Closing the gap on shortage of social workers in West Sussex

Cllr James Walsh asked how many of the vacancies required to be filled to meet the demands of the children's delivery programme had been filled since the council last met.

Leader Cllr Henry Smith said he did not have an exact figure to date, but he could say that 500,000 of extra investment provided earlier this year had resulted in more children's social workers being recruited.

"We are starting to close the gap on the number of social worker vacancies for children's services, and for adults' services as well," he added.

This was a key priority for the county council, but it was very

difficult to get people to enter social care at the moment '“ hardly

surprising given the extreme adverse publicity the profession had faced in the last year or so.

The situation was particularly challenging in West Sussex, which was competing with authorities in Greater London for staff.

"This is something we have an absolute commitment to resolve," he told the council.

Cllr Smith was questioned by Cllr Irene Richards about why a target set under a 'local area agreement' '“ involving the county council, police, health service and other local authorities '“ for reducing fatal and serious road accidents had not been met, and whether any additional measures were proposed to achieve this.

Cllr Smith said he did not have to explain the cost and devastation for a family which lost someone in a road accident.

In the cold light of day, there was also a huge financial cost for the community as a result of a fatality, running into hundreds of thousands of pounds, and even as much as 1m.

The baseline for the target was set in a year when there was a large increase in the number of people killed and seriously injured nationwide.

As a result, the baseline was extremely difficult to lower. The county was also judged against figures relating to Highways Agency roads, not under county control, and it took only one multiple accident to significantly skew the figures.

The county council had increased investment in highways maintenance by 4m, on top of the 34m it spent each year.

Importantly this would make roads safer still, and help save lives.

But the situation was not helped by the loss of 2m in government funding towards maintenance.

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