Human resources

Staff are a vital element in delivering children's services. Well trained and motivated staff are essential to deliver good quality services. Difficulties in recruitment of qualified social workers have contributed to problems in delivering safe services within budget.

Additional costs are incurred by the use of agency staff usually predominantly in care management and in residential care. Short term strategies may enable an authority to deliver safe services but are likely to incur additional costs. Longer term strategies enable a better use of resources in the longer run and enable higher quality services to be delivered. However they too will require investment in the short term, and not just of management and development time, in order to achieve a better outcome.

In Wales the National Assembly has produced Human Resource Planning Guidance "Planning for Caring" (www.wales.gov.uk/subisocialpolicysocialservices/content/planning-for-care-e.pdf)to assist local authorities and partner organisations to draw up effective human resource plans for the social care sector in their area. The Guidance provides a framework for the development of comprehensive human resource plans to support the delivery of service plans. The topics covered below are set out in greater detail in the guidance.

This section contains:

Reasons to take a longer term view of human resources planning
Recruitment to children's services: how big a problem?
Recruitment

• Profiling the suthority positively with potential applicants
• Recruitment of qualified social workers
• Managing the recruitment process well
• Short term recruitment strategies
• Incentives to join

Retention
Managing staff performance
Workforce planning

Reasons to take a longer term view of human resources planning

• Quality services are dependent on there being a quality sustainable workforce in place
• The only quick fix is additional money and this alone will only produce a short term gain;
  
• Changes in the pattern of services and in the local and national employment market;
  
• Length of time to train for some posts (e.g. experienced qualified social workers).
  

Recruitment to children's services: how big a problem?

• There is a widespread view that working in social care is no longer seen as a positive option by many people. Against this there is the experience of many authorities that posts not requiring qualifications attract significant interest. There is a pool of people who want to work with children. Some of these will have potential, given the right experience and training. This requires a longer term approach.
  
• The age profile of the social care workforce in many authorities is rising - so dilemmas about recruitment are not going to go away. This challenges assumptions about age and work in child care. There need to be opportunities for younger people to work with children and for people to continue to use their skills past retirement age.
  
• Authorities vary even within regions as to how able they are to recruit and retain staff. Working on the reasons why people want to work for the authority can pay dividends in avoiding high cost agency staff and in delivering good quality services.
  

Recruitment

The size of publications such as the Society section in The Guardian on Wednesday and of Community Care is evidence of the high spend on recruitment advertising - but advertisements are only part of the recruitment profile. People are not simply attracted by a particular advert. Factors that influence whether people will want to consider working for an authority include:

Profiling the authority positively with potential applicants

• People want to work for organisations that are clear about what they do and positive about achieving it. Authorities with a positive profile attract more applicants. Promoting what the authority does both locally and in the trade press, helps, as does the material sent to enquirers. This does not have to duck the challenges - social care staff are attracted by a positive response to high needs.
• In Wales the Care Council for Wales (www.ccwales.org.uk/) has produced the careers and recruitment pack "Faces of Care" (www.ccwales.org.uk/careers/careers/). This pack provides source material that can be used by all employers to support their own recruitment strategies
• Word of mouth is very important in terms of how credible the authority is as an employer. Exit interviews are a way to identify what employees' views of the authority are.
• Locality can also be a factor. What are the advantages of working or living in your authority's area? In Hackney, the Joint Reviewers were consistently told by staff that it was challenging and stimulating working for a diverse and deprived community.
• Good supervision, workload management, caseload protection for newly qualified social workers and clear routes to further training are all reasons why people will choose to work for an authority. See Good Practice: Thurrock and Good Practice: Windsor and Maidenhead.
• Student placements and links with local colleges give potential applicants real information about the authority. See Good Practice: Hull (4).
• Think about encouraging people working with children in a voluntary or unqualified capacity to consider further training (for example, foster carers, mentors, administrative staff). A good appraisal system that helps people look at and develop their long term aspirations rather than simply their competencies for the current post will assist this. Some of the potential groups traditionally have not had access to effective appraisal and development opportunities. See Good Practice: Milton Keynes (3).
• All councils need to develop and publicise clear career routes for staff, from being an unqualified, to a qualified social worker.
• Talking to secondary school pupils is a longer term investment in the social care workforce.
  

• This is an area of greater shortage. It leads to high use of expensive agency staff, turnover and vacancies, which in turn lead to poor outcomes for service usersand looking both at the ideal and the practical. Are there tasks that qualified social workers undertake that could be done by other staff? Consider the training and support that non social work staff would need to enable them to undertake some of these tasks. See Good Practice: Milton Keynes(3).
• Grow your own social workers. There are several possibilities to be considered:
  
  • Unqualified staff and volunteers working with children may have the potential to develop skills and to train as social workers. Are they encouraged to consider this and assisted to map a career plan?
    
  • Trainee schemes - to second staff with identified potential to become qualified social workers.
    
  • Open entry trainee schemes - open recruitment.
    
  • Recruitment of people already undertaking social work qualification courses - by paying bursaries/'golden hellos'.
  • Effective partnerships with social work training providers
    
  • The National Assembly has published good practice guidance on the development and implementation of trainee and support schemes - read more
    

Managing the recruitment process well

• Cost effective use of advertising should not be neglected because of recruitment difficulties:
  
  • When and where advertisements are placed can make a difference.
    
  • Some recruitment can be by local advertisement.
    
