Buckinghamshire County Council are prioritising vulnerable children and their families with a new initiative launched last week…
A major new training scheme for social workers aims to improve services to help vulnerable children and their families.
The Social Work Academy is a partnership between Buckinghamshire County Council and Buckinghamshire New University.
The Council aims to overcome the serious national shortage in frontline social workers for children and their families with the initiative, which aims to recruit and retain the best staff for the county.
The academy consists of regular masterclasses for students, new social workers and more experienced staff – which will include ongoing training for anyone who needs it.
Lin Hazell, County Council Cabinet Member for Children’s Services said about the initiative: “I am really excited by this idea.
“We know nationally and locally there is a worrying shortage of social workers and the lack of staff – and too much reliance on agency workers – was a factor in the Ofsted outcome rating last year.
“We are well on the way to improving our services, but cannot really be totally successful until we have ensured we can recruit and retain the very best staff to work with our county’s vulnerable children.
“And we can only do this if we give them incentives to come here to work, and then to stay here. The value of regular training simply cannot be underestimated in terms of staff morale – and is also a fantastic recruitment incentive.”
