Highland Council warns of 'critical to catastrophic' risk it is unable to protect children due to a 41 per cent vacancy rate among social workers
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Highland Council fears a 41 per cent vacancy rate among social workers across the north presents a “critical to catastrophic” risk that it may be unable to properly protect children.
The alarm was sounded in a dire report by the head of integration adult social care Fiona Malcolm who says that most of the empty positions are within the families team responsible “for care and protection concerns in relation to children”.
So bad is the situation, that Ms Malcolm believes the council may be unable to attain those levels of protection that is required by law: “Vacancy levels are such that there is a risk to the council being able to fulfil statutory duties.
“Those statutory duties include corporate parenting responsibilities and the care and protection of children who are at risk of significant harm.”
She added: “The risk in terms of the council failing in those duties is considered to be high to very high in terms of the council’s risk matrix and the impact could be described as critical to catastrophic in terms of risk to people and the associated risk to the council’s reputation.”
Outlining the issues, she said: “There are 78 (full-time equivalent) children’s services social worker posts in the establishment. As of March 24, 2023, there are 32 vacancies across Highland, which equates to a 41 per cent vacancy rate.
“Those vacancies are principally within the families teams who have lead responsibility for care and protection concerns in relation to children. When teams are understaffed, retention of existing staff also becomes more challenging.”
While in the mental health officer service, the current vacancy rate is “in the region of 35 per cent” and “that too is significant and notwithstanding the fact that the service has taken steps to introduce a trainee programme”.
A recruitment drive that “received national recognition” appears not to have reached its goals and “recent job advertisements for qualified staff did not receive any applications”.
To tackle the issue so far the local authority has brought in locums at a cost of over £1 million for 2022 to 2023 as well as several other measures including an improved recruitment strategy and recruiting from within the council.
Officers have also tried to refresh job descriptions, the development of career paths, reviewing long-standing vacancies to determine if work can be divided differently, and accessing the Scottish Social Services Council website for the return to work Social Work Scheme.
