Agenda Item No. 2
REVIEW OF RECOMMENDATIONS TOPIC GROUP PROGRESS REPORT
NAME OF TOPIC GROUP:
RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION OF QUALIFIED SOCIAL WORKERS TOPIC GROUP
DATE FINAL REPORT PUBLISHED: 23 APRIL 2011
CHAIRMAN:
LEANDA NEWLYN
LEAD OFFICER:
LOUISE TIBBERT/ PAUL CHAMBERLAIN
EXECUTIVE MEMBERS:
RICHARD ROBERTS
RECOMMENDATION (please
include the full
recommendation from the
final report)
EXECUTIVE
ACTION BEING TAKEN BY SERVICE
MEMBER RESPONSE DEPARTMENT
BY WHOM /
BY WHEN?
PROGRESS TO
DATE /
COMPLETED?
1. Consideration be given to
developing a business case
to increase the numbers
joining the Academy during
2010/11 on the spend to
save principle
Business case
submitted to CSF May
2010 outlining reasons
for Academy scope to
be widened. Current
financial constraints
and availability of high
quality, resilient newly
qualified social workers
resulted in this
proposal being turned
down at the present
time.
Paul
Chamberlain
Completed
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The scope of the Academy has increased and
developed significantly. There are 30 Newly
Qualified Social Workers that joined the Academy
in October 2010. Alongside this there are 11
workers who joined the teams directly that are
directly linking in with the Academy and 8
international social workers who will be following
the training and development programme.
Signed off by
the Review of
Recommendatio
ns Topic Group
on 24
November 2010
3
2. Hertfordshire County Council
(HCC) explores ways of
encouraging staff in related
fields to become social
workers
Improve attraction
strategy for those in
related roles to move
into social work career.
To become a qualified social worker requires a 3 Alison
year degree unless already a graduate. This limits Twynam/Paul
HCC’s flexibility in terms of promoting career Chamberlain
moves from related roles; however HCC have
taken the following actions:


CSF Social Care L & D have extended their
scholarship scheme to anyone working in
HCC and Herts Constabulary.
CSF will take part in the CWDC Step up to
SW Scheme (Masters Programme for
workers to gain social work qualification
within 18 months linked to the University of
Herts/Beds) which will run from Sept 2011.
This will significantly reduce the time taken
for participants to become qualified.
Completed
Signed off by
the Review of
Recommendatio
ns Topic Group
on 24
November 2010
In addition, HCC have revised the attraction
strategy for qualified social workers, particularly
for those who were restricted from applying
previously due to barriers such as being a non
driver. A joint qualified social worker attraction
and recruitment strategy has been implemented
with ACS, CSF and Manpower. The 3 key
priorities for the group were present were
 temporary to permanent recruitment
strategy for QSW’s
 Joint Advertising/Branding/PR
 Attraction for non drivers.
We have now appointed 5 locums and have 2 in
the pipeline resulting in considerable savings on
the temp spend budget of approximately 20k
pa/appointment. We have also attracted a nondriving candidate who started in February 2011.
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3. A communications strategy is
developed to highlight the
positive outcomes of the
work undertaken by social
workers in the child
protection field
A strategy will be
developed by the CSF
Retention Group in
order to improve the
internal and local
perception of Child
Protection Social
Work. Advice will be
sought from
communication
specialists and social
workers – programme
to be agreed by
September 2010.
A final version of the Communications Strategy
Alison
has been signed off by Safeguarding and
Twynam/Paul
Specialist Services Portfolio Management Group
Chamberlain
and is on Compass. Summary of the action plan is
part of the Communication strategy. The retention
group action plan is cross referenced to the
communication strategy and is now being taken
forward by the newly formed Recruitment and
Retention group.
Activities include:
 CSF News carries letters of congratulations
to staff received from service users.
 Regular focus groups are in place and
include discussion of retention issues for
children’s social workers. These are led by
Jenny Coles, Director of Safeguarding and
Specialist services
 Senior managers are visiting staff teams on
a quarterly basis
 Developing a process for referring excellent
social work using ‘worker or team of the
month’ criteria which is promoted on the
intranet and through CSF News. This will
culminate with presentations at the March
2012 awards ceremony.
