The decision by Cardiff Council to end a ‘market supplement’
paid to some of its child protection social workers is likely to result in some
people moving on and others not joining the council.
The reason is simple enough – supply of qualified social
workers (not enough), demand for qualified social workers (too much).
On the other hand it is hard not to have some sympathy with
councillors who are arguing that they cannot find cuts to meet their austerity
budget in any other way.
They do, however, need to be careful to avoid the trap of
creating vacancies, which they cannot fill, and then having to rely on
expensive agency staff to cover the service. The consequence could easily be
the worst of all worlds – losing valued permanent members of staff and having higher costs!
The truth of the matter is that real world economics matters
for public services just as much as it does for private businesses. If you
cannot recruit people to do a job, you need to think of some incentive to
redress the balance, whether that is a market supplement or other enhanced
terms and conditions. And you cannot cut people’s wages, when they can get
better paid jobs elsewhere, and expect to retain them. You cannot square circles.
Inevitably making cuts in public spending eventually has a
negative impact on the extent and quality of services. It’s as simple as that.
