Isle of Wight social workers to get more pay

CHILD social workers on the Island could soon be earning as much as their mainland counterparts. In an effort to recruit more and combat the high vacancy rate on the Island, which is approaching 40 per cent, overall salary levels are set to rise by up to nearly £3,000, depending on the scale of the social worker.

Under the proposals, senior practitioners, team managers and deputy team managers will also see their overall salaries rise to bring them in line with workers in the south. A team manager, for example, would see their salary rise from £40,161 to £47,848, a deputy team manager from £34,861 to £43,459 and a senior practitioner from £32,051 to £38,459.

Attracting and retaining social workers, particularly those who are experienced, has long been a problem on the Island, leading to a weakened service, low morale and a reliance on expensive agency staff — which costs around £2,000 per week for a senior practitioner — to plug the gaps.

Cllr Dawn Cousins, the Isle of Wight Council cabinet member for children’s services, has made a delegated decision, where senior councillors make a decision without it going to committee, to adopt the new pay scales. As such, it can still be called in and cannot be implemented until Wednesday.

The council’s director of children and young people, Colin Peak, said the proposed move would make child social work a more appealing career choice.

“It is no secret the Isle of Wight Council, in common with other areas, has a shortage of children’s social workers, which impacts on the teams we do employ. Because our wages are lower compared to the mainland, people will simply go across The Solent to do the same job but earn more.

“By bringing our salary levels in line with the southern region, we hope to offer competitive positions to potential new social workers and boost our teams up to the levels they should be.

“It will also save the council money in the long run because we won’t need to employ agency staff, which can be very expensive.”

Implementing the new pay scales will cost the council an additional £370,858 for 2010/11.