BOROUGH OF POOLE

REPORT TO THE COMMUNITY SUPPORT OVERVIEW GROUP

10 MAY 2005

REPORT ON RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION ISSUES ACROSS THE COMMUNITY SUPPORT THEME

  1. PURPOSE OF THE REPORT

1.1To provide information on recruitment and retention issues across the Community Support Theme and the impact of these on service delivery and performance. To set out the steps already taken to address recruitment and retention issues and the further actions planned in 2005/6.

2.RECOMMENDATIONS

2.1Members are asked to:

2.2Note the issues raised in the report.

2.3Provide any further recommendations for action.

2.4Request a further report on progress in implementing actions and on levels of vacancies in early 2006.

  1. BACKGROUND/INFORMATION
  2. At the meeting of the Community Support Overview Group on 11 January 2005, elected Members identified the examination of recruitment and retention issues as priority for the Group’s work programme.
  3. Appendix 1 sets out Turnover figures for the whole authority by Service Unit and Section 4 contains information by Service Unit on the level and impact of vacancies. These figures do not include moves within the Authority and when taken into account can have a significant impact (e.g. for Revenue and Benefits the number of “leavers” rises from 14 to 28).
  4. It is important to identify the underlying factors which are impacting on recruitment and retention. Broad issues include:
  • National shortages of qualified staff in particular occupational areas (e.g. social workers; occupational therapists; construction trades).
  • The high level of employment in Poole and the conurbation.
  • High cost of local housing and accommodation.
  • The high levels of training required where staff are recruited from outside the profession (e.g. Benefits Assessors).
  • A competitive recruitment market.
  • In addition, it is important to look at employees’ reasons for leaving the authority to see if there can be more action taken to improve retention rates. At present, employees leaving the authority are sent a questionnaire to complete on leaving which, if completed, provides information on reasons for leaving the authority and on the employees’ experience of working for the Borough. In many Service Units employees are also offered “Exit Interviews”. However there is no standard corporate system for collating information from Exit Interviews or the Leaver’s Form. This could be an area to strengthen to assist in developing a more pro-active approach in relation to retention.
  • Individual Service Units have been considering reasons for levels of turnover within the Community Support Theme and these include:
  • Changes in their partners’ employment circumstances.
  • Other opportunities within the Council.
  • Pay levels for some groups rising in other authorities and organisations.
  • Anti-social hours working being unattractive.
  • Personal reasons.
  • For the Borough as a whole, retention rates overall are reasonable. Average service length in the Council is 7.2 years with Social Services Units it is 6.7 years.
  • Sickness absence the Community Support Theme service areas are above the norm for the Council. Information is set out at Appendix 2. The absence levels are, however, not untypical compared with other Councils for the services involved. In other authorities, these services also experience absence levels above the norm.
  1. ISSUES ACROSS THE COMMUNITY SUPPORT SERVICES
  2. The following sets out the key issues in recruitment and retention in each Service Unit which have arisen in 2004/5 and their impact on service delivery and performance.
  3. Children and Families

During the financial year 2004/5, the total salaries budget of £3.9 million was underspent by £260,000 (6.6%). The underspend was split as follows:

£130,000 management posts

£120,000 practitioners (both qualified and unqualified)

£10,000 administrative and support staff

One issue has been difficulties in recruiting suitably qualified managerial staff to cover specific posts, particularly the Children’s Services Manager for Fostering and Adoption Services. While other managers have covered for parts of this role, the capacity for service and strategic development has been reduced and there has been a delay in revision of policy and procedure in this area.

The other major area has been the recruitment and retention of qualified social workers. The average level of vacancy of social workers was four full-time equivalents and in April 2005 was at 7.5 full-time equivalent posts which is 17% of all social work posts. While statutory work is being managed in an effective manner as evidenced by the recent CSCI Inspection Report, a high level of social work vacancies has had an impact on the ability to maintain and develop preventative and support services, and has delayed planned improvements in performance (e.g. completion of assessments within timescales).

The above vacancies need to be seen in the context of a national shortage of children’s social workers and managers and an increasingly competitive local market for such staff, with neighbouring authorities and other agencies beginning to offer more competitive packages of remuneration, particularly for more experienced practitioners.

4.1.2Adult Social Services

During the financial year 2004/05 the total salaries budget of £10,231,000 was underspent by £320,000 (3.1%). The underspend was split as follows:

  • Management Posts£100,000
  • Practitioners (both qualified and unqualified)£190,000
  • Administrative and Support Staff£20,000

In Adult Social Services it has been particularly difficult to recruit suitably qualified employees to middle management vacancies and there is much competition between Authorities to attract high calibre staff.

The impact of this high level of vacancy has been primarily on the ability of services to improve front line performance and to develop new policy initiatives (for example: around intermediate care services and integration with Health and mental health services).

In addition, the difficulties in recruiting to the in-house home care service and the comparable difficulties in recruitment in the independent and voluntary home care sector have led to some assessed packages of adult domiciliary care not being able to be delivered to residents.

