Cambridgeshire County Council boss takes urgent measure to recruit staff

A council has made an "urgent" decision to allow the direct award of an agency contract in order to supply staff to its children's services.

Cambridgeshire County Council said social worker numbers had been "deteriorating" over the past three to six months.

Its chief executive made the decision because the situation was "now becoming critical", the council's report said.

It may also "impact on our ability to meet our legal obligations", it added.

The report for the council's Children and Young People Committee said that while the early stages of the pandemic had seen "continuing success" in recruiting permanent staff, the "flow" of permanent applications had "faltered" and it had become "increasingly difficult" to recruit agency staff, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The document reveals that problems had arisen because the ability to attend meetings from home meant locally-based social workers could now work across the country.

The chief executive decided to award a contract to an agency to supply locum social workers because there were concerns that the continued failure to recruit agency staff could affect the council's ability to give an "appropriate level of service to vulnerable children, young people and their families".

The decision would normally have to go through a council committee but the report said the chief executive could make such a move if they believed it was urgent.

It means locum staff appointed should start work for the council in the first week of December.

Details of the contract have not been published because they contain "commercially sensitive information".

The report also explains measures being planned to try and improve recruitment and the retention of staff, including a new campaign to recruit social workers, and pay incentives.

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