| answer text |
<p>The department invests over £50 million each year on recruiting and developing
child and family social workers to ensure the workforce continues to have the capacity,
skills, and knowledge to support and protect vulnerable children.</p><p>However, as
the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care set out, social worker recruitment,
retention, and quality across the country are not consistently at the levels they
need to be.</p><p>The department is currently considering the review’s recommendations
which includes ideas such as regional staff banks, national pay scales, and memoranda
of understanding to help reduce the cost and use of agency social work.</p><p>The
department will publish the children’s social care implementation strategy in due
course.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
|
 |
