Wales social work crisis

Oct 14 2007 by Andrew Dagnell, Wales On Sunday

COUNCILS are offering £3,000 “golden hellos” and student loan pay-offs in an effort to combat a widespread shortage of social workers in Wales.

Wales on Sunday can reveal that these are just two of the emergency measures being implemented to solve the growing crisis.

Other councils are even flying as far away as the United States and New Zealand to recruit experienced staff to fill key vacancies.

Councillor John Dixon, Cardiff Council’s executive member for social care, warned that if councils did not take action, he feared the deficit would remain indefinitely.

“There’s a Wales-wide shortage of child social carers – any professional in the business will reaffirm that,” said Mr Dixon. The problem has existed for a very long time now.

“Councils have no other choice but to take increasingly innovative steps in order to tackle this problem because it doesn’t look like it is going to go away any time soon.”

Mr Dixon said his own council was regularly visiting Germany as part of its recruitment campaign.

“We’ve found that there seems to be a surplus of social workers there,” he said. “Luckily for us, their social work system operates in a similar way to ours, meaning that anybody that we recruit from there does not have to go through such a lengthy induction period.”

Although there is no centralised record of the shortage, the three biggest councils – Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham – all have a significant number of vacancies.

Swansea Council says it currently has 19 vacant posts and was urgently trying to fill them.

And a recent report published by Cardiff Council revealed that almost a third of its social care positions were still vacant.

The ‘golden hello’ sign-on fees of up to £3,000, as well as bonuses of £1,800 are another spin-off from the crisis.

Local authorities are offering to pay off tuition fees and student loans in order to entice university students to work for them.

Mr Dixon warned: “If vacancies continue to increase the situation will come to a tipping point when the services that are offered will be compromised throughout Wales.

“We’re seeing that fewer and fewer people want to do social work degrees. Unfortunately there is a stigma attached to working in social services because the work is very difficult and challenging in a way that other vocational professions may not be.”

Last night Meryl Gravell, a spokesperson for the Welsh Local Government Association, said: “For the year ending March 2007, the number of staff employed in the social services profession increased by three per cent compared to the previous year,” she said.

“But recruitment and retention of social workers is a significant issue for Wales.

“There is no quick solution to the problem.”