Recruitment and retention Several authorities are experiencing problems in recruiting enough staff and sometimes in keeping their staff. The pattern varies across the country and the reasons are not entirely clear.
Some local authorities experience more difficulties than others.
The following all affect recruitment. In some communities such as Eilean Siar and Highland, social care jobs have a high status because the communities value the work and because there are opportunities for training and development. This needs to be more consistently the case across the country. Although a number of authorities share recruitment and retention problems, some can both recruit and keep hold of staff across all sectors while their neighbouring authorities are struggling to do the same. Those authorities that have the fewest problems provide high levels of support to front-line staff.