Growth and development.pdf

West DunbartonshireStaffCriminal Justice services receive direct funding from the Scottish Executive, and £883,802 wasprovided in 2000-2001.The Council is one of the higher spending authorities on Community Care. Expenditure onchildren’s services is only slightly above GAE. Spend per head on social work services isrelatively high.6. StaffingManagers & central staff 91 1.0 1 84 0.9 1Frontline staff 611 6.4 1 636 6.7 1Other 131 1.4 2 159 1.7 1Total 834 8.8 1 878 9.3 1VacanciesWTE1999actualWTE1999per 1,000Vacancies2000 % Vacancies2000Quartile1999% Vacancies2000ScotlandWTE2000actualWTE2000per 1,000Vacancies2001 % Vacancies2001Quartile2000% Vacancies2001ScotlandSWs with adults 3 7.9 7.8 3 15.2 10.9SWs with children 9 17.8 7.4 10 16.1 10.7SWs with offenders 0 0 7.5 0 0 7.2Generic workers 0 0 8.0 3 15.4 12.7Total 12 11.2 7.7 16 13.8 10.5The overall rate of staff is high compared to most other authorities and the total number increasedbetween 1999 and 2000. The rate of managers and central staff decreased but remains higherthan in most other authorities. Vacancy levels are high in all areas except criminal justice.In March 2002 the department had a vacancy rate of 8%, almost entirely in childcare. An increasein specialist posts has depleted the pool of locally available workers and made it harder tomaintain and recruit to core services. It is a major disadvantage for the department, withlimited opportunities for offering promoted posts, to be on the boundary of a large authority.To promote recruitment and retention the Council has:• created a practice teaching post; and• appointed additional seniors to provide greater supervision and support.There have been no problems recruiting to the wider social care workforce who play a criticalrole in this authority, which has established itself as an SVQ accreditation centre.265