Filling children and adult social care positions is causing upper-tier chief executives the biggest recruitment headache, according to an exclusive survey by Penna.
Seven in 10 council chief executives surveyed highlighted social care roles – from the frontline right through to senior management level – as the most difficult to recruit to, with 85% putting these positions in their top three hardest to fill.
Penna said it had become ‘almost impossible’ to find directors of adult social services and children’s services.
Some respondents raised fears there was a ‘lack of upcoming talent’ in adult and children’s social care.
According to the research, half believe the hardest senior management job in local government is director of children’s services, compared with less than a quarter who think the chief executive role is the most difficult job.
More than half of the chief executives surveyed said they either would not be or did not know whether they would be in the public sector by the end of the decade.
The results revealed that chief executives are torn over how their job has changed in the last year.
Of those who thought their role had changed, 56% thought it had become more enjoyable while 44% said it had become less so.
One respondent said: ‘This is the best time to be a public sector leader.
'We might not know it, but we are the generation of public servants who are casting what public services will be like in the 21st century.
'It’s hard work, but inspiring and terribly rewarding.’
For half of district chief executives, the biggest recruitment concern was planning, with 83% putting it in their top three.
This compared with the 16% of unitary or London borough chief executives who highlighted planning recruitment as an issue.