Members of Cabinet (Resources) Panel have approved the recruitment of a peripatetic team of 9 social workers who will cover temporary vacancies across the council’s statutory social work teams.
This will reduce the council's reliance on agency workers and enable temporary posts to be filled in a timely manner.
Nationally, children’s social work is facing staffing challenges due to a range of pressures, with councils around the country facing high turnover, vacancies and a heavy reliance on agency staff.
Councillor Beverley Momenabadi, the City of Wolverhampton Council's Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, said: "Children’s social work is now on a national occupational shortage list, with demand for permanent, experienced workers significantly outstripping supply.
"The recruitment and retention of high quality social workers is key to delivering good and safe social work practice. It gives us a stable workforce which, in turn, will help further improve support for children, young people and families.
"In Wolverhampton the vacancy rate, and use of agency workers, is considerably below the national average, thanks to a sustained recruitment and retention campaign over the last few years.
"Even so, we want to do more to support our social workers to continue their incredible work.
"The recruitment of a peripatetic team of social workers will bring greater stability to our workforce, ensure the workloads of our social workers remain manageable and give them the capacity they need to continue delivering high quality services to vulnerable children and families."
For further information about social care jobs available with the City of Wolverhampton Council, please visit A Career in Social Work.
