There is so much shortage of child protection workers that senior social workers actually complained to the regional government agency.
Espoon child protection lacks so many social workers that it seriously jeopardizes families who are clients of child protection, senior social workers say.
This is not exceptional in the sense that there are similarly wide-ranging problems in getting enough qualified professionals to work in all municipalities. It is also no longer unique for employees to complain to the regional government agency on behalf of their families.
In Espoo, however, the complaint was made by leading social workers in the spring. The complaint also says exceptionally directly one way to resolve the crisis quickly: a pay rise for subordinates.
The leading social workers justify this by saying that Espoo currently pays less for a social worker than other municipalities whose social and health services will be transferred to the responsibility of the Western Uusimaa welfare area at the turn of the year.
Social-and Healthcare reformation in practice, forces welfare areas to harmonize wages, ie to increase them if the same work is paid less in some areas and better in others.
However, leading social workers believe that without intervention in wages, Espoo will not be able to get enough qualified social workers to work. The situation is not remedied simply by intervening in well-being at work.
In Espoo, it is calculated that if all the vacant positions of a social worker were full, the number of clients responsible for one social worker in Espoo would be reached within the limits set by law.
That is not the case. In May, 15 per cent of the seats were vacant, but the deficit is not evenly distributed. In the Matinkylä – Olari – Tapiola area, almost half of the places were without qualified employees.
In addition, leading social workers say in their complaint that several social workers have been out of work for a long time due to exhaustion. Some work part-time
Leading social workers say they do the work of the missing workers themselves. In addition, Espoo has hired final-year students, for example, who do not yet have the power to make decisions related to child protection.
This in turn, according to the complainants, further increases exhaustion and endangers families who have to wait. The problem is also that many families should be helped at an earlier stage in basic services so that their problems do not even grow to require child protection.
Leading social workers believe that the Espoo management has not done enough to resolve the situation.
Well-being and Health Board politicians discussed the response to the complaint at this week’s meeting.
No additional salary is promised directly, instead the Director of Family and Social Services has proposed a separate commitment bonus for long-term employees. Secretaries have also been hired in the spring to reduce the workload of social workers. In addition, Espoo is currently testing a new mentoring model.
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