Social worker turnover lower than average at council

Workloads were more manageable, the council report said

The turnover rate of social workers in Wolverhampton has been lower than the national average, the council has said.

In adult social care, the rate was 10.6% in April, compared to 16.1% nationally, City of Wolverhampton Council stated.

The council stated there had been significant activity this year to counter challenges faced in recruiting and keeping social workers.

Nationally, social work was challenged by "high turnover and vacancy rates, which can leave social workers trying to work with too many individuals", a report said.

The comments were in a report for the council to approve main priorities for the principal social worker (PSW) for 2024-2025.

The PSW, Jennifer Rogers, leads on developing and delivering a recruitment and retention plan.

Activities had included going to recruitment fairs and piloting sponsoring international students as newly-qualified social workers, the document said.

In April, "the local social work turnover rate in Children’s Services" was also lower than the national average - 9.4% compared to 15.9%.

A "local social work health check" at the council between September and November last year identified a number of themes, including that stress levels had gone down.

Workloads were more manageable and the quality of supervision was high, the report said.

The document stated areas of strength include development of meaningful relationships with families and good quality assessments.