Birmingham social workers off sick for up to five weeks a year
Nov 28 2009 by Paul Dale, Birmingham Mail
SOCIAL workers dealing with 800 cases of child abuse a month have “given up” because of the stress, Birmingham’s children’s services director Colin Tucker has revealed.
Employees are at breaking point and signing-off sick for up to five weeks a year, he admitted.
Mr Tucker said staff faced with huge workloads were ill with depression.
The department was condemned as failing by a council inquiry last month.
Now it has emerged that absenteeism is averaging 25 days per person a year – the worst record of any social services unit anywhere in the country.
The problem has been made worse by a failure to recruit social care staff, with almost one-fifth of the department’s 722 jobs lying unfilled. When holiday entitlement, bank holidays and local government lieu days are added on to sick leave, staff are absent for almost a quarter of the year. About 10,000 working days will be lost during 2009, the equivalent of 80 people never turning up for work during an entire year.
Mr Tucker, who was hired by the council to sort out children’s services, said: “In defence of my staff, I would urge people to be aware of the pressures they face. In Aston they are right in the front line of murders, stabbings and gang-related incidents.
“Some of them have done an extraordinary job in extremely difficult circumstances and they have simply had enough. They have given up.
“We have to have an honest conversation with them and ask ‘are you ever going to be able to come back to work and if you can’t you will have to go’.”
The figures were released days after it emerged that 40,000 children in Birmingham live in households where violence is commonplace and are in danger of suffering permanent psychological damage.
Coun Emily Cox (Lib Dem Moseley & Kings Heath), a member of the vulnerable children scrutiny committee, suggested staff with a good attendance record should be paid a bonus.
The council has an action plan in place to reduce absenteeism and an investigation will be launched into anyone who has been off sick for more than 26 weeks.
