Unions calls for an end to agency staff filling senior care roles
GMB hits out at HSCP recruitment
Union bosses have called for an end to the use of agencies to fill senior management posts in Renfrewshire.
The GMB say the area’s Health and Social Care Partnership is using private firms to fill the positions, instead of launching a “full and transparent” recruitment process.
It comes after we revealed in August that Renfrewshire Council had spent millions on private recruitment and consultancy firms since 2019, while jobless rates in the area rocketed.
Now the union has written to Renfrewshire HSCP’s interim chief officer Christine Laverty in a bid to end the practice over claims that vacant high-ranking posts for care home and service managers have been filled through agencies.
It comes as part of their campaign to end agency recruitment to local government posts.
The GMB’s Renfrewshire organiser Kirsten Muat said: “Families and residents across Renfrewshire rely on carers and the work they do.
“The Renfrewshire community needs to have confidence and deserves a HSCP service that they know is run well and competently.
“They deserve to know that positions of senior management are being filled through a rigorous and transparent process, by people who are then accountable under the council’s policies.
“At the moment this is not happening.”
She added: “That’s why we are calling for Renfrewshire Council to end the scandal of agency companies in local government, especially in senior management positions in such an important service.”
The document, seen by the Express, talks of “serious concerns” the union harbours over “the use of agency workers in senior levels of management”.
It adds: “Care workers who have worked throughout the pandemic, in a skilled profession, caring for the most vulnerable, caring for the most vulnerable, deserve the opportunity of career progression and for their work to be respected.
“Using an agency to fill positions of senior management not only denies skilled carers working for Renfrewshire Council career progression, but also makes members feel as if they are not respected in their profession.”
A spokesperson from Renfrewshire HSCP said: “We are committed to recruiting staff to support our services and providing them with training and skills development opportunities.
“However, throughout the pandemic, agency staff have played an important role in ensuring we can continue to deliver vital frontline services such as in our care homes and care at home service.
“Agency staff are only used where our own recruitment has not been possible, or we need to fill positions quickly to maintain the delivery of essential services. In these cases, the appointment would be for a short term until we can undertake a robust recruitment process.”
People deserve to know that senior positions are filled through a rigorous and transparent process