HR Projects Officer Recruitment

HR Projects Officer Recruitment

Further Information

Contents

Introduction3

Organisational Development Service4

Workforce Modernisation Team5-6

Workforce Modernisation Team Structure7

Social Worker Recruitment and Retention Project8-9

Social Worker Recruitment and Retention – Aims and Objectives10-11

Introduction

The information provided in this pack is designed give you an idea of the role you are considering applying for. If you would like an informal discussion about this opportunity, please contact Robert Gower on 0114 2930923 or by e-mail at .

This role provides an exciting opportunity to work on a key initiative within the Children and Young People’s Directorate of Sheffield City Council. The recruitment and retention of social workers in field social work has long been recognised as a pressing issue for Local Authorities across the country and there is now a concerted effort from Government, with cross party political support, to modernise the social care workforce, improve practice standards and enable the profession to attract the brightest and the best into social work.

In Sheffield, we have been working on this agenda since August 2007 and have developed a project to deal with issues of social worker recruitment and retention. Our strategy and thinking is well established and this has enabled us to take a leading role in the national development of new innovations designed to modernise the children’s social care workforce.

All of our work on both local and national projects is underpinned by a rigorous Project Management approach, and there is a clear need to ensure compliance with the funding regimes prescribed to us by our funding providers, the Children’s Workforce Development Council therefore the successful candidate will need to be rigorous, methodical and highly organised. However, involvement in the project also provides an opportunity to be involved in recruitment strategy, workforce development, marketing of the service and other developments which will enable the successful candidate to develop a wide range of knowledge and skills.

The post is based within the Organisational Development Service but the work of the project will require close working with Children’s Specialist Services and the Social Care profession. An explanation of the organisational development service is provided on page 4. The Social Worker Recruitment and Retention Project falls under the remit of the Workforce Modernisation Team and a description of the teams priorities, ways of working and structure is detailed on pages 5-7.

Finally there is more detail about the Social Worker R&R project and the role you will play in the project as an HR Projects Officer on pages 9 -11.

Organisational Development Service

The Organisational Development Service forms part of the Children and Young People’s Directorate and provides advice and support to the Directorate and Sheffield’s schools on Human Resources, Organisational Development, Recruitment, Learning and Development, Occupational Health and Health and Safety Issues.

The Service is divided into 3 areas:

Traded Services
Schools Human Resources Consultancy – provide support and advice to schools on Human Resource issues
SESSA Supply Agency – Act as a supply agency to Sheffield schools providing supply teachers to schools as required.
Business Administration Team – Provide comprehensive business administration service processing contracts for schools and linking to payroll.

School Improvement and Projects
Projects Team – lead on large scale projects that impact across schools and the directorate such as pay and grading
Recruitment Team – support high level recruitment processes to Headteacher, Deputy Headteacher and Senior Manager posts in schools and the directorate.

Workforce Modernisation
Change Team – lead on change management and cultural change across the directorate
Learning and Development – lead on learning and development for support staff in schools and directorate staff.
Workforce modernisation in schools.
Social Worker recruitment and retention.

Workforce Modernisation Team

Our Vision

The 2020 Children and Young People’s Workforce Strategy sets out the vision that everyone who works with children and young people should be:

Ambitious for every child and young person;

Excellent in their practice;

Committed to partnership and integrated working;

Respected and valued as professionals.

It is the role of the Workforce Modernisation team to support the delivery of this vision across Sheffield’s schools and the wider children’s workforce. To achieve this vision we will set out a comprehensive strategy for the next two years to begin the journey towards delivering the 2020 agenda.

Workforce Modernisation Priorities

There are six key areas of work within the Workforce Modernisation team:

Supporting early intervention and prevention;

Facilitating culture change within children’s services;

Improving social worker recruitment and retention;

Delivery of the wider children’s workforce strategy across children’s services and partners;

Leading on school workforce modernisation;

Leading on school support staff learning and development.

Our Partners

Our work around these areas will sit alongside and compliment the work undertaken by our partners and colleagues, namely; Sheffield’s schools, social work leads in Children’s Specialist Services, Multi Agency Support Team leads in Local Delivery, education leads on Learning and Achievement and leaders and managers of other children’s services working for our partners in Early Years and Childcare, Health, Youth Services, Justice and Crime Prevention and the Voluntary and Community Sector.

