Social workers wanted to boost children's care

The county council wants to boost frontline staff across its social care, safeguarding, inspection, audit and adoption services in response to criticism from the standards watchdog.

The county’s children’s services were inspected last September and found to be inadequate in some areas and in need of improvement in others. Amongst the findings were 50 per cent of frontline social workers had less than two years experience – and half of those had been in the job less than 12 months.

The department’s rating had dropped from “good” to “inadequate” in three years.

Coun Matthew Tomlinson, cabinet member for children and young people, said: “We believe that putting more staff in place will ultimately help us to improve these vital services for children and their families.

“We have already filled all of the vacant posts we had prior to the Ofsted inspection and this recruitment drive will expand our team further.

“The difficulty of recruiting experienced front-line staff is recognised across the country which is why we are looking at new ways of recruiting.

“We’ve created a dedicated area on the county council’s website to explain the opportunities and benefits on offer, and we’re also running a recruitment evening for potential applicants to come along and find out more. We passionately believe this is a great place to live and work and we are keen to talk to people who want to commit to providing high quality services for children and their families.”