Improvements in performance of some services have been slow or less than planned. This has included:

  • Reviews of services delivered to current service users is at 70% and not 80% as planned.
  • Level of carers’ assessments has not improved as planned.
  • Benefits Service

Despite a new training regime (see 6.1.4 below) the turnover of staff in this service remains high. In the main staff leave for promotion or personal reasons (e.g. leaving the area). Exit questionnaires from Personnel do not indicate any dissatisfaction with the service or staffing conditions. In the last twelve months 20 staff have been promoted or left the service. The Benefit Service has a number of Best Value performance indicators and forms part of the Corporate CPA. Maintaining performance is very important and it has been necessary to use agency staff to ensure continued performance while new staff are recruited and trained.

4.1.4Housing and Community Services

Housing and Community Services have no vacancies due to inability to recruit. However, that it not to say that recruitment has been trouble free. Particular problems are experienced in recruiting the lower graded administrative posts. The sort of person who is likely to be interested in such posts is also being offered extremely flexible working arrangements by Supermarkets in the area at better rates of hourly pay so we are often unable to compete. The other difficulty is at the other end of the structure in more senior management posts where we compete with private sector organisations such as Housing Associations who are able to offer more competitive salaries. Following from this, retention can be an issue due to the same reasons.

4.1.5Poole Housing Partnership

Poole Housing Partnership is having particular problems with key specialist skills such as surveying. It has failed to recruit on three occasions to high priority posts which will be responsible for managing the Decent Homes Investment. Failure to recruit to these posts will result in higher costs, as it could result in our having to develop a strategic partnership with a Surveying Company. These companies pay their surveyors more, and pass the costs, plus overheads, on to the Client organisations. There is a clear shortage of surveyors nationally, and competition from a relatively buoyant private sector. This is exacerbated by local issues such as high accommodation costs. Advertising costs have risen sharply as we have to focus on casting the recruitment net more widely.

In a wider sense, PHP continues to face competition for staff from RSLs who pay higher salaries and offer other incentives for staff. Most staff who have left for higher salaries have moved to local RSLs. Feedback from exit surveys, and former staff, suggests that they like working for the Borough of Poole/Poole Housing Partnership, but they need to maximise their earning potential.

  1. SUMMARY OF ACTIONS TAKEN TO ADDRESS ISSUES OF RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION
  2. To tackle the issues raised above, the following actions have been taken to date.
  3. Workforce Planning

In order to ensure that the Borough employs a workforce able to deliver the Council’s priorities and quality services, a full assessment is being undertaken of the skills and workforce required over the coming three years. This will include an analysis of the skill gaps and shortages and clear strategies and action plans put in place to address gaps identified.

A Workforce Plan for the whole “Social Care Sector” in Poole is being presented to the Community Support Overview Group at this meeting (See Item 5c) and a Corporate Workforce Plan will be produced for consultation by the end of May 2005.

Extension of the successful Civic Temporary Scheme to include carers is also proposed.

5.1.2Pay and Remuneration

While there are many factors beyond pay and remuneration which influence people’s decisions to work for and remain with an employer, there will be occasions when differentials in pay rates and remuneration packages offered between organisations significantly affect the ability to recruit and retain employees.

There is evidence that levels of pay are particularly affecting the following areas:

(i)Frontline care staff in the Adult Provider Unit where pay levels are actively being reviewed.

(ii)Qualified and particularly experienced social work practitioners in Children and Families Social Services.

(iii)Middle management in Social Services where competition for suitable staff and the introduction of Job Evaluation has led to a very competitive local market and action has been taken to address this issue on a short-term basis.

(iv)A recent survey of Benefit Services in Dorset indicates that starting salaries in Poole are below average.

5.1.3Growing our Own Practitioners and Managers

An area of success has been initiatives to both enable employees to gain professional qualifications (including social work and Occupational Therapy) and also the management development programme which is enabling Poole employees to develop management skills and gain promotion to posts within the Borough.

5.1.4Training Initiatives

(i)Revenue and Benefits

The Benefit Service was successful in obtaining funding from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to organise a new entrants’ training programme for benefit staff in the Dorset area. This has been based at Creekmoor and Capita provide an external trainer. This trains staff over a 13 week period. Funding was for two years and a new bid for continual funding has recently been made.

(ii)Adult Social Services

All front line care staff are encouraged to undertake NVQ in Social Care qualification training. When unqualified residential care staff have achieved NVQ Level 2 their salary grade is advanced by 2 SCP. All Domiciliary Care Managers have undertaken NVQ Assessor training to enable them to support their staff undertaking training.

All staff have been issued with a Personal Development Portfolio which contains information on any training or development identified or undertaken, as well as supervision and EDI notes.

(iii)A Corporate Borough of Poole Management Development and Leadership Programme has been introduced

5.1.5Work-Life Balance Initiatives/Flexible and Home Working

(i)The Council has looked for opportunities to improve worklife balance. This can be a significant retention factor. The People Matter survey suggested 83% of employees agree or strongly agree their manager has an understanding and supportive approach to personal/family needs. This compares with national NHS employee survey where 69% took this view. The flexitime scheme has been reviewed in some services to provide greater flexibility in the timing of flexi hours. For many care jobs the job requirements do place limits on the amount of flexibility that can apply.

