Local Authority Employment Research Articles

The barriers to advancing race equality in Scottish local authority employment

PurposeThis paper critically evaluates potential barriers to employment opportunities for ethnic minority (EM) individuals in Scottish Local Authorities – both in terms of access to job and development opportunities. It provides a fundamental discussion of concepts around race and ethnicity, and the levels of social injustice, with an explicit focus on institutional racialisation, discrimination and segregation. The paper explores organisational approaches towards recruitment, including positive action and workforce development.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts a subjectivist (ontology) and interpretivist (epistemology) stance, based on a small-scale, in-depth investigation. The data have been gathered through semi-structured interviews with equality diversity and inclusion (EDI) officers in four Scottish Local Authorities, utilising thematic analysis.FindingsThe finding suggests that participating local authorities have a long way to go to ensure the elimination of barriers to employment for EM people. This is largely based on concerns around limitations in the application of positive action and elimination of disadvantages in recruitment and access to career and development opportunities?Originality/valueThe paper aims to contribute by exploring the availability of employment opportunities for EMs through the eyes of EDI Officers in four local authorities. Their thorough understanding, over- and insight into potential equality issues from an employment perspective are invaluable, focussing on more tangible organisational issues and approaches.

Social work teaching partnerships: a discussion paper

ABSTRACTIn 2016 the Government invited English local authority employers of social workers and university providers of social work qualifying programmes to apply jointly for funding to become social work teaching partnerships. This was in response to its concerns about the limited engagement of local authorities with qualifying training programmes. It was also part of the Government’s strategy to ensure that students qualified as social workers with what it considered to be the right knowledge and skills and to improve their recruitment, retention and development and overall quality of practice. Following an evaluation of one partnership, this discussion paper addresses the evolution of these arrangements as found in consultations with representatives of 10 social work teaching partnerships (held 2017–18), the four original pilots and the six others that were subsequently funded. Drawing on a synthesis of the partnerships’ reported experiences, this paper reports the variations in their approaches and sets out the challenges they faced and addressed, contextualising this in the policy landscape in which they were introduced and operated.

Being Seconded to a Mental Health Trust: The (In)Visibility of Mental Health Social Work

The paper explores the implications of being a social worker seconded to a Mental Health Trust based on narrative interviews with mental health social workers. As part of a wider study, thirteen mental health social workers from across England were interviewed individually about their experiences of being seconded to a Mental Health Trust. Building on the work of Andrew Pithouse, the findings reveal the (in)visibility of mental health social work. The social workers were isolated within Health Trusts with minimal links to their Local Authority employers. They struggled to articulate and define social work. Instead, social work was depicted as being indefinable, involving working in liminal spaces and as filling the gaps left by other professions. Furthermore, the social workers were unable to make social work visible as social work is not ‘seen’ by the other members of the team. Finally, the social workers were unable to make social visible through supervision if they did not have a social work manager. The paper ends with an unexpected outcome of the research: the notion of the research interview as surrogate supervision.

Scotland clarifies effect of integration on employment.

Nurses will not be compelled to transfer to local authority employment under plans to integrate adult health and social care in Scotland.

It's Politics, Stupid: The 2002–2004 UK Firefighters' Dispute

AbstractThis is an account of the 2002–2004 firefighters' dispute in the UK based on interviews with key figures, attendance at meetings and scrutiny of contemporary sources. Our emphasis is on the political nature of the dispute with the case made that senior members of the Labour government sought to ‘politicize’ the industrial action in order to undermine the credibility of the union leadership, win over public opinion and set down a marker for public sector unions. In particular the government aggressively pursued centralization; that is, national leaders took over the running of the dispute from the local authority employers in order to maintain central government control over the process of ‘modernization’. Moreover, their various interventions confirm the Hay thesis that the Labour Party leadership now openly and uniformly seeks to defeat union industrial action.

Personal Reflections of Social Work Education in the Context of the Social Work Task Force

Following the death of ‘Baby P’, the UK Government set up a Social Work Task Force that reported in 2009. This made 15 recommendations, including five relating to the initial training of social workers at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This article considers the gap that exists between those HEIs and Local Authority employers from the perspective of someone who has spent 25 years working as a Local Authority social worker and manager, but who has recently moved to head up a social work department in an English university. Consideration is given to the provision of placements and that it is difficult to ‘fail’ social work students, particularly their practice learning components. Reference to experiential learning is discussed as being helpful to provide a theoretical connection to practice. The call is made for much closer partnership working between HEIs and Local Authority employers to start to bridge the gap.

