Social worker shortage in county

Lincolnshire is suffering from a chronic shortage of social workers who can deal with cases involving children, a new report says.

The social services directorate says the county's budget is not sufficient to handle the demand.

Lincolnshire's director of social services, Matt Bukowski, said: "We have a shortage of social workers - at least in some parts of the county such as east coast - and we are not able to recruit enough workers to respond to the demand."

There is only one county in the country that spends less than Lincolnshire County Council on social services, he added.

'Extreme pressures'

Mr Bukowski said: "There are not enough social workers to deliver the level of service that the social services inspectorate expects of us."

The £100m social services budget in Lincolnshire is 14% lower than the national average.

At least an additional £20m is needed to run the service at the level that the social services directorate wants, Mr Bukowski claimed.

The social services directorate report is being discussed by the county officials on Tuesday.

The report says extreme pressures on Lincolnshire resources are not being dealt with, but Mr Bukowski says children are not at risk.

"Where we identify a children is at risk - we will deal with those cases," he said.

"Those cases that are not allocated, we will monitor them on an on-going basis.

"I am confident the council understands what it needs to do to improve the performance of its social services."