Cheshire East is training up social workers to fill its vacancies but some then hop across the border to Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire because they pay more, a councillor has said.

Like most local authorities, Cheshire East has to rely on agency staff because it can't recruit enough social workers, so it has now developed a programme to 'grow its own' by training up staff so they become qualified.

But Cllr Jos Saunders (Poynton East, Con) told Monday's meeting of the children and families committee at Westfields, some were hopping across the border because they needed the money.

Speaking during a debate on the importance of frontline visits by councillors to children's services staff, Cllr Saunders said: "This came up at the frontline visit in Crewe.

"What they were saying is, it's a great idea [grow your own] but apparently it's very, very difficult to have that written commitment that they will stay for a number of years.

"So they said what they've been seeing is, because Staffs and Stoke are paying more, 'thank you for training me, thank you very much and I'm now off over the border', so is there any way, if we are paying them, that we can have some form of commitment that they stay for a minimum period of time?"

Cllr Jos Saunders (Photo: Cheshire East Council)

She added the 'grow your own' in theory is fantastic, 'but when money's tight and somebody's offering you more money – even though what came over consistently is the training is excellent here and the support they got was excellent – they're going to go'.

The council's lawyer told her this could not be done without a contractual agreement which people may be reluctant to agree to.

Cllr Saunders also revealed that during the same frontline visit, which she had undertaken in April with Wilmslow councillor David Jefferay (Ind) 'we were, in a way, disappointed at how challenged the social workers felt'.

She said 14 of the 37 positions at Crewe were vacant and their caseloads were too high.

Some social workers had 32 cases and a newly-qualified member had 28 cases instead of 15, 'and it came across that morale was becoming low'.

She said some of the issues staff raised, such as sharing the microwave between four office floors, were easy to resolve and would help them feel valued – but that had been reported a year ago with nothing done.

Kerry Birtles, director of children's social care, said many of the 14 vacancies in Crewe had since been filled by agency staff and caseloads now averaged 22, although some senior social workers had more.

She added: "We do well here compared to our North West colleagues. We know our vacancy rate and use of agency rate, which is less than 15 per cent currently, is favourable… but we still do have vacancies that we have to fill with agency colleagues."

When Wilmslow councillor Lata Anderson (Ind) asked if using agency staff would impact on the council's overall budget, Mrs Birtles said it was more expensive but added: "We have to continue to use agencies because we have statutory duties and legal obligations to identify risk, assess risk and respond to risk.

"We work very hard to ensure our staffing establishment is permanently recruited staff and the use of agencies is short term."

Councillors voted to continue frontline visits to social workers and other staff in the sector.