Somerset County Council has launched a recruitment campaign to hire up to 15 experienced social workers for its children’s services team.

The council’s recruitment team will use social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as more traditional methods like the local press and the statutory regulator The College of Social Work to publicise its campaign.

It is seeking eight frontline team managers, four consultant social workers and three team managers in its fostering division.

In a similar campaign, Sutton Borough Council recently turned its attention to the US to help it fill vacancies.

Dean Shoesmith, head of HR at Sutton and Merton borough councils, recently told Recruiter Sutton council had lowered its 40% social worker vacancy rate to 30% through the creation of an online talent bank and a recruitment campaign in the US.

He said competition among local authorities to recruit and retain social workers is the most intense it has ever been, and senior social workers in particular were “as scarce as hens’ teeth”.

The reason for that, he thought, was brand and brand image.

“We hear horror stories daily in the media about children in care and how those children have been let down, so it’s [the industry] under an intense media microscope and that makes our challenge, [the] HR challenge, even more difficult.”

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