Completed
4. HCC develops appropriate
means of recognising when
exceptional work has been
undertaken by social workers
CSF Retention Group
to agree a range of
small value intrinsic
and non intrinsic
recognition awards
which can be awarded
A focus Group with a range of social workers was
held on 21 October. A number of interesting and
creative ideas were put forward to help retain
social workers in CSF both in terms of quick wins
and also longer term strategies. Ideas ranged
from letters of congratulations for excellent pieces
of work to introducing 360 degree appraisal. This
Completed and
ongoing
106757494
Alison
Twynam/Paul
Chamberlain
5
for exceptional pieces
of work as well as
recognition for
individuals and team
achievements.
Focus groups to be
arranged with social
care staff to test
validity and feasibility
of options by October
2010.
is being led by Jenny Coles, Director of
Safeguarding and Specialist services.
Short term strategies
 Improved senior management visibility –
happening with visits and away days.
 Congratulations letters and emails
 Improved good news stories via CSMsCSF news
Long term strategies
 Annual award ceremony- proposed date
16th March 2012 – World Social Worker
Day
 Transformation restructure will ensure work
is distributed more effectively across teams
as streamlined teams and stronger
management will ensure closer allocation
of cases
 Consistent, supportive management and
leadership supported by:
- Coaching of new practice & group
managers training scheme developed
- Reflective supervision training attended by
84 managers M2+
- Managers Continual Professional
Development Programme developed and
running from June
The 2011 staff survey results demonstrate an
improvement in reward and recognition perception
from 2010. The number of staff feeling valued for
the work they do increased by 8% point alongside
an 8% point increase in those who felt recognised
and acknowledged when they had done their job
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well. Senior management visibility also reported a
2% point increase across HCC, in 2011.
5. Current employee incentives
are reviewed to focus more
clearly on the areas of most
difficult recruitment
6. IT support is reviewed to
become more responsive to
the needs of social workers
Complete review of all
Market Forces
Payments and
additional incentives.
Any adjustments will
be implemented 1 April
2011 subject to
consultation with
Unison and in the
context of the wider
Terms and Conditions
changes.
The Integrated
Children’s System
(ICS) Team will review
the current work
programme and
priorities to address
the issues being raised
by social workers and
support staff where
possible.
Recommendations and
proposed changes
presented to Head of
Safeguarding by end
September 2010 for
agreement.
Paper detailing recommendations and proposals
regarding redistribution of market forces complete
and agreed.
Paul
Chamberlain
Completed
Alison
Twynam
Final outcome
on hold pending
Munro review
and
transformation
outcomes for
Safeguarding
and CLA.
Implementation deferred until late Summer to
allow Transformation to be completed.
Due to budgetary constraints the ability to provide
additional support such as Superusers has been
investigated and is not possible. The ICS team
have looked at the process internally to ascertain
ways to reduce duplication of entry and improve
efficiency of the system, particularly in terms of
social workers time required to enter information.
Usability Workshops are ongoing where feedback
from the practitioners is discussed and
improvements planned. ICS also has a page on
Compass where practitioners can access step by
step screen shots of procedures on ICS.
A Multi Authority Project Group met on several
occasions and produced a Report on the technical
improvements required on the system as a whole
and this is on hold until Munro reports.
Transformation restructures and
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recommendations from the Munro report will affect
how the teams work in the future. In turn this will
affect the role of the support staff within these
teams. Once the detail is known, a project will be
undertaken (once ratified by Board) to look again
at the role of the support worker in the front line
teams to determine how these roles should be
adapted to ensure increased and appropriate
support to social care teams.
7. CSF widens the channels
used to gain staff views
Develop engagement
and feedback
processes with staff
and managers by
September 2010.
The following have been identified as key
communication methods (most of which are
currently in place):






Alison
Twynam/Paul
Chamberlain
Completed
CSF news
Senior Managers attending team meetings
Better use of supervision- reflective
supervision training and 360 appraisal pilot
being held
Directors Blog
Continue focus groups, Director chairing
Increased focus on promoting reputation of
Hertfordshire in terms of Safeguarding
The above channels are being used but feedback
clearly favoured holding regular Focus Groups
with the Director of Safeguarding, these are being
held quarterly.
Feedback from these channels will continue to be
supported and improved by the QSW Recruitment
& Retention group.
Any other comments? Resource limitations and financial constraints in the current climate may impact on some of the proposed activity.
Given the transformation programme currently being implemented it is possible that the requirements of non statutory social work may result in
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some qualified social workers within the service being deployed into statutory roles. The impact of this is that QSW vacancies may reduce further.
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