Children and Families service ‘remains unfit for purpose’ says OIC

A “national staffing crisis” has resulted in the county’s social work service for children and families remaining “unfit for purpose”.

However, in a report to be discussed by councillors next Tuesday, a large list of improvements are provided — from the recruitment of new managers to agreements for the housing of social work staff.

The wider staff issues are outlined in a report, which focuses on the Care Inspectorate’s damning conclusions about the state of the fostering, adoption and adult placement services, published at the end of November 2022.

Although the document acknowledges a “high turnover of social workers during the last three years,” the problems are firmly attributed to a “national staff crisis.”

Over the past four weeks, The Orcadian has reported on the allegations of several former staff members from the Children and Families Service, who claim that bullying by bosses and a lack of support for staff are the real reasons why folk have quit. In the report, a “change of organisational culture” is listed as one of the many reasons for the high staff turnover.

Orkney Islands Council has told the newspaper it does not condone any form of bullying. Since then, Orkney Health and Care’s chief officer has committed to meeting with staff in the Children and Families Service to get their views on how it is being run.

The document, to go before elected members at the next policy and resources committee, states: “The Children and Families Social Work service was unfit for purpose prior to council investment and a new structure as of April 1, 2022.

“However, due to the national picture, the new structure has not been fully populated meaning the service remains unfit for purpose. In January 2023, the service has one permanent social worker in the fieldwork team who qualified in June 2022.”

To address the staffing problems, the council says it has worked on understanding the reasons why so many staff left in the first place. These include: promotion, taking roles elsewhere in children’s services, career breaks, existing underlying health problems, retirement, pre-planned family reasons, career change, and “change of organisational culture to learning and development.”

The local authority has also launched a Sponsorship and Trainee Social Worker Programme with the Open University, and called on the Scottish Government to create a fast-track scheme to get more social work staff in place.

Among the recent successes for the service, listed in the report, is that an experienced interim manager has agreed to stay on longer, that a larger family support team is in place, and that a housing agreement has been reached with a family for three year’s accommodation of social workers.