During his inaugural speech at a presidential reception, John Pearce, director of children’s services at Durham County Council, told colleagues: “The instability and churn in the social work workforce in recent months is unlike anything I’ve known in my career and I’d like to credit DfE for the work they’ve done with us in record time to act.
“The consultation on a set of measures to address this is still open but we’re hoping the result will soon provide for a level of stability in the workforce that will really benefit children and families.”
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Recruitment agency practices compound workforce pressures
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Ban or regulation: steps to tackle agency dominance of workforce
The DfE launched the consultation, which closes on 11 May, alongside its response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.
The response cites the findings of a CYP Now investigation on the use of managed agency teams by local authorities.
The investigation revealed a 10-fold rise in agency social work teams being used by local authorities in last five years.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request to submitted to all local authorities by CYP Now found that of 100 councils which responded, 25 used a managed team in 2021/22 compared with just two in 2017/18.
Overall, 43 per cent of local authorities commissioned a managed team between 2017 and 2022, amounting to a total cost of £41.1m across all councils.
Speaking to CYP Now ahead of his presidential reception, Pearce said: “What I've noticed over the last couple of years is that instability is affecting all authorities regardless of the context and environment in which they operate.
“You're seeing ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ authorities with managed project teams now, which two or three years ago would have been absolutely unheard of.
“The way in which the agency market has evolved means you can't get a single agency worker, you can only get a team if you need to bring in additional capacity.”
During his speech, Pearce went on to praise “the workforce right across the spectrum of children’s services, from social workers and family support teams to school improvement advisors, childcare staff, SENDCOs, those who look after the children in our care, teachers and youth justice staff, to name but a few”.
“They’ve been through so much in recent years but keep showing up for children every day against a backdrop of an endless cycle of reviews, restructures and reforms and of course, most recently, the pandemic. They are the best of us and deserve all of our thanks,” he said.
John Pearce replaces Steve Crocker as ADCS president. Crocker has also announced his retirement as director of children’s services at Hampshire and Isle of Wight Councils.
Read CYP Now’s full interview with John Pearce in the May edition of the magazine.
