Call for children’s social workers in North Yorkshire to join ‘outstanding’ team

North Yorkshire Council’s children and young people’s service has been awarded an “outstanding” rating across all areas by Ofsted inspectors.

The council’s executive member for children and families, Cllr Janet Sanderson, said: “The quality and strength of our practice is fundamental to what we achieve.

“Our social workers are given continuous professional development throughout their careers, they have great managers and colleagues who support them every step of the way and they have flexible, hybrid and modern ways of working which fit with our rural locations.

“Together, this empowers them to really do the job they want to do – get the best out of the young children and families they work with, developing great relationships with them to bring about positive change.”

The report from Ofsted, which has been published today (August 18), gave the outstanding rating for areas including the impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families as well as the experiences and progress of children who need help and protection.

The outstanding rating was also given to the experiences and progress of children in care, the experiences and progress of care leavers along with the overall effectiveness of the children’s social care service in North Yorkshire.

Inspectors said that staff “light up when they talk about the children they work with” and there is now a call to bring in more social workers who are keen to be part of the team in North Yorkshire.

The campaign has been launched to attract new recruits to North Yorkshire and build on the work amid a shortage of children’s social workers nationally.

According to Social Work England and the annual figures from the Department for Education, nationally there were as many as 7,900 vacancies in children and families social work in September 2022.

For most local authorities this results in nearly a fifth (19 per cent) of their social work roles being vacant. This is not the case in North Yorkshire; the council is seeking to appoint a further 14 social workers across all locations in North Yorkshire, with a particular focus on strengthening its teams based across Yorkshire coast locations, where its largest teams are based.

Anyone interested in applying for the roles available can visit www.northyorks.gov.uk/childrenssocialworker online.

Those who are thinking about changing career to become a social worker can email Samantha Clayton at [email protected]