social work conference

[Alison J Stevens]

The Future of Recruiting and Retaining Social Workers: Best practice and reform

Date:

24 Jun 2010

Venue:

Central London (Venue TBC)

Exclusive Sponsor:

Tribal

The recruitment and retention of social workers is at crisis point. Research by the Local Government Association has found that 60 percent
of councils have problems hiring children’s social workers.

Furthermore, a study by Community Care Magazine revealed that of 345 articles published about social workers in 13 national newspapers during the first quarter of 2009:

• 54% were negative, 38% objective and just 8% positive.

The most commonly used description of social work was “failed” or “failure”.
(Source- Community Care Magazine, 12th May 2009)

With this in mind, is it any wonder that people are put off from becoming social workers?

However, all this ignores the strong commitment and excellent work that is commonplace in the profession. Social workers perform a vital, but mostly uncelebrated role. In order to improve recruitment and
retention we need to focus on the positive aspects of social work and
the many, many examples of good practice. We need to show that being a
social worker is something to be proud of. We need to look at ways in
which we can persuade people that social work is a worthwhile job for
life.

Clearly then, precise, targeted marketing and recruitment campaigns are more important than ever to ensure that there are enough social workers to meet the needs of some of our most vulnerable children.
Furthermore, we need to address the issues in the retention of social
workers

This conference is designed to face up to the challenges of recruiting and retaining both adult and children’s social workers.

Benefits of Attending

• Understand how to persuade Newly Qualified Social Workers and Social Workers that you are the right employer
• Consider the benefits and effectiveness of “Golden Hellos”
• Learn to ensure that your marketing campaigns are effective on tight budgets
• Discuss and explore how to counteract the negative view of the social work profession
• Discover how to effectively catch the attention of prospective social workers

It will outline and explore best practice from around the UK. Delegates will be provided with cutting edge modern marketing and recruitment knowledge from experts within the respective sectors.
Delegates will consider what motivates social workers and what is
effective in retaining them.

• Hear current best practice in marketing and recruitment techniques
• Gain critical knowledge in how to conduct targeted effective campaigns
• Learn how to meet and exceed recruitment needs
• Utilise the opportunity to talk to experts in fully interactive sessions about problems you may be experiencing
• Learn what motivates and what is off putting to social workers
• Develop an understanding of what is effective in retaining social workers
• Senior staff from large national employers in children’s and adult
social care from local authorities, independent and voluntary sectors
• Training managers
• Training providers
• Representatives of employer organisations small and direct employers
• Higher education and further education.

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