Hull City Puts Up Extra 24  Social Work Posts To Improve Children’s Services

Hull City Puts Up Extra 24  Social Work Posts To Improve Children’s Services

By Charlotte Webster-

 Hull City Council has put up 24 new social worker posts expected in a bid to fill up vacancies and reduce the workload of social workers over the next few months.

Last year, the council initially had plans to reduce staff numbers in the authority’s children’s services department, but this was  replaced by a new drive to expand the workforce in social services

The u-turn followed a review led by newly-arrived director of children’s services, Alison Murphy.

Speaking at a council finance scrutiny meeting, she said the cuts would have created a “significant risk” for vulnerable children, their families and the service itself.national average.”At the time, our average caseload for a social worker was 28 when the national average was between 16 and 18.”

Instead, the service has undergone a re-structure with the addition of 24 new social worker posts.

Mrs Murphy said in a statement: “We are making good progress filling the posts.

“There is a national shortage of qualified social workers so we are very pleased to be attracting social workers to the city as well as newly-qualified social workers who already live here.”

There is a £4.2m overspend in the council’s children’s service budget for 2017/18, expected to aid the boost in  extra social workers

Latest figures show a record-breaking 738 children in Hull’s care system. The service is looking to close a number of child protection cases and open residential accommodation in the city to avoid the expensive process of sending children out of Hull.

IMPORTANT

Children’s care has always been a very important consideration factor in social services, with social workers increasingly struggling to manage the growing challenge posed by problem families and the caseload that often accompanies handling various cases.
Court preparation in many cases has been a time consuming and absorbing process for many social workers, causing many to fall behind in their preparation or simply present a shoddy job.
An increase in staff will distribute the tasks more evenly among social workers, enabling each to focus better on their respective tasks. Socials services in many UK boroughs have been suffering from a lack of adequate resources and manpower, leading to several blunders and associated disciplinary actions.
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