At least £2.1bn was spent on agency staff by councils across the UK in 2023. For many local authorities that amounts to nearly 6% of their total spend on staffing. Social care and social work departments in particular are relying heavily on locum staffing, with the number of locum adult social workers rising by nearly a quarter between September 2022 and September 2023 and one in five children’s social work posts vacant across England. This spending is increasingly hard for councils to maintain; however, many are struggling to fill their permanent vacancies. A situation that threatens to turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy: the more permanent social work vacancies there are, the more councils need to rely on locum staffing, unless local authorities can find solutions to the problem of how to improve recruitment and retention for their permanent social work roles.
What Strategies are Local Authorities Exploring to Improve Perm Recruitment?
Fixing this issue and finding ways to improve recruitment and retention for permanent roles is proving challenging for many local authorities. Here are some very different approaches to solving the problem:
In the West Midlands several local authorities have signed agreements restricting where former staff can work as locums. In these areas once social workers leave a post, they are unable to take a locum position in a neighbouring authority for the next 12 months.
In South Cambridgeshire, the local authority has extended its trial of a 4-day working week in a bid to improve headcount and reduce spending on locum staff. The original trial in 2023 saw £434,000 less spent on agency staff covering hard to fill roles.
South Gloucestershire council has focused on making its perm roles more attractive by investing in staff and offering clear career progression opportunities. By doing so it has reduced its social work vacancies and increased its permanent workforce by over 40%, many of whom were former locums.
4 Ways to Improve Your Permanent Social Care Recruitment
Whatever approach you choose when you look at how to improve recruitment and retention for permanent social work vacancies, it’s important to think creatively. Matching locum salaries is simply not an option for councils but there are other avenues to explore.
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Emphasise Those Permanency Benefits
One of the biggest challenges of attracting people to permanent social work is the fact that locum pay is much higher per hour. In a cost-of-living crisis this can be very attractive! However, being a permanent employee has extra benefits for candidates that they may not be aware of, such as holiday allowances, pension contributions and job stability.
By emphasising these benefits in your job descriptions, throughout the interview process and onboarding you can underline for candidates the advantages of choosing a permanent role. Make clear for example what your employer pension contribution will be and show how that adds up over the course of a career, ensure employees can access extra benefits easily and periodically remind all staff about the extras they are entitled to.
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Offer Increased Training & Career Development
Another excellent benefit that locum staff often miss out on is career development and progression. If you are exploring how to improve recruitment and retention, having a clear progression structure, and offering ways for permanent staff to grow their skills and competencies can be extremely attractive. Once again however, it’s important that you make clear to both new and current employees what is available to them and encourage them to access it.
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Think About Your Brand as an Employer
Employer branding as a local authority might seem unproductive. After all, most social work candidates are going to be aware of you, right? However, how candidates perceive you as an employer can be a real barrier to attracting and recruiting top quality professionals.
Luckily you have plenty of resources to build up your brand already at your fingertips. Create an Employee Value Proposition (EVP) based around why social workers should come to you, emphasise the impact your staff have on the lives of vulnerable adults and children, and use success stories from your existing staff to showcase the opportunities of a career in social work.
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Create an Attractive Workplace Culture
Social work is known for having high workloads and being a stressful working environment. While you can’t eliminate the difficult nature of social work, you can strive to create a supportive, flexible workplace culture that values the wellbeing of both locum and permanent staff.
Develop mentorship schemes where more experienced staff are paired with new starters to give support. Provide access to counselling and other support services. Offering a good work-life balance through flexible hours, job shares and four-day working weeks can also help to encourage social workers with caring responsibilities or those nearing retirement to stay in the profession.
Need guidance on how to improve recruitment and retention for permanent social work roles? At Vetro our dedicated consultants have years of experience working in the social work sector to draw on. Which means they are well placed to give you guidance and support when it comes to attracting and retaining talented professionals.
Learn more about Vetro’s social work recruitment services, or contact a consultant to discuss your hiring needs.
