Social work and fostering resourcing (FOI)

Request

Please can you provide me with the following in relation to Children Social Care?

A

How many Social Workers have left the service in the past 12months?

B

How many social worker posts are currently vacant ?

C

How many agency Social Workers are within the service and average length of time they stay?

D

What is the current daily rate of an agency social worker compared to a permanent member of staff?

E

How many intensive foster parents are there?

F

How many enquiries came from the latest teenage foster recruitment?

G

Is there a view that fostering maybe more supported from the Island community if delivered by a third sector organisation rather than a failing Children Social Care service?

Response

A

In the past 12 months six social workers have left the Children’s Service.

B

There are currently 33 vacancies for permanent posts however 20 agency workers are filling these posts.

C

There are currently 20 agency recruited Social Workers within the service and the average length of stay is 10.5 months.

D

The current agency rate is £42.50 per hour, however, this is not the final salary to the worker as the agency will take a percentage as a fee. A permanent social worker starts on £25.79 per hour and this rises to £28.42 per hour (2021 rate), depending on the length of continuous employment.

E

The Scheduled Public Authority have determined that to provide the specific number of