People caring for the most vulnerable children in the care system are often among the most low paid of the wider children’s services workforce, with average earnings of about £10 an hour.
There is a lack of defined career path for residential care workers, as many employers run just one or two homes, caring for just a handful of children. Traditionally, care workers will spend their career moving between different providers, unless they decide to take what is often the only chance of promotion and become a registered home manager.
It is no surprise, then, that more than half of all children’s home providers say they have difficultly recruiting care workers with the right skills and experiences, and, critically, the right insight to care for children with the most pressing needs. But the picture is not as bleak as it first appears. Steps are being taken across the sector to not only create a workforce that is fit for purpose, with the skills and expertise to meet the new children’s homes quality standards introduced by the previous coalition government in April, but also to create a well-defined career path for this 20,000 strong workforce.
A new level 3 diploma for residential childcare was introduced in April, which replaces the more generic diploma for the children and young people’s workforce England. For the first time, the sector, where 90% hold or are working towards a level 3 qualification, has a qualification that matches its needs. An apprenticeship framework that’s being developed for the children’s workforce, including residential care home staff, is expected to address career progression.
Rachael Wardell, corporate director (communities) at West Berkshire council and chair of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services workforce development committee, says: “The apprenticeship will answer some of the questions about career development because there will be links across the programme to the wider children’s workforce that will create career mobility.”
The apprenticeship programme is expected to be popular because it is employer-led and will allow providers to grow and expand their own workforce. It also fits in with a sector that, despite the challenges presented by the size of organisations, is committed to staff development. According to the Department for Education (DfE)workforce census, published in January, out of the 841 homes surveyed, 93% had a continuing professional development plan for staff, 80% offered internal training opportunities and 83% released staff for external training.
The new quality standards for the sector, which came into force in April, are also significant in terms of driving workforce development, according to Enver Solomon, director of evidence and impact at the charity the National Children’s Bureau (NCB).
Solomon contributed to NCB research, which was commissioned by the DfE and published in January, that looked at the training and development needs of the residential children’s home workforce. He says the new standards will force the government to consider workforce development as a priority: “I think any government is going to have to ask the question: ‘Do we have the right workforce to deliver these?’”
Solomon, like others, acknowledges that low pay has been a barrier to attracting people to work in children’s homes: “When you can get paid more in another sector, where is the direct incentive to go into residential care?” It is an issue that some providers are tackling head-on.
Acorn Care and Education group runs 16 residential children’s homes as part of its wider children’s services provision. Its chief executive, Dr Natalie-Jane Macdonald, is committed to making the group a living-wage employer: “The sector norm has been to pay the minimum wage or low wages. That is the way it’s always been.
“My intention is to become a living wage employer – it’s something that will make us more attractive. However, the problem is how to do that and offer all the elements of care, while still making economic sense.”
The answer may inevitably come down to commissioners and the price they are willing, or able, to pay for services, against the bill that providers say they face to meet the standards expected of them.
Macdonald says: “In a cost-conscious world the pressure is sometimes to go for things that are cheaper … but if you want us to deliver the best for these children it will cost money.”
In numbers
£2,964
is the average cost of placement in a council-run home per week; private/voluntary homes average £2,907
14.7
is the average age of a children’s home resident; 75% are aged between 14 and 17
5,220
children were living in children’s homes as of end of March 2014
Source: DfE children’s homes data pack December 2014. England only
