Witnesses:
Sonya Sellar, Area Director,
Adult Social Care;
Penny Mackinnon, Area Head of Children’s
Services
Clare Curran, Cabinet Member for Children and
Families Wellbeing
Mel Few,
Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, Wellbeing and
Independence
Declarations of interests:
Helena Windsor declared a non-pecuniary interest as a
member of the Improvement Board
Key
points of discussion:
-
Officers outlined the current position of the adults
and children’s workforce. It was highlighted that the updated
vacancy rate for the Adults Services as of November 2016 was 11%.
It was also noted that the Children’s workforce had an
improved vacancy rate of 21% and an improved turnover rate of
14.04% as of December 2016.
-
The Board questioned why the directorates
experienced relatively high levels of staff vacancy rates and what
was being done to attempt to alleviate this issue. It was
highlighted that the services experienced high turnover rates at
experienced qualified staff levels, rather than those at a newly
qualified level. The Cabinet Member for Children and Families Wellbeing
highlighted that this type of staff turnover would not be
alleviated by the provision of key worker housing, but it was
stressed that the service was looking into options for delivering
this in future to maintain an attractive employment offer. Officers
also noted that the service was providing re-location expenses for
new employees, as part of the improved Surrey offer.
-
Members questioned the Adult Social Care
directorate’s three year recruitment and retention strategy
and whether it was the most effective method available, or whether
a more flexible approach would have been more suitable. Officers
noted that the three year strategy had been constantly under review
to ensure that it maintained flexibility to deal with unexpected
issues and new opportunities.
-
It was highlighted by officers that an issue
limiting effective recruitment into vacant positions was pay,
highlighting that Surrey’s proximity to London and the high
cost of living in Surrey could be barriers to recruitment. Officers
noted that these issues were being resolved as part of the Pay and
Reward review 2016.
-
Officers noted that the services had used exit
interviews with departing staff as a means of assessing issues and
identifying how we can learn from and improve recruitment and
retention. It was also noted that the service was using data
collected in the staff survey in order to improve the wellbeing of
workers. It was suggested that feedback from surveys had been
implemented and incorporated into recruitment and retention
strategies.
-
The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, Wellbeing
and Independence stressed that the three Sustainability and
Transformation Plans (STPs) consider workforce as key to their
plans. It was noted that the future plans may include the idea of
integrating social work into an NHS care worker model, creating a
defined career path and resolving some issues regarding
recruitment. Members questioned whether this idea could be
scrutinised by the Wellbeing and Health Scrutiny Board in
future.
Recommendations:
The Board notes the report and
commends the officers for the work around addressing the challenges
around workforce. The Board recommends:
-
That proposals to align and join up initiatives
across the services are progressed, and a further report is brought
to the Board in 9 months;
-
That a short briefing on the key themes from the
staff survey for both directorates is circulated to the Board;
and
-
That the Chairman ask the Wellbeing and Health
Scrutiny Board to raise a question regarding workforce when it
receives its update on the Surrey Heartlands STP on 17
February.