Factors associated with the recruitment and retention of social workers in Wales: employer and employee perspectives

Despite acute staffing shortages in social work, workforce planning within the UK social care sector is compromised by poor workforce intelligence. This study aimed to inform the evidence base providing new data on recruitment and retention in Wales, examining what personal and organizational characteristics are associated with intentions to leave, and what initiatives or incentives might mediate that effect. A multi-method design facilitated comparisons between two data sources--a census of all 22 Welsh local authority employers about recruitment and retention practices and a survey of all social workers and senior practitioners employed in social services (n = 998; response rate 45.9%) about demography, workforce characteristics, working patterns, morale and plans and reasons for leaving one's job. Vacancy (mean 14.4%) and turnover (mean 15%) rates were statistically significantly higher in children's services than in adult services; vacancy rates were also higher in authorities that offered higher starting salaries. The provision of certain types of traineeship might also be associated with higher vacancy rates but these results should be treated with some caution. There was little evidence that recruitment and retention initiatives were associated with lower vacancy or turnover rates, despite employers' perceptions about their effectiveness. Social workers derived a lot of satisfaction from their work, but more than a quarter wanted to leave their job within 6 months, and almost as many were actively seeking alternative employment. Intention to leave was explained by job and employer satisfaction, and negative feelings about pay. Senior practitioners and staff members with longer lengths of service were less likely to want to leave, even if they were dissatisfied with their job or employer. Job and employer dissatisfaction was associated with retention initiatives related to facilities, good caseload management and home-working, suggesting that dissatisfied staff might remain in employment for longer if these initiatives were in place.

Whitehall ditches nurse transfers.

Plans for transferring thousands of nurses from the NHS to local authority employment have been ditched by the Government.

Mobility training today I : dealing with the real world

By means of qualitative and quantitative surveys, a picture of the working life of a mobility officer (MO) in local authority employment was built up. Two major but related aspects are described. First, the diversity of the visually impaired population seeking mobility training, and second, the way in which MOs have been able to 'tune' the long cane package to suit the many low vision clients they meet. In addition, some of the enduring problems faced by MOs will be discussed.

Local authority employment creation initiatives: Who gets the jobs?

Over recent years a number of British local authorities have sought to increase employment by the provision of industrial premises of various sorts. This paper investigates the number and type of jobs created and explores whether these were filled by the unemployed, by school‐leavers or by previously employed workers.

Accessibility and job search: A study of unemployed school leavers

Quinn D. J. (1986) Accessibility and job search: a study of unemployed school leavers, Reg. Studies 20, 163–173. This paper responds to the urgency underlying recent local authority employment initiatives and focuses on the importance of accessibility in the job search behaviour of one particularly vulnerable group of the unemployed. A two-stage survey investigated unemployed school-leavers' familiarity with Birmingham and decisions made in the process of job search. The results of the survey indicate that there are ‘accessible’ areas of the city where jobs are not sought. It is concluded that knowledge of the city and perception of travel provides a more sensitive indication of likely job search patterns than conventional measures of accessibility. This clearly has implications for local authority policies on economic regeneration, employment and transport.

Welsh local authority employment since 1979: Political party effects in district councils

Hoggart K. (1985) Welsh local authority employment since 1979; political party effects in district councils, Reg. Studies 19, 447–457. This paper investigates changes in district council workforce levels in Wales between 1979 and 1982. At this time, when the Conservative Government was pressing for reductions in local authority employment, the Labour Party was arguing for the maintenance of public service provisions. On this basis, it is hypothesized that Labour controlled councils should have recorded the lowest rates of employment loss. After developing a normative model to account for local employment changes, multiple regression techniques are employed to test the hypothesis that political party control did affect workforce reduction rates. The results show that Labour councils' performances on the employment front were in fact no different from those of other district councils.

Local authority employment planning: An ex post case study of some policy instruments

This paper outlines some of the results of a three year study into a local employment Act. The principal powers under this Act are similar to those later provided in the Inner Urban Areas Act 1978. The employment effects of the policies are evaluated in terms of before and after comparisons, and with-without perspective. An input-output model assesses the multiplier effect of spending under the program, including secondary employment effects elsewhere in the local economy from the expansion of aided firms. The cost-effectiveness of the various policies are presented in terms of a number of criteria. Finally, the social benefits and costs of the program are also evaluated.

An evaluation of local authority employment initiatives

(1981). An evaluation of local authority employment initiatives. Local Government Studies: Vol. 7, Unemployment and Economic Development, pp. 37-52.