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Don’t go east in search of social workers MP urges Birmingham
Birmingham MP John Hemming has called on the city council to raise wages and not look to Eastern Europe to meet a shortfall in social workers.
The Birmingham Yardley MP said it would take the council some time to improve services. He said: ‘My understanding is that the authority is going to pay more to children’s social workers. I do not see the solution to the problem in Poland.’
Members of the social care overview and scrutiny committee will look later this month at a report on the difficulties of recruiting children’s social workers. ‘This is clearly a serious problem and we must deal with the matter quickly,’ said committee chairman, Cllr Len Clark.
‘Although we invest in their training, sadly, we often lose them to neighbouring authorities. It is clear we need to do something quickly to remedy the situation.’
Councillors will consider another report later this month, outlining ways of
overcoming the shortfall.
‘It is clear that we need to make more efforts to encourage newly-qualified children’s social workers to come to work in Birmingham,’ he added.
