Customer success story

Bedford County Council

Bedford Borough Council partnered with Guidant Global to reduce reliance on agency social workers, improve workforce consistency and ensure children in the Borough’s care received the best possible service available.

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Impact at a glance

A workforce development strategy designed to attract and retain high-quality social workers. Reducing agency reliance, improving candidate experience and creating greater consistency of care.

52%

Agency staff reduced to less than 10% in the first 6 months

£1.5m

Agency spend reduction in the first 12 months

Significant improvement

To candidate experience and workforce quality

Greater consistency

In social work and children’s care experiences

43%

Agency spend reduction achieved

Programme impact: Guidant helped Bedford Borough Council build a committed workforce strategy that improved consistency, candidate experience and outcomes for children.

Local GovernmentIndustry

UKRegion supported

2,200Employees

The Situation

Building a committed workforce to improve the lives of children in Bedford.

A need for continuity in children’s services

Due to difficulties attracting and retaining talent, Bedford Borough Council relied on agency staff, making up 52% of their social care workforce — a common story throughout the UK.

Creating a high-quality workforce

Bedford Borough wanted a high-quality, committed workforce. With the help and expertise of Guidant Global’s dedicated account team, headed up by Selena Ayling, Bedford were able to create a workforce development strategy to meet this demand.

Helping children have the best start in life

The strategy ensured that children under the Borough’s care received the best possible service available, ultimately helping them to have the best start in life.

Client profile

Bedford County Council

A UK local government organisation with 2,200 employees, focused on delivering consistent, high-quality support to children and families.

Programme focus

Social work workforce

Guidant supported Bedford in reducing agency reliance, improving candidate attraction and building greater workforce consistency across Children’s Services.

The Challenge

Reducing agency reliance while protecting the quality and consistency of care.

Bedford, like many local authorities, was tackling the challenge of retaining a high-quality permanent workforce. The council needed to make itself attractive to potential new employees in order to attract ambitious and dynamic talent.

High agency reliance

Previously, 52% of Bedford’s social workers were agency staff, creating a high reliance on temporary labour.

Significant workforce churn

Agency staff would come, go, then leave, which created significant churn across the social care workforce.

Lack of continuity

This lack of continuity in service left children with no friendly, familiar face when they were at their most vulnerable.

Candidate attraction

The council recognised the need to improve candidate experience and talent attraction while safeguarding its employer brand.

Improving outcomes for children

The key priority was ensuring children received consistent, high-quality support when they needed it most.

The Solution

A workforce development strategy backed by market insight and local authority expertise.

With Guidant’s extensive expertise with local authorities, Bedford Borough Council was able to build support for a strategy designed to attract passionate social workers and improve consistency in care for vulnerable children.

01 Navigating local authority complexity +

Bedford Borough Council, like many local authorities, had to tackle the challenge of getting plans approved, with a complex process to be adhered to.

02 Providing statistical market data +

Guidant provided a statistical market data report spanning England, Scotland and Wales, giving the Bedford team the evidence needed to present to portfolio holders and council members.

03 Building support for change +

The report helped Bedford build support and ensure that the proposal was passed, creating a foundation for the workforce development strategy.

04 Redefining social work attraction +

As part of the transformation of Children’s Services, Bedford wanted to redefine the world of social work and find passionate people who could help deliver on this vision.

05 Developing attraction programmes +

Guidant worked in partnership with the Children’s Services department on strategies to develop programmes that increased the appeal of working in this sector.

06 Improving consistency in care +

The aim was to attract a highly skilled workforce, improving the consistency in care provided to those most vulnerable.

Results

A stronger employer brand, reduced agency spend and improved outcomes for children.

The result was an employee value proposition which defines the Council’s employer brand values, now embedded in the candidates’ journey — in the initial contact and throughout the onboarding process.

52%

Agency staff reduced to less than 10%

£1.5m

Agency spend reduction

Significant improvement

To candidate experience

Greater consistency

In social work

43%

Reduction in agency spend

Reduced agency reliance

Agency staff were reduced from 52% to less than 10% in the first six months of the project.

Agency spend reduction

The partnership resulted in an agency spend reduction of £1.5m in the first 12 months, an impressive 43% reduction.

Higher-quality workforce

Candidate experience improved significantly, helping Bedford attract a higher-quality workforce.

Better outcomes for children

Greater consistency in social work translated to increasingly positive experiences for children in the Borough’s care.

The development of this new strategy has had a direct impact on the children of Bedford. They are seeing real benefits from this improved consistency in social workers, and the care they have received has improved.

Improved consistency in care

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About

Bedford County Council

Building a committed workforce to improve the lives of children in Bedford.

A need for continuity in children’s services

Creating a high-quality workforce

Helping children have the best start in life

Reducing agency reliance while protecting the quality and consistency of care.

A workforce development strategy backed by market insight and local authority expertise.

A stronger employer brand, reduced agency spend and improved outcomes for children.

Reduced agency reliance

Agency spend reduction

Higher-quality workforce

Better outcomes for children