(ii)Revenue and Benefits

Revenue and Benefits has introduced the revised flexible hours working scheme on a pilot basis. One local difference has been to have a 3.00 p.m. finish rather than 4.00 p.m. This is proving popular with staff particularly with those who have child care arrangements.

Flexible working patterns are agreed wherever possible and approximately 30% of staff work other than the standard 37 hour week.

“Workflow” systems are being extended into Benefits and a project is underway which will enable homeworking to be made available.

Consideration is being given to “one off” advertisements for vacancies to see if this results in a better response rate.

(iii)Adult Social Services

Across both Adults Units, some staff are able to work from home on occasion – some having been issued with laptops to make this easier. In addition, staff have been able to temporarily reduce their working hours to enable them to undertake training courses.

5.1.6Recruitment Initiatives Undertaken

(i)Care Ambassadors Project was launched just over a year ago. Individuals working within social care visit schools to promote social care as a career. This has been slow to take off in Poole (and Bournemouth) but the project is now recruiting approximately 3-4 Ambassadors for training with the aim of commencing visits to schools during the academic year 2005/6.

(ii)The Borough is taking a stand at the Social Care Open Evening at Bournemouth University Lansdowne site.

(iii)With increase in funding from Government sources, there is now the opportunity to expand the secondment programme to the Social Work Degree. Children and Families are to explore this option with Southampton University in addition to the Open University and Bournemouth University route.

5.1.7Age of Retirement and Recruitment of a Diverse Workforce in Relation to Age

(i)The average age of retirement has been increasing and is now 59 years including early retirements. The trend towards employees working longer is likely to continue. Average employee age is 44 years. The age profile varies in different services.

The Council has promoted age diversity. The Council has adopted an age diversity policy and legislation in this area as expected. The under representation of younger employees in some care services has been a national concern. There is merit in the Council recruiting older people into Social Care and taking positive action to target this group and achieve this.

Attention is being given to making clear the opportunities that exist for other workers who may not be actively looking for work but who may find the work we can offer reconciles with their circumstances.

The Council has relaxed provisions relating to retirement at age 65. Specialist publications will be used to target this group.

Using Poole News to advertise some opportunities is proposed. Older workers who have perhaps retired from other work may not look in the Echo and at the Job Centre for opportunities but may be attracted be a suitably targeted advert in the community newspaper.

Marketing of jobs with anti-social hours as a positive benefit is being considered as for those with particular domestic responsibilities, part-time employment outside the normal working day may suit their circumstances.

(ii)For example, the age profile of employees involved with the provision of care services in the Provider Unit is:

Age Group / Percentage
Under 25 / 7.7
25 – 29 / 6.8
30 – 34 / 8.3
35 – 39 / 8.0
40 – 44 / 13.0
45 – 49 / 11.7
50 – 54 / 17.3
55 – 59 / 18.2
Over 60 / 9.0
TOTAL / 100.0

5.1.8Affordable Housing

One issue which inhibits recruitment of potential employees, who would have to move into the area, is the price of housing.

The following have been put in place:

  • A relocation package of up to £6,250.
  • The Borough has also been working with Western Challenge Housing Association to provide assistance to a limited number of key workers through equity loan schemes. Funds for this scheme are allocated by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

In the 2004/5 financial year the scheme supported four key workers in the Borough of Poole including a Social Worker. In the 2005/6 financial year the Borough’s allocation of funding will support up to six key workers, including up to three workers in the Community Support Theme.

This remains an issue which deters a significant number of suitable candidates from taking up offered posts or pursuing applications.

  1. CONCLUSION
  2. The key areas of risk in relation to recruitment, retention and the actions planned to address these in 2005/6 are set out in the table below.
  3. These issues and actions are also identified in Service Unit Business Plans.

HIGH RISK AREA / KEY ACTIONS TO ADDRESS
  1. Recruitment and Retention of front-line care staff in in-house and independent sector home care services.
/
  1. Review pay rates of in-house staff.
  2. Introduction of more long-term block contracts with independent home care providers, e.g. intermediate care services, high dependency services.
  3. Review detailed recruitment arrangements.

  1. Recruitment and Retention of Children and Families qualified Social Workers.
2.Children and Families are unable to attract suitably experienced external candidates to manage- ment vacancies. / 1.Will be addressed through market forces analysis in conjunction with job evaluation.
2.Workforce Planning will be undertaken as part of the developing Children’s Trust.
3. Development of bursaries and traineeships in partnership with local universities. Secondment of existing unqualified staff to social work degree.
  1. The Children’s Trust organisation will offer new opportunities for interesting integrated manage-ment posts.

1.Recruitment and Retention of Benefit assessment staff. / 1.Consider a review of pay rates of in-house staff.
  1. The introduction of homeworking should assist some staff to continue to work for the service in the future.

JAN THURGOOD,