Social work staff at North Lanarkshire Council who previously received a lump sum as part of a scheme to recruit and retain scarce qualified staff are to receive the equivalent amount as an increase to their annual salary.

In 2003, the council decided to offer a £5,000 lump sum (net of tax) over three years to frontline qualified social worker staff and occupational therapy staff and seniors. The initiative was aimed at reducing the high level of vacancies in these posts, caused by a national shortage of qualified staff in these fields, in order to ensure that the council could meet its statutory obligations in children's services, justice and community care.

As a result of the incentive payments and a number of development initiatives, the council has been successful in recruiting new staff and retaining experienced staff in the social work department. For most staff the three years comes to an end next month (May) and the council has decided to consolidate the payments into their basic pay; this is equivalent to a £2,300 addition to their annual salary following completion of the three year period of the scheme.

Jim Dickie, Director of Social Work, said:

""North Lanarkshire, like all Scottish councils, faced difficulties a few years ago in recruiting social workers and we took action to encourage new staff to come to North Lanarkshire and to keep our experienced staff. We provided the lump sum and put in place opportunities for staff to develop their careers, as well as encouraging unqualified staff to study for a social work diploma through open learning and offering incentives for newly qualified staff joining the department.

"These initiatives have proved successful and we now have only 12 vacancies, rather than the 60 we had three years ago. We have been able to maintain a relatively stable workforce in the last couple of years, and operate at almost full capacity. To enable us to continue providing the current level of service, we must be able to retain our staff and be competitive in the employment market. We believe the salary increase reflects our ongoing commitment to building an experienced workforce that will help us deliver quality services to local people."

The social work department is already paying the £706,000 per year that the incentive payments have cost, so this sum will continue into future years' budgets to cover the increase in basic pay.

Councillor Harry McGuigan, Convener of the Social Work Committee, said:

"Social work is a challenging field of work and relies on people who are committed to doing a good job, often in difficult circumstances, and assisting vulnerable people who need care and support. We want to keep the strong workforce that we have now to help us provide a high quality of service, and we want our staff to know that we value the work they do.

"We have taken the decision to consolidate the incentive payments into the annual salary of staff so that they reap the benefits of the payments in the longer term and we benefit from the skills and experience that staff bring to the department."