Recruitment and retention of social workers “a massive issue”

Thursday 29 April 2021

A high turnover of qualified social workers in local child services remains unsolved years after it was identified in a critical review, with HSC admitting it is having an impact on service delivery to children and their families.

“There’s a massive issue with staffing,” a former social worker told Express. “No-one who has left in the last few years has left under good circumstances.”

We spoke to several ex-social workers, on condition of anonymity, during an investigation into children’s services in the island.

“Some people have six social workers in a year, and we rely heavily on agency workers," said one. "This leaves us open to missing things – this leads to children suffering developmental delays due to neglect."

Some people's personal experiences have been highlighted recently by a Facebook group created by a service user. "I wanted to get more people to come forward to discuss their experiences," said James Le Flem, 31. 

"My experiences led me to meet other people who were coming forward with issues with the service."

His group has to date gathered more than 200 members, each sharing stories and experiences. "It seems to be a big issue, I'm aiming to write a letter to a Deputy.”

The issue with staffing is not a new problem; former interim director Ruby Parry raised it back in 2015 during her inspection of child services in the island.

“[Service excellence is undermined by] turnover of qualified front line staff, recruitment and retention difficulties for these and for lower paid unqualified residential staff,” she said in her diagnostic report.

“This is a multi-faceted issue, but can be linked to both the stressful nature of the work and the workloads, but also to the high cost of living on Guernsey.”

Health & Social Care admitted this is a continuing issue, despite efforts to find a solution. 

“Alternative recruitment strategies have been explored,” said a spokesperson, “including recruiting social workers from India, increasing the number of social workers trained on island, and recruitment drives in Scotland and London.”

“The success of these have been somewhat limited however, and recruitment and retention remains an issue that impacts upon service delivery to children and families,” they said.

The anonymous worker said the situation has led to some people “holding cases” outside of their capabilities and has led to a “freefall” in the service.

“What’s happening right now is a crisis,” they said.