CYP Now - Letter: No change since Climbie tragedy

On the seventh anniversary of the tragic death of eight-year-old child abuse victim Victoria Climbie, the UK's largest union Unison has called on the Government and local councils to urgently resolve the same issues that contributed to the terrible case.

We are concerned that the overwhelming workload, recruitment andretention problems, and high dependence on agency staff has not improvedthe situation.

The Government's recent review of the social care workforce, Options forExcellence, noted that stress caused by poor management and highcaseloads continues to push people to leave the sector.

Unison, which represents 300,000 social care services workers, isgravely concerned that 69 per cent of councils have difficultiesretaining staff (up from 30 per cent in 2001).

The vacancy rate for children's social work posts is no better; 12 percent are still vacant, and annual staff turnover is 11 per cent, doublethat of the wider economy. There is also a high use of agency staff. Sixper cent of social care staff are agency workers, which rises to astaggering 21 per cent in London.

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