Sandwell’s Children’s Services Staffing Crisis
The latest Ofsted judgement on Sandwell’s Children’s Services is a further blow to morale of our hardworking members in Sandwell.
Six months ago, the trade unions in Sandwell formally presented a twelve-point plan to resolve the then growing staffing crisis, which included capping caseload levels and offering staff a payment to help both retention and recruitment. Management told us they had things in hand and have since failed to even give us a written response to our suggestions.
Management in Sandwell have not only failed to respond to our proposals, they have failed the staff, councillors, and the children of Sandwell.
Management should be held accountable for their failure.
We call upon the new management in the Children’s Trust to adopt our twelve-point plan to resolve the staffing crisis that is seeing record numbers of agency staff in Sandwell, at the cost of around £5million a year. The union proposals cost a mere fraction of this.
Without solving the staffing crisis in Sandwell, whether in a Trust or not, management will be unable to improve this important service for the children of Sandwell.
Tony Barnsley
Joint Branch Secretary
Sandwell General UNISON Branch
www.sandwellunison.co.uk for details of the 12-point plan
07762111793
Darren James
Branch Secretary of GMB S85 Branch
07786126530