How we work

The Workforce Modernisation team operate a portfolio management approach. Each of the six workforce modernisation priorities will have a nominated lead at either Human Resource Manager or OD Business Consultant level, responsible for the delivery of the targets and objectives associated with the priority. As there are many linkages and interdependencies between the six priorities it may be that a number of officers take on additional projects beyond the remit of their own priority area.

Support will be provided to the nominated leads by officers at project officer level who will work across the following areas of work subject to demand and priorities; supporting early intervention and prevention; facilitating culture change within children’s services; improving social worker recruitment and retention; delivery of the wider children’s workforce strategy across children’s services and partners and leading on school workforce modernisation.

The learning and development team will support the delivery of school support staff learning and development priority and will also support work on the school workforce modernisation priority.

The structure chart below shows the current make up of the workforce modernisation team.

Social Worker Recruitment and Retention Project

What is the project?

The purpose of the project is to address Social Worker shortages in Children’s Specialist Services with particular focus on Fieldwork Services in which shortages are particularly pronounced. The strategy will attempt to address Social Worker shortages by focusing on specific recruitment initiatives designed to reduce the Social Worker vacancy rate, specific retention initiatives designed to reduce turnover and a series of workforce development initiatives which will enable the service to “grow its own” social workers and develop the social care workforce to improve the practice standards and confidence of practitioners.

On completion of the project it is envisaged that Children’s Specialist Services will have a sufficient supply of Social Workers from both external and internal sources. The reduced vacancy rate will serve to reduce pressure on the remaining social workers which, along with other specific initiatives, will serve to reduce turnover rates.

Background information

Recruitment and Retention of Social Workers across Children’s Specialist Services presents a pressing challenge at both a local and national level. In Sheffield, the issues was highlighted in the Joint Area Review (2006) which noted the difficulties in recruitment and retention that Sheffield faced and the impact this had on service delivery to children, young people and their families.

At the commencement of the project in August 2007 the vacancy rate stood at 19% with a turnover rate of 16%. At a national level 66% of Local Authorities reported recruitment and retention difficulties in relation to Fieldwork Social Workers. Nationally the average Social Worker vacancy rate was 9.5% (10.4% for Yorkshire and Humberside) and the turnover rate was 9.6% (9.0% for Yorkshire and Humberside).

Project objectives

The overall project objectives are as follows:

Reduce the Social Worker vacancy rate from 19% in August 2007 to 7% by completion of the project in March 2011.
Reduce the Social Worker turnover rate from 16 % in August 2007 to 7% by completion of the project in March 2011
Reduce sickness absence rates in fieldwork social care from 4.32% of working days lost in August 2007 to 2.5% in March 2011.
Develop a comprehensive development programme for social workers including the “grow your own” strategy to ensure that both vacancy and turnover rates reduce.

Benefits

Benefits to Service Users are:

A reduced vacancy rate will ensure that all service users have increased access to a named Social Worker.
Reduced turnover will reduce the number of times a child, young person or families Social Worker changes.
Improved service provision will increase preventative work with children, young people and families and reduce the numbers of service users going through care proceedings and moving into care.

Benefits to Social Workers are:

Reduced vacancy rate reduces the burden on existing Social Workers who have to carry a higher caseload as a result of high vacancy rates. This in turn will lead to better work-life balance and act as an incentive to remain in the employment of Sheffield City Council, subsequently reducing turnover.
Development of the grow your own strategy creates a clear career pathway for all employees in Children’s Specialist Services and encourages the collection and collation of Continuous Professional Development evidence to facilitate GSCC re-registration and progression.
Improved induction processes and a specific programme of support to newly qualified social workers in the first year of practice.
Recognition of the valued work undertaken by Social Workers

Benefits to Service Management are:

Reduced vacancy rate subsequently reduces the requirement for agency Social Workers to cover vacancies reducing the expenditure on essential staffing.
Improve inspection outcomes (previous JAR inspection highlighted the problems of Social Worker recruitment and retention and the detrimental effect this has upon service delivery).
Improve the reputation of Sheffield as an employer of choice.
A talented and motivated workforce, in sufficient supply, to enable the service to meet the needs of service users and continuously improve processes and practice.
A reduction in the numbers of children and young people being taken into care will yield significant monetary savings for the service budget.

Aims and Objectives

In managing the Recruitment and Retention Strategy our aim is to:

Ensure that the service attracts and retains high calibre social workers.