Oldham hit by social worker shortages

SOCIAL worker vacancies in Oldham are some of the highest in the country, according to a new survey.

Over a third of all social worker positions for adult services in Oldham remained unfilled at the end of January, 2009.

Vacancy rates topped 32.8 per cent, the highest among 96 local authorities who responded to a survey by the website Community Care.

The borough came third highest for empty posts for both children and adult social workers, with a 29.4 per cent of posts unfilled.

Worst was the London Borough of Lambeth with a 33.7 per cent.

Councillor Brian Lord, Cabinet member for adult services and health, said the Oldham vacancies sounded high as a percentage, but as a number it would be “less frightening”, although he was not able to give any figures.

Neighbouring Tameside Council fared better, with only 2.5 per cent of vacancies in adult services and 3.9 per cent of total vacancies.

The website said its figures revealed one in every nine social worker posts in England was vacant.

The average vacancy rate among the 96 councils that responded was 10.9 per cent, about 8,317 posts, while the the North-West vacancy rate was 11.4 per cent.

The Oldham figures also show a marked rise on the national vacancy rate which had been close to 10 per cent since 2006.

An Evening Chronicle reader, who spotted the website statistics, said: “The figures obtained for Oldham Council are shocking, especially as this means that our most vulnerable people and children are being failed, not properly protected from abuse.

“Why are the figures so poor in comparison to those for Tameside — just a few miles down the road — and what does this say about the priorities of Oldham council?”

Councillor Lord, said: “We have a number of posts at the moment that are being covered by temporary contracts for the simple reason we are in the middle of reorganisation.

“Replacing full-time posts at this time would be irresponsible.

“The good news is that despite the full-time vacancies, no one has missed out on any of our services, the quality of which remains as high as ever.