· Investing in the Community Care website for the next 6 months which will provide people with a direct link to our vacancies.

· Providing an editorial for Compass Magazine providing a linkage to our recruitment campaign.

· Further National/Local advertisement campaigns.

· Advertisement aimed at people returning to practice, offering the provision of support within the Department on their return.

· Advertising in the ethnic press aimed at recruiting people from various ethnic backgrounds.

· Clarifying and strengthening opportunities to make improvements to the employment package to prevent leavers on notification of resignation.

4 Conclusion

In an environment where there is a National shortage of some of the key workers required by the Department and as a product significant competition for these resources, the Social Services Department through its strategy has a wide range of initiatives in progress to build upon recent improvements in recruitment and retention. The Strategy needs continuous monitoring and revisiting, if necessary, to ensure that all its component parts are effective.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - Background Documents

The Following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB the list excludes:

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt of confidential information as defined in the Act.