Is there a crisis in Fife’s social work?

FIFE Council has come under fire over allegations of low staff morale, intimidation and a blame culture across its social work service.

The spotlight was thrown on to the department by Labour Councillor Mark Hood who claimed it had a ”very real problem” – and demanded a full investigation.

His comments come on the back of a union report which highlighted a feeling of intimidation among social work staff who had to operate in a blame culture.

The matter was set to be raised at the full Council meeting on Thursday and may spark a political row.

The claims have already been dismissed by the ruling SNP/Lib Dem coalition who said there were no staff morale problems.

Councillor Hood’s latest concerns come some months after he first spoke out about the department.

He has already met with Stephen Moore, executive director for social work, but now wants a full report carried out.

He hit out: “I have never been wholly satisfied with the approach taken.

”I don’t feel officers have given the issue the attention it deserves.

”This is one in a long line of reports relating to morale and the culture in social work and the impact it is having on the day to day running of the service.

“There is very clearly a problem and there has been for a long time. It has partly been down to the restructuring of the service, but also how it has been run by senior managers.

”I would like to see a formal report produced, which sets out how the officers will address the issues. This is something that should be done openly to allow public scrutiny.”

The staff concerns were highlighted in a report by Unison which revealed members’ worries that the social work restructuring was only based on budget constraints and would not improve services provided.

The paper also revealed fears for staff spirits: “Low morale and staff criticism is never seen as common sense or constructive. There are feelings of intimidation and a blame culture, which members believe exists across the service.”

Steven Murray, Unison Fife chairman said: “There are budget constraints across the public sector so cuts are inevitable, although members do not accept that services to the most vulnerable should be affected.

”Reports about staff morale are very concerning and it is a big issue to make sure it is sustained.”

He said talks with senior managers were continuing to resolve any matters.

Councillor Brett said meetings were held with the union as as soon as they were aware of the report. He said none of the issues had been previously highlighted at trade union meetings.

He said: “There is no evidence that we have a morale problem.

”We don’t have high sickness levels and we don’t have a high staff turnover which we would expect to see if there were serious problems at work.

”If there are any issues we take them seriously.”