Contents
1. Background
This report provides an update on the recruitment process for the SEN 0-25 team and the support being put in from HR and senior management.
2. Current position
The current position on recruitment and retention is set out below and is the position up to the end of December 2022. Recruitment for Devon County Council (DCC) employed positions has been led by senior officers within the SEN 0-25 team with an Interim lead for Interim and Agency work. Parent Carer Forum Devon have been involved in both recruitment processes.
a) Overall team
The budgeted Full Time Equivalent (FTE) for the team is 79.15. This includes additional posts that had been agreed to address workloads within the team. By December 2022 62.83 FTE was made up by DCC employed staff showing a shortfall of 16.32. Some of this shortfall is made up by 13.3 of Agency Interim staff.
b) Managers
The FTE of 10 includes all graded staff between H grade and L7 on the DCC salary scales.
These 10 include two roles seconded due to staff leaving or sickness. There is a 0.8 Interim post covering for backfill.
In 2022 four members of staff left in this group. One individual retired, one was unhappy in the role and two moved to agency work for better reimbursement.
c) Case Workers
There is a core of 26.5 FTE case workers in post. These posts are on the F grade DCC pay scale. However, three of these members of staff have been seconded to other roles. Eight of those 26.5 started in 2022 with another 2 in January 2023. 11 employees left the service in 2022 which included some part time posts and therefore accounted for 8.1 FTE. Reasons for leaving included retirement, change of career, volume of work in relation to work/life balance and, again, the move to Agency Working.
17 additional posts were added to the 26.5 FTE to give a total of 43.5 Case Workers. With existing staff leaving the service any new employees have filled these gaps rather than filling the additional posts. However, three additional new members of staff start in February and April. With 4.5 Interims helping cover these vacancies this results in 9.5 FTE posts left vacant, 14 FTE without the Interims.
The appointment of the Case Workers is critical to the improvements which need to take place and the aim to reduce the number of EHC Plans per officer.
d) SEN Support caseworkers
There are currently eight employees in this area making up 6.3 FTE on an DCC salary grade E. This area is currently fully staffed, and the officers are responsible for work in several areas including consultations for places, the phased transfer process for children, etc.
e) SEN Admin Assessment Coordinators
This area has an FTE of 11.05 which covers 14 members of staff with 0.5FTE currently vacant. All staff are on DCC salary grade D.
f) Tribunal Staff
Two members of staff are in post on a DCC pay scale T covering 1.8 FTE. Both these members of staff started in the second half of 2022.
g) Data and Resource Team
This team covers various grades from grade B through to grade F on the DCC pay scale. This team covers 12 members of staff making up 7.18 FTE. Only one member of staff left this team in March 2022 and is a stable part of the overall 0-25 team.
h) Other Operational areas
There are temporary arrangements in place linked with work on Post 16 and EHC Plan back logs.
The Post 16 work is covered by the 3 FTE comprising 1 seconded DCC employed H grade and two interim staff, and they are reviewing high-cost Post 19 placements in the independent sector.
The backlog team is working on overdue reviews of EHC Plans and has been made up of six full time Interim staff, although one left on 12 January 2023
These two arrangements are temporary and do not make up the overall permanent FTE for the 0-25 team.
3. Review of progress in the past 12 months
While recruitment has taken place this has been challenging due to the external market forces affecting all recruitment and the issue around the high turnover of Case Workers. The aim when fully staffed is to reduce the number of EHC Plans per case worker to approximately 300 but this is above the national average of 200 per Officer. To meet this national average based on the current volume of Plans we would require an additional 14 FTE posts on top of the 17 already approved. However additional staffing needs to be looked at in the context of also aiming to reduce the overall number of EHC Plans which would bring this average per Case Worker down.
From talking to the team, morale in some areas is low. This is linked to the high level of vacancies and subsequent high workloads. However, working collaboratively with the team and valuing their knowledge, skills and ideas will improve this. Since coming into post the Interim SEND Strategic Director, Jackie Ross, has engaged closely with the team with weekly catch ups and feedback sessions. This has led to the establishment of new panels and processes with staff now being able to contribute more and will feed into the longer-term improvement in skills.
The DCC Senior Leadership Team, led by the Interim Chief Executive, Jan Spicer, has started the process of engaging with the team and showing how they are valued members of DCC with options for feedback.
4. Immediate actions
- Representative from DCC HR to sit in on current recruitment interviews for Caseworkers to observe (24, 26 and 31 January).
- 0-25 management meeting to review current pressures and structure.
- Workshops with team to look in detail at current work practices and future working – in person for DCC employed staff and online for interim/agency workers.
- Commence process for the review team structure and grades taking into account the next steps in section 5 below.
- Draft a recruitment plan for 2023/24.
- Review staff retention and run a workforce planning session to map out the service objectives, how we deliver these with the current workforce model and what the future model should look like.
- Links with Health and Wellbeing support for all staff.
- Review model of delivery through the lens of service users, Devon Parent Carer Forum and other partners and internal departments.
5. Next steps
Recruitment is continuing to take place in January and February and an advert is on DCC’s web page for future application and interview rounds. Recruitment has included DCC managers and either representatives from Devon Parent Carer Forum or Devon Information and Advice Service (DiAS).
Linked with support from the Director and Deputy Director from Climate Change, Environment and Waste, DCC HR support is available from Caroline Coles to work on a review of the recruitment process which includes:
- Supporting the service to improve the recruitment process including format of the advert, shortlisting and interview questions, format of the panel and putting forward any ideas to improve the process.
- Review the exit interviews and sit in on future ones.
- Training required for new and existing employees including a review of the induction process.
- Building on existing work listening to the team and getting feedback about how and where we should change.
- Linking to the relevant actions in the SEND Improvement Plan around Culture, Communication, and Improvement of outcomes for Children and Young People.
- Review of the current team structure and links within 0-25 teams, across departments within DCC and with partners. This aims to provide a robust and consistent response and link with the actions required. The timing of any restructure needs to be linked with when we have greater stability and cleared our statutory backlog of EHC Plans and annual reviews. It must also bring reassurance on future ways of working and not create further uncertainty and worry both internally and externally. It could include a “test and learn” approach to create new ways of working, communication and engagement with schools and families.
- Review of current job descriptions and grades and compare with other local authorities, including near neighbours.
Any changes implemented will be to better support staff and to improve outcomes, and will include them as part of any change. Early work has already shown a wealth of talent and ideas for change which will be harnessed.
Report details
Report compiled by Damien Jones, Deputy Director for Transport Operations, Environment and Waste with the support of:
- Jackie Ross, Interim SEND Strategic Director
- Caroline Coles, Recruitment and Retention Business Partner, DCC HR Operations Team
- Gill Lowman, SEN Team Manager and 0-25 lead on recruitment process
19 January 2023