CYP Now - People are leaving their posts

I recently read a statistic that surprised and shocked me: each year, on average, a third of councils in England change their director of children’s services (DCS). It is surely careless at best and unacceptable and scandalous at worst.

The article shared a new approach to preparing people for the role by improving pre-role training, and therefore their information and awareness. Surely, that is a sticking plaster over an open wound? It got me thinking about recruitment and retention, workplace support and success, and institutional culture in a wider context.

In early years and childcare, we have our own well-documented recruitment and retention challenges. I fear things have been made worse by the experiences of the past 18 months. There are contrasts and comparisons to be made across these two different aspects of children’s services.

I don’t think orientation programmes are enough to solve either of these problems. However, they are useful methods to support people to properly consider a career, the jobs at hand, and the journeys they can take you on. We’ve delivered enough of those to know their real worth and effectiveness. We are a fan. But that is not enough. Once you are there, in a job, you need to feel safe and secure, empowered and valued within it.

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