New Video Aims To Attract And Retain Social Workers In Highland
16th November 2023
Highland Councillors have welcomed a positive shift in the recruitment and reduction of Children's Services vacancies by 7% while noting an on-going recruitment and retention challenge across all social work services in the region.
To help address this challenge a recruitment video was launched today by Highland Council aimed at encouraging potential applicants to think about ‘Being a Social Worker in Highland’ and promoting it as a rewarding and exciting career opportunity.
Members of the Council’s Health Social Care and Wellbeing Committee were updated on a Workforce Strategy that seeks to improve the Council’s Social Work staffing situation.
The strategy aims to fill social work frontline and managers’ staffing vacancies in a profession that has been acknowledged by Social Work Scotland to have ‘significant recruitment and retention challenges across the country’.
Chair of the Health Social Care and Wellbeing Committee, Cllr David Fraser said: "I am pleased to see in this report that there has been a slight increase in the recruitment of children’s social workers and that vacancy rates have fallen. I am also delighted to welcome the 14 new Social Workers and 4 Team Managers to Highland and long may they remain with us.
“We all know the joy of living and working Highland and I am very hopeful that the new recruitment video featuring our own staff will support the Service in attracting qualified professionals to this beautiful and special region.
“The Council’s Programme ‘Our Future Highland’ is committed to ‘A Fair and Caring Highland’ and this is reflected in this workforce update as we acknowledge that it is especially important that the recruitment vacancy rate of social workers to our rural areas improves as well as in urban areas."
Improvements made to date in attracting new Social Workers in Highland have been delivered through Workforce Strategy approaches that included: a focus on staff welfare; a marketing approach to recruitment; expansion of the Council’s “Grow Your Own” trainee scheme; and support for student placements. Other professional improvement approaches for staff are also being implemented by the Service.
Margaret McIntyre Head of Children and Justice Services added: “We are committed to doing everything we can to ensure the welfare of our workforce, that we retain our frontline social workers and managers, and in doing so, this stability will strengthen and improve the delivery of services for children, adults, families and communities across the Highland.”
Anyone interested in becoming a Social Worker in Highland can view the recruitment video.
Related Businesses
Related Articles
Todays Audit Scotland report Local government budgets 2024/25 reveals how dire council budgets are. This makes many more cuts in services likely in coming years.
At the Highland Council Economy and Infrastructure Committee. (Thursday 2 May 2024) Members had the opportunity to review the work the Council is doing to progress active travel and improve road safety before approving the next steps.
At the meeting of the Economy and Infrastructure Committee members had the opportunity to review the last two years of the Community Regeneration Funding Programme before agreeing changes to how the 2024/25 programme will be delivered. Committee Chair, Cllr Ken Gowans said: "Following a successful two years, it is a good time to review what has gone well and what can be done better so we can continue to build on success, and seamlessly move the focus onto how best to support the delivery of projects." "With 279 live projects and over £6million of committed funds still to be claimed, there is no doubt as to the value and impact of the programme's potential.
The Highland Council's In-House bus service pilot project was launched in January 2023. The success of its first year of operation in delivering savings and creating a valued and reliable service was highlighted at today’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee.
Members of Highland Council's Economy and Infrastructure Committee today (2 May 2024) approved the local authority's draft Ecology Strategy and Action Plan which will now move forward to an 12-week public consultation. The Ecology Strategy sets out an ambitious set of actions to tackle biodiversity loss and address the ecological emergency.
Economy and Infrastructure Committee members today (2 May 2024) agreed to direct £100K from the Council's share of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) to fund a new staff training programme at the Inverness Castle Experience. The funding will enable the project team to provide specialist visitor attraction training to young people identified through partners at Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) and the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI).
The Housing and Property Committee met on Wednesday 1 May 2024 and noted the Housing Service performance report 2023/24 that met the agreed priorities and associated initiatives in the Local Housing Strategy 2023-2028. The report highlighted a number of achievements in 2023/24 in increasing housing supply.
Kate Lackie, Malcolm MacLeod and Allan Gunn have been appointed as Assistant Chief Executives with The Highland Council. Convener of the Council, Cllr Bill Lobban said: "I am delighted to say that Kate Lackie, Malcolm MacLeod and Allan Gunn have been appointed as Assistant Chief Executives with The Highland Council.
As intimated in Highland Council's budget plan, a new senior management structure is to be implemented following approval by Council 14th March. It reconfigures the senior management team into two layers, rather than three and brings Highland Council into line with other benchmarked authorities.
Today, Morrison Construction introduced some of their local apprentices who are working on the UK Governments' Levelling Up Funded refurbishment project at the Northern Meeting Park in Inverness. All these apprentices have been recruited from the Highland area.
