THE battle to recruit social workers in Cumbria is being won – despite “aggressive” competition from other areas, a meeting has been told.

Cumbria is home to nearly 700 children in care who are “looked after” under the wing of the county council.

In recent years, councils nationwide have suffered serious shortages in qualified social workers.

Authorities have run up huge overspends on agency staff or offered financial rewards to lure social workers to work for them.

In 2015, Cumbria County Council established a social worker academy to recruit newly-qualified social workers as part of a new long-term strategy.

New figures show it has recruited 60 staff with 50 still on its books.

Twelve agency staff have also signed over to council contracts and last year saw 10 new recruits  - six of them going to Barrow, which has the highest number of children in care in the county.

The recruitment push was praised by a county council committee – the scrutiny advisory board for children and young people - which met in Kendal.

Sonyia Curran, workforce professional development manager for the council, said Ofsted had recognised the academy as an “outstanding exemplar” and  it was building on its success year by year.

However, some local authorities took an “aggressive” approach to recruit new social workers by hiking payments which reduced the pool available, she said.

Cumbria County Council offers social workers or team managers an £8,000 relocation package along with “generous” leave and pension entitlement.

But the offer is only available to those joining its departments in Whitehaven and Workington, where it has proved the hardest to recruit, she said.

Those taking the offer had to sign a legal agreement to stay at least three years.

Mrs Curran told councillors: “Experienced children’s social workers and team managers are like hen’s teeth. Everybody wants them. Some authorities are throwing the kitchen sink in to get them, including payments towards people’s deposits on mortgages. It was getting unbelievable.”

Cllr Claire Driver said the county lost a fifth of recruits once they had gone through training and said it was important to understand why people left.

Mrs Curran said some often transferred to other council departments such as fostering and adoption.

Committee chairwoman Cllr Val Tarbitt said: “As a board, we are really heartened to hear about the conversion of agency social workers to full-time staff. That has been one of the biggest issues and the most distressing things about the whole recruitment problem.”

Cllr Shirley Evans said many children in care complained of inconsistency in social workers so it was good to hear more staff are being retained.