The Birmingham Mail reports that Birmingham Children’s
Services has more than 150 vacancies and now has to pay premium rates to
attract agency social workers.
It’s not surprising the Birmingham is having trouble. Not
only is there a national shortage of suitably qualified and experienced people,
but the very public bashing that the authority has taken from Ofsted and the
Government is hardly the kind of advertising campaign that will result in
skilled people hammering on the door.
The general approach to children’s services departments that
are in difficulties is one of blame and shame. Inspectors, civil servants,
politicians and the media wag their fingers and waive their big sticks. The unrealistic
expectation is that the local people who are trying to run the service will be
suitably chastened and will pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.
The reality is, of course, very different. Few people are
motivated by a damning Ofsted report. Few people are encouraged by being told
that they work for a failing authority. Few people want to shoulder
unmanageable burdens or put themselves at risk of being blamed further.
Inevitably some will want to move on.
And so a downward spiral begins as vacancies and workloads
shoot up, and morale plummets.
I think that we should treat children’s services departments
that get into trouble more like sick patients and less like wrongdoers. At the
first sign of trouble someone should be getting drips into veins, making sure
that there is a good flow of oxygen and standing by with life saving drugs. Fulminating
and jumping up and down with indignation might make some people feel good, but
it does nothing to improve services or to ensure that children are safe.
