Agenda item

This report seeks approval to continue with the recruitment and retention payments for social workers in Children’s Early Help and Social Care roles to improve the recruitment and retention of permanent staff, following the previous agreement in May 2023.  It also proposes to include occupational therapists in the list of posts that will be eligible for payment in order to ensure that parity and fairness across the social care workforce is maintained.

Nigel Chapman (Corporate Director Children Young People and Community Development) was invited to introduce a report seeking approval to continue with the recruitment and retention payments for social workers in Children’s Early Help and Social Care roles to improve the recruitment and retention of permanent staff.

In presenting, it was highlighted that that the report sought to maintain consistency with the arrangements already in place for Adult Social Care staff and reflected the ongoing need to attract and retain skilled professionals within Children’s Early Help and Social Care roles.

It was explained that the recruitment and retention payments had been successfully implemented for children's social workers over recent years and had delivered positive workforce outcomes. It was reported that the permanent children's social care workforce had reached close to 90%, representing the highest level of permanent staffing achieved within the service for over a decade.

The Committee heard that the payments had contributed significantly to improving workforce stability and reducing reliance on agency staff. It was advised that agency expenditure had fallen substantially and had reduced by more than half during the previous 3 years. It was stated that this had enabled the service to benefit from reduced staffing costs associated with agency recruitment.

It was further noted that the recruitment and retention offer had been well received by staff. It was highlighted that the arrangements had encouraged staff to remain working in Brent.

Having thanked Nigel Chapman (Corporate Director Children Young People and Community Development) for introducing the report, the Chair then moved on to invite questions and comments from the Committee, with the following comments noted:

• The Chair emphasised the importance of ensuring that the Council remained able to recruit and retain suitably qualified social workers within Children's Early Help and Social Care services. It was noted that maintaining a stable and experienced workforce was essential to delivering effective support and positive outcomes for children, young people and families across the borough. It was highlighted that the continuation of the recruitment and retention payments would assist the Council in sustaining the workforce necessary to meet residents' needs and maintain high quality service provision.

Having thanked all those involved for their contributions to the discussion and consideration of the item, it was RESOLVED:

(1)  That the Committee agree to the continuation of the use of recruitment and retention initiatives, as follows:

i)               To make a one-off payment of £5,000 to newly recruited permanent qualified social work staff on grades PO1 - PO7 and to occupational therapists’ grades PO2 - PO5, on satisfactory completion of their probationary period and repayable where an employee leaves the council within 12 months of receiving the payment.

ii)              To make retention payments of either £2500 or £4,500 for qualified social work staff on grades PO1 - PO7 as set out in the accompanying policy (Recruitment and Retention Payments Policy for Social Work Staff), to be paid annually after completion of a full year’s service.

iii)            To make retention payments of £3,000 to occupational therapists’ grades PO2 - PO5 to be paid annually after completion of a full year’s service.