No applications for Doncaster children's home managers jobs despite being advertised twice

Job adverts looking to recruit children’s homes managers in Doncaster went out twice with no applicants, a senior councillor revealed.
Coun Rachael BlakeCoun Rachael Blake
Coun Rachael Blake

Coun Rachael Blake, the cabinet member responsible for children’s services alongside Doncaster Children’s Services Trust (DCST) made the admission at a recent meeting.

In response to growing numbers of Doncaster children being cared for outside of the borough at great expense to the council, DCST undertook a property review and secured four homes to house vulnerable young people with another ‘in the pipeline’.

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These four homes are said to be fully operational within ‘three to six months’.

But on the job adverts with no applicants, Coun Blake said: “Recruitment in the homes is the next challenge because it is a very competitive employment market with recent adverts for home managers going out twice with no applicants.”

The meeting also heard that the financial impact of Covid-19 hit DCST in the region spanning £1.3 million to £1.9 million for 2020/2021 and it is expected that the financial impact will be a ‘similar amount’ at the end of this financial year.

The trust has said its improvement plan focuses on ‘consistency and practice quality’ throughout the social care system.

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Coun Blake said DCST ‘remained committed’ to a joint partnership future placement strategy as a means of increasing local provision through the increase in foster carers and the ‘residential offer’.

“Caseloads were a pressure last year and continue to be and assessments have higher case loads than we would like and action is being taken to address this,” Coun Blake said.

“Most of the teams are in tolerance and broadly in accordance with policy but the complexity of case work has increased which is adding to the difficulty.

“Out of authority placements and children in care numbers went up last year and continue to do so this year creating capacity, caseload and cost pressures.

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“Recruiting and retaining permanent staff and training trainee social workers has improved in the last six months but the social worker agency market is competitive which affects caseloads and finances.”

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