Council bosses are looking at ways of attracting and keeping experienced social workers.

Over the last 12 months 26 social workers have left Kirklees Council.

And although the authority’s good reputation means they have no trouble filling the posts with newly-qualified social workers, the council is looking at how it can retain experienced social workers.

Paul Johnson, assistant director in Family Support and Protection Services, said: “We are aware that there are issues and pressures. There is always pressure on social work services often aligned to the publicity that the service attracts, particularly with issues such as child sexual exploitation which is one case in point.

“That makes recruiting and retaining staff one issue.

“We are doing what we think is reasonable and just in attracting people to come and work in Kirklees and we need to think more carefully about how we keep them when they are here.”

He said social work was a competitive market and they were looking at what neighbouring councils were doing.

Mr Johnson added: “We seem to be quite good at attracting a lot of applications for jobs and quite often they are newly qualified, which can create an imbalance.

“It can create pressure within the system because more experienced staff spend a lot of time helping and supporting and advising new people until they become a little bit more experienced.”

Council leader Clr David Sheard said: “We need to put this in perspective. There’s 292 social workers so turnover is less than 10%.”

Kirklees Council currently has 13 social work practitioner vacancies filled by agency staff, which is below the regional and England average.

The Examiner reported earlier this year that some social workers left when Calderdale Council offered so-called ‘golden handcuffs’, a move confirmed by Calderdale.

Kirklees is looking at recruitment of specialist Adult Mental Health Practitioners. The authority has 30 but two have recently retired and three left.