CYP Now - The recruitment and retention challenge

When I was asked to write the ADCS blog for the Eastern region, I inevitably thought about some of the challenges that we are facing in my own local authority, Southend, and the challenges we share more widely - the recruitment and retention of social workers sprang to my mind.

Southend-on-Sea is among councils struggling to recruit social workers. Picture: Adobe Stock

Like I am sure many others across the country, we are struggling to recruit permanent social workers in the Eastern region.

This extends to agency workers too, with rates increasing significantly over the last few months and noticeably since Covid lockdown restrictions have eased.

In the Eastern region we have a strong Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to mitigate hourly rates spiralling up and agencies pitching LAs against each other, as we all try to fill our vacancies.

I have only been in the region for two years so cannot claim to have had any input into the original MoU, but it really has helped us manage a very tricky issue across the region and is a helpful tool to prompt discussion and where appropriate challenge within the region.

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