Adult social worker vacancies are on the rise, with councils being concerned by a shortage of best interest assessors and approved mental health professionals. In the month of October 2015, 10.5% of social worker posts were unfilled, which was a significant rise from the 7.4% seen last year. November and December also saw a similar rise.
The rise in vacancies appears to be resultant of councils need to recruit more social workers in order to implement the Care Act. The Care Act duties, which were introduced in April of last year will see local authorities required to conduct an average of 2,195 additional assessments and reviews of carers through the year. In total, each council is expected to carry out an average of 1,856 early assessments of self-funders ahead, prior to a cap on care costs set to be introduced in April of this year.
How are Councils Approaching the Changes?
Whilst Newcastle City Council anticipated that its current staff could deliver its Care Act duties without additional recruitment. Essex County Council moved quickly to employ 100 extra social workers, increasing the local authorities social work numbers by 22%. James Bullion, Essex’s Director of Adult Operations said, “We’re expanding the number of team managers and senior social workers and we’re reducing the size of our social work teams by half. We want to give social workers lower levels of casework to deal with as we see that as integral to them having time to do preventive work”
By investing in intensive early support, the council believes that the long term benefits will be invaluable.
Visitors to the Seven Resourcing website, interested in Social Care roles can upload their CV here.
If you would like to discuss Social Worker roles, get in touch with the Seven Resourcing team today. We have an entire team dedicated to roles in Social Care, who you can contact via phone, on 0333 200 5424 or using our contact form.
