Recruitment and Management of Children's Agency Social Workers - AWARD

A key priority of the Trust's workforce strategy is to stabilise the workforce and build sustainable capacity for the future. A critical part of this is the Trust's ability to utilise Children's Agency Social Workers in an efficient and effective manner to meet any shortfalls in permanent staffing, and to deal with specific peaks in caseloads. The recruitment of children social workers is constantly challenging, with a shortage of sufficiently experienced candidates, a limited pipeline into the sector and it operates in a crowded geographical area. Within this it is acknowledged that agency workers play a critical part of the social care workforce to enable it to 'flex' to meet changing priorities and to fill resourcing gaps. In 2018 the Trust entered into a Master Vendor Managed Service Provider (MVMSP) Agreement for the recruitment and management of Children's Agency Social Workers. The Agreement commenced in December 2017 to run up to and including 30 November 2019. In December 2019, the Trust applied the two-year extension option within the Agreement. Following a procurement process in 2021, an 18-month contract was awarded which expires at 31 May 2023. Following internal consultation with stakeholders, a MVMSP Agreement continues to be the Trust's preferred way to recruit Children's Agency Social Workers.