  • Profiling posts on the council website with links to information and application forms is inexpensive, and authorities have, at times, recruited qualified social workers this way when seen by people moving to the area.
  • Consideration of joint advertising with neighbouring authorities
• All contact is part of the picture people build up of your council. Does it reflect what you want to portray?
• Plan the recruitment process from the start and ensure efficient progress chasing throughout.
• Keep in touch with applicants - they will assume that delay is because you are not interested. If there has to be a delay, let them know why and for how long.
• Investment in selection pays dividends. The consequences for service users and the costs to the authority are great if mistakes are made.
• Ensure that the requisite checks and processes are followed for staff working with children. Again, there are financial risks if this is not done, as well as the risks to children.
• Flexibility can be helpful:
  • for joint posts, the options for different contracts and different qualifications can increase the pool of potential applicants.
    
  • the potential to appoint over establishment for hard to recruit posts if there are sufficient applicants can assist continuity and reduce reliance on agency staff.
    
  • flexibility about home working and hours worked - annualised hours, part time and term time working will all potentially increase the range of people who can undertake a job.
    

Short term recruitment strategies

• Consider if there would be financial advantages to a contract rather than a one-off arrangement with an agency. See Good Practice: Slough.
• Reduce the use of agency staff by developing a pool of people willing to undertake work for the authority. This can work well if they are linked, for instance, with the children's home that they will undertake sessional work for.
• Recruitment from abroad has successfully been used by authorities to reduce the dependency on agency staff. Well planned and managed, this can be more stable than use of agency staff and bring new ideas and ways of working to the authority. See Good Practice: Merton.
  

Incentives to join

• Payments on joining authorities could include:
  • Assistance with relocation
    
  • 'Golden hellos'- payments on joining
    
  • Assistance while training - bursaries and other assistance to applicants currently undertaking training.
    
• Assistance with housing - temporary allowances, mortgage subsidies and key worker housing.
  

Retention

Recruitment is expensive - but the real cost of losing an experienced member of staff is greater. Some of the reasons that people stay, are those that attracted people to the authority:

• People want to work for organisations that are clear about what they do and positive about achieving it, and are good at communicating this to staff and involving them in the aims of the organisation. This means organisations that are well led and managed. This does not have to duck the challenges - social care staff are attracted by a positive response to high needs.
• Good supervision, workload management, caseload protection for newly qualified social workers and clear routes to further training are all reasons why people will continue to work for an authority. Good staff are motivated by the possibility of doing good work and by the expectation that they will do excellent work.
• Staff value being part of an organisation that gives them the opportunity to contribute - by being part of a work group developing or evaluating services, by taking responsibility for links with another service, or by developing a particular expertise.
• Staff support, including access to counselling, is important for all staff but especially for those working in stressful jobs.
• Staff working in pressurised frontline teams may welcome opportunities to 'rotate' jobs, giving periodic respite to some staff and allowing others to gain new skills.
• The level of investment in training needs to be considered as well as whether the budget is being used to achieve an effective workforce. Expenditure on training as a percentage of social services expenditure is very variable - see Exhibit 2 (Source: Department of Health key indicators, 1999/2000 - Ex07). Similarly, in Wales authorities own expenditure on training per £1 of Training Support Programme expenditure varies. Full details can be found in the Training Support Programme for the Personal Social Services Progress Report for 2002-2003 located on www.wales.gov.uk/subisocialpolicysocialservices/toc-e.htm. The success rate of qualification training is also very variable. Some authorities have tackled this effectively. See Good Practice: Windsor and Maidenhead. Some authorities that are achieving good results in relation to recruitment and retention have relatively high expenditure on training. This is a more effective use of resources than facing the problems of very problematic recruitment.
• The success rate of qualification training is also very variable. Some authorities have tackled this effectively. See Good Practice: Windsor and Maidenhead and Good Practice: Portsmouth. Some authorities that are achieving good results in relation to recruitment and retention have relatively high expenditure on training. This is a more effective use of resources than facing the problems of very problematic recruitment.
• Financial incentives - the evidence of Joint Reviews is that finance is not the key to retention. Other factors that contribute to job satisfaction are more important and some authorities who pay less than their neighbours are still in a better position in relation to staff vacancies. See Dudley Joint Review report. Financial incentives are only valuable in conjunction with other strategies. Some significant factors are:
  • Pay levels need to be broadly comparable with neighbours.
  • Additional payments to staff who stay ('Golden handcuffs') can be a factor in retaining experienced staff when neighbours are making significant payments to new staff.
    
  • Pay does need to reflect the complexity, intensity and risks associated with the work being undertaken. Too many staff are currently being lured away from frontline duty teams to less stressful positions where the salaries are nevertheless equivalent.
    

Managing staff performance

• Managing performance needs to be embedded in the systems and culture of the authority. Staff are more effectively involved in this when it is clear that the link and rationale are about providing services of good quality.
• Regular and good quality supervision is important, with planning through appraisal.
• There should be good workload management systems that are clearly understood by staff. This will give them clear and achievable expectations about what they should achieve, and a sense that work is allocated fairly.
• Attendance and sickness procedures should be in place and working effectively. (Portsmouth's wellbeing policy is valued by staff and includes the availability of heath checks - it has also reduced sickness levels).
  

Workforce planning

• Workforce planning should begin with an analysis of the local employment environment. What is the competition, for both qualified and unqualified workers, and how is this changing?
• Authorities need to look at the skills and competencies they require, not initially at posts or even qualifications. See Good Practice: Portsmouth.
• Take a longer term view of what tasks will be needed - is the pattern of work going to change?
• What is the implication for the mix of staff required?
  • Do all the tasks currently being undertaken by qualified social workers need their knowledge and skills?
  • Can some tasks be undertaken by staff with other competencies? - See Good Practice: Portsmouth and Good Practice: Milton Keynes.
    
  • What are the implications for your workforce needs?
    

In Wales, a Workforce Information Template has been developed in partnership with employers by the Care Council for Wales as a tool to support workforce planning (www.ccwales.org.uk/)