To review the increased budget for children's services for investing in children's services transformation.

The Corporate Director for Children and Young People introduced the report, the purpose of which was for the Committee to review the increased budget for children's services for investing in children's services transformation.

During the following discussion/debate the following principal points were noted:

•        The pension scheme that care givers can receive as part of their contract is/will be the Local Government pension scheme which can be opted in and out. This is regulated and generous and should attract people.

•        The terms and conditions of the employment contract are being reviewed to ensure it attracts people to the positions and made more attractive.

•        Herefordshire needs to attract people inwards and this could be improved by a good pension scheme.

•        A copy of the employment contract was requested to be provided to committee members.

•        Although working to an exemption at the moment given the urgent need to recruit, we will be returning to a regional memorandum of understanding between all the regional authorities and will not be aiming to poach the expertise or staff/LOCUMs of other local councils.

•        The council needs to ensure that the £11m, is spent correctly and in the best way the council can. When looking at the figures Legal receive a lot of the funding. Queried whether legal secretaries would be better hires than solicitors as it would be more cost effective.

•        Human Resources were commented to be an expensive outsourcing resource that could be brought internal.

•        Suggestions were raised about including a ‘refer a friend bonus’ to try and encourage people into the council to fill positions. We could be using similar incentives to come and work in Herefordshire.

•        The committee wants to see commitment from experienced social workers to help in training other social workers especially the level 1(new starters) and 2. It was raised that this does happen already and a number of social workers take on an education role.

•        Interim workers are aware of the deadline of their contracts. Some are approached to stay on and these conversations start early on in the process before the end of the contract. There are a number of ongoing initiatives in place to try and retain some of the interim workers.

•        There needs to be a look at how to better utilise support workers to try and reduce the workload of social workers where possible. This could also lead to further training opportunities to train support workers into becoming social workers.

•        Sexual abuse in children is not touched upon in the plan, nor how these children are identified and supported. Some of the money should/could have been inputted to informing children on the importance of coming forward when they have been abused and in understanding the need for the protection of their personal space.

•        Pastoral support and more proactive support is needed for children who are at risk or are experiencing abuse.

•        Children services come into their own when abuse is known and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 89