Social workers 'want to work in Blackpool' now

A key element of improvement has included better retention and training of social workers, a meeting of the council’s Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Committee was told.

Inspectors made their fourth visit to the town in January as part of a programme of monitoring imposed after Children’s Services was rated ‘inadequate’ in January 2019.

Progress was reviewed in areas including the response to referrals at the ‘front door’ including the way social workers, police, GPs and schools work together to respond to concerns.

While the overall outcome of the visit was positive, Ofsted raised concerns there were “still a significant number of newly qualified social workers and agency staff across the service managing very complex cases.”

But the committee heard the recruitment of social workers was improving, thanks to better links with universities and Blackpool becoming known as a good place to work.

Tim Littlemore, head of service, told the meeting: “We have parents who sit on interview panels so we get the right people.”

Coun Jim Hobson, cabinet member for children’s social care and schools, said: “I recently spent a day with the team. I found people buying into the Blackpool Family Rocks, people enjoying the job and we are not losing social workers as we were.

“I met social workers on their second placement here. More and more were saying how brilliant it was to work for Blackpool and most were planning to stay.”

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