By Mark Smulian
1 November 2010
Children’s social services have the worst recruitment and retention difficulties in local government, the annual council workforce survey has found.
The Local Government Association, which carries out the survey, is calling on other parts of the public sector to contribute more to child protection.
The survey was answered by 207 human resources directors, 59% of the total working in local government. Of these, 85% said their council struggled to keep child social workers and almost 80% reported recruitment problems.
These figures ‘far outstrip all other areas of work’, the association said.
It added that the 28% cuts to children’s services budgets in the Comprehensive Spending Review, combined with higher demand for child protection work since the ‘Baby Peter’ case, ‘pose very difficult questions for councils over how they can keep children safe’.
The LGA wants changes that allow councils to make better use of their child social workers. These include: cutting the 300 pages of guidance for child protection down to 100 pages; requiring all professionals to record information on children in the same way; and an increased role for the police and health services in decisions on children’s needs.
Baroness Shireen Ritchie, chair of the LGA’s children and young people board, said: ‘Social workers have their hands tied by red tape and bureaucracy which keeps them away from their most valuable work – dealing face-to-face with struggling families and children in need of help.
‘Some paperwork is essential but a few simple steps to reduce form-filling and to ensure other bodies step up to the mark could make a massive difference.’
She added that it was ‘possible children would be safer if other parts of the public sector did more to help local government’.
