A world-wide search is on in a bid to combat our
shortage of social workers.
The council, along with authorities across the country, is
struggling to recruit enough experienced social workers within
Britain while seeing an increase in work loads following the Baby P
case in November 2008.
In a bid to find at least 10 experienced childcare
professionals, officers from the council are travelling to
Australia on 4 February to conduct interviews over nine days.
The council is using recruitment company Reed Specialist
International Recruitment to co-ordinate the search.
Reed will source suitable applicants for the council to short
list from. Reed are being paid a fee for each successful candidate
recruited.
Over the nine day period, children's social care managers, Terry
Herbert and Richard Simpson, are expected to interview around 30
candidates selected by the council.
Mr Herbert said: "We considered carrying out the interviews via
video link from North Somerset but felt that it was really
important to meet our candidates face-to-face where you get a
better feel for their professional and personal qualities.
"We are really excited to be using such an innovative way to
recruit and while the trip will be demanding, we are confident we
will recruit some top quality social workers to compliment our
existing excellent staff."
Cllr Jeremy Blatchford, executive member with responsibility for
children and young people's services added: "We are currently
paying social work agencies 50% more than the cost of employing our
own staff. This isn't right and we need to find more of our own
experienced social workers. By recruiting our own staff it will
save the council money after just 12 weeks despite the upfront
fees.
"Because Australia has a small surplus of highly skilled social
workers we thought it would be a good place to recruit. We are very
excited about the trip and hope to see our new recruits in place by
June."
