Liverpool City Council recruits 31 more child social workers

Liverpool is recruiting dozens more child social workers to support the city’s most vulnerable families. The city council is spending an extra £1.7 million a year creating 31 new posts to protect the city’s most at-risk youngsters.

The jobs are for 24 social workers and deputy team leaders who will work with families and children, along with seven team leaders and managers to supervise cases.

It will mean an increase of 20 per cent in the number of social workers looking after the most vulnerable children.

The aim is to reduce the caseloads of staff, giving front line workers more time to provide support and assistance with the most challenging families.

Councillor Ron Gould, executive member for health, care and safeguarding, said: “Social workers are special people who perform a very difficult job protecting the most vulnerable, and we recognise we need more of them.

“This additional investment reflects the priority we are giving to keeping our young people safe, and helping struggling families.

“We are determined to provide the best possible care for children, and these changes are only part of our plans. In the last 18 months we have opened a new children’s home and a short-break residential home for disabled children.”

In order to recruit and retain the very best people, an additional allowance of £1,700 per year will be paid to all new and existing staff in Safeguarding Support. This is the most challenging type of social work and includes youngsters on the child protection register, looked-after children and other families.

The city is also encouraging more people to consider social work as a career, and is taking part in two pilot schemes. They are the Newly Qualified Social Worker (NQSW) programme, and the Social Worker Development Partnership to support employers in providing high quality placements for trainee social workers.

The council is also working in partnership with the Children’s Workforce Development Council on its current “Be the Difference” recruitment campaign.

Sandra Campbell, Assistant Executive Director for Children, said: “Social work can be a job full of challenges and difficult decisions, but it is also very rewarding and we want to give our staff the very best support.

“We are creating new smaller teams and providing additional managerial support for front line social workers to give them extra assistance when faced with vulnerable children and families.

“We are committed to recruiting and retaining the very best staff, and that is why the salaries we are offering are extremely competitive.”

Under the new pay scales, front line staff will earn up to £38,538; team leaders up to £42,904 and managers up to £51,478.

There has already been a great response to the advertisements for the new posts in Liverpool, with more than 120 high-quality applications received.

Around 870 young people in Liverpool currently receive care from the city council.