Union warns of further strikes at 'inadequate' council

Unison members have warned Kirklees Council that a ballot for strike action will be held next month unless they receive assurances that it will tackle staff vacancies, reduce reliance on agency staff and improve morale among social workers.

If backed, the strike will be the second period of action by social workers, following a 48-hour walkout last month, which involved 240 Unison members.

"The members voted this week that they wanted further strike action from 4 September if there isn't a clear plan about caseloads, about agency staff, workforce instability, lack of continuity and low morale," said Paul Holmes, Kirklees Unison branch secretary.

"We will meet them [staff] and say the council has either given us a plan we are happy with or they haven't and we are striking.

"The members have said 'we don't want to strike again but we don't want to live like this'."

The move follows news that Steve Walker, director of children and families at Leeds City Council, has been appointed director of children's services in Kirklees, and will run both departments.

It has also emerged that social workers in Kirklees have approached the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) to help broker an agreement, claiming their grievances are not being addressed by the council.

One Kirklees social worker told BASW: "Since the strike we have been ignored - it's like it never happened. I'm worried about the future and don't know what else we can do to solve the problems."

Another said: "Once we balloted, senior management seemed to take offense and adopt an attitude of ‘we'll show them'. I can't understand from a personal or a social-work point of view why they would not want to resolve this."

The association is calling on both sides to come together to discuss how the children's services department can be improved.

"BASW is urging both parties to return to the negotiating table to discuss the problems social workers on the front line have complained of, namely overburdened caseloads, failure to implement new systems and broken promises of transparency over recruitment," a BASW spokesman said.

"BASW is most concerned that morale among social workers seems to be at an all-time low in Kirklees, and that acrimony seems to hang over the proceedings."

Steve Walker said that he was surprised by the comments made to BASW as he had recently met with social workers at the council.

"There was a positive discussion, which included many of the concerns raised by Unison, including caseloads, office accommodation, recruitment and workforce stability," said Walker.

"In Leeds, we have created the conditions where good practice can flourish by working restoratively with staff and we want to work in the same way in Kirklees. I wrote to all staff following that visit and we are in the process of organising further sessions to look at how we take forward improvement in Kirklees.

"We value our workforce very highly and want them to play a full part in the improvement work, ensuring children and young people enjoy the best possible outcomes and are able to achieve their potential."

Leeds taking over running of the department was a recommendation of Eleanor Brazil, the Department for Education commissioner for Kirklees, who was appointed last November shortly after its children's services was rated "inadequate" by Ofsted.

However, last month, the DfE revealed it is looking to appoint a new commissioner in Kirklees to start work in October to help it improve and oversee its future management.

An Ofsted monitoring visit to Kirklees Council in June found that while there had been some improvement in the quality of social work practice children are still being left at risk.

Inspectors also said that the pace of change was being hindered by workforce instability and high caseloads for social workers.