Devon council 'struggling' to recruit key social workers

Devon is "struggling more than ever" to recruit social workers, a council has announced.

Devon County Council has a significant staff shortage in support for the most vulnerable and disabled children.

Almost half of 195 frontline posts were filled by agency staff in December 2020, who cost £28,000 a year more than permanent staff.

The council has allocated an extra £4.5m in extra funding over two years

Many permanent staff have been leaving the council for better-paying jobs with neighbouring authorities, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The council said the shortage had affected key areas like support for the most vulnerable children and families, care for disabled children, and its safeguarding hub - hampering attempts to improve children's services.

Melissa Caslake, Devon's chief officer for children's services, said: "We are struggling more than ever with recruiting the right numbers of permanent staff and in fact agency staff now, and we have also seen some significant increases in demand since April.

"There is a national shortage of qualified social workers so we are having to compete very hard with other authorities."

In 2020 Ofsted rated the service as inadequate.

An update in July acknowledged improvements had been made but "nothing is completely fixed", inspectors said.

The additional funding will include £1.1m this year and £3.4m in 2022.

It will provide better pay, retention payments, support to free up social workers to focus on direct work with children and families, as well as expanding training schemes, the council said.

Some changes to pay and conditions have reduced the agency worker total to 30%, but the authority still forecasts a £1m overspend this year due to the added cost.

Nearly one in five vacancies in the council remain unfilled, it confirmed.

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