Solihull’s council leader has made a commitment to retain the staff who have driven the transformation of the authority’s children’s services department. Councillor Karen Grinsell, who also serves as the lead member for children and education on Solihull Council’s cabinet, told a meeting that the number of agency staff had been reduced “considerably,” from 50 percent to 15 percent.
Background of Improvement
The authority faced intense scrutiny after the murder of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes in 2020. However, as reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), a significant improvement journey led to the council’s children’s services being rated good by Ofsted for the first time in Solihull’s history. Last week, the authority confirmed that the government’s intervention in the department has now ended.
Recruitment and Retention Challenges
One of the biggest challenges has been the recruitment and retention of social workers, with the department often relying on agency staff. In 2024, Beate Wagner, the council’s former director of children’s services, described this as the “greatest challenge” to their improvement, stating, “We haven’t made as much progress in terms of permanent staff as we would like to see.” That same year, Sir Alan Wood, the appointed government commissioner to aid the turnaround, told the LDRS it was a “real serious issue.”
But in March, Andrea Ashley, the authority’s HR business manager, provided a positive update: “Quite a few of the team manager and advantage practitioner positions, we have managed to convert some agency workers to become permanent. We don’t have a significantly massive number of vacancies to recruit. We are in a very good position.”
Leader’s Priorities for the Year
At the first meeting of the authority’s children’s services and education scrutiny board after the elections, the leader identified staffing as a key priority for this year. “You will always need agency staff to fill any gaps, but we will be working on retention,” she said. “We have good staff, we want to keep them.”
Councillor Keith Green asked, “What are we doing to ensure they stay with us in what is a highly competitive market and there might be better packages elsewhere? It’s important we don’t lose good staff and start going backwards.”
Coun Grinsell replied, “A lot of it is the environment they work in, their colleagues, because this is like a family. They are joining a team people want to be part of; the culture has changed. You talk to staff and they feel so much happier now; the improvement journey things have changed. It might not always necessarily be about the salary. We will always be competitive on salary, but it is about the environment you are creating.”
Other Priorities
On other priorities for this year, the leader added: “This coming year will all be about the changes that have come from government around social care reform, education, and particularly SEND reform.” The meeting was held at the Civic Suite on June 4.
