The Audit Committee discussed the council's performance in providing adult social care to people in their homes, and the process of recruiting new social workers to deliver that care. The committee decided to ask the council's senior management team to investigate the relationship between the amount the council spends on recruiting social workers and the speed with which they are able to fill vacancies.

Adult Social Care in Tower Hamlets

The Audit Committee discussed a report on the state of adult social care in the borough. The report highlighted the difficulty the council is having recruiting and retaining qualified social workers. The report explained that there was a national shortage of qualified social workers, and that Tower Hamlets was finding it difficult to compete with other boroughs who were able to offer higher salaries. In March of 2023 Tower Hamlets had only been able to fill 65% of its social worker positions.

The committee discussed the impact of this staffing shortage on the quality of care the council was able to provide. The council was able to demonstrate that despite the staffing challenges they faced, they were still able to meet their statutory obligations to vulnerable adults in the borough. However, some members of the committee expressed concern that this came at a cost. For example, Councillor Kabir Ahmed was recorded in the minutes saying:

I'm concerned that we're increasingly reliant on agency staff. This is costing the council more money and it's not good for the continuity of care that we're able to provide.

Councillor Ahmed's comments reflect the fact that, across London, local authorities are finding it increasingly difficult to square the circle of rising demand for social care with the rising cost of providing that care. This is something that London Councils have been lobbying the government on for a number of years. You can read about their proposals to reform the way adult social care is funded in their draft budget submission to the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

In response to Councillor Ahmed's comments, council officers explained that they were taking a number of steps to improve recruitment and retention of social workers. This includes offering enhanced pay and benefits packages, as well as investing in training and development opportunities for staff.

Councillor Marc Francis asked officers how the amount of money the council spent on recruitment related to the time it took to fill a vacancy. He suggested that there was a relationship between the two, but that officers were failing to consider the issue carefully enough:

If we spent more money on recruitment advertising, would we not fill these positions faster? And wouldn't that save us money in the long run as we would be paying less in overtime and agency fees?

The committee agreed with this analysis and asked the council's senior management team to look into the issue and report back to them at a future meeting.

Awaab's Law

The committee received a report on the implementation of Awaab's Law. Awaab's Law is a new law that came into force in England in January 2024. It requires landlords to ensure that their properties are free from damp and mould.

The law is named after Awaab Ishak, a two-year-old boy who died in December 2020 from a respiratory condition caused by prolonged exposure to mould in his family's Rochdale Boroughwide Housing flat. The coroner at Awaab’s inquest found that his death was caused by mould and damp in the property, and that his exposure to those conditions was a direct result of Rochdale Boroughwide Housing's failure to adequately respond to his family’s repeated complaints about the state of the property.

The new law introduces a legally binding timetable for landlords to investigate and remediate damp and mould in their properties, which varies according to the severity of the case. The law is intended to prevent any more families from having to suffer the way the Ishak family have.

The council officers were able to demonstrate that they were well on their way to being compliant with the new law, and that they were taking a proactive approach to identifying and addressing any instances of damp and mould in their housing stock. The committee expressed their satisfaction with this, noting that Tower Hamlets is one of the most densely populated boroughs in London and so it is especially important that the council proactively manages the quality of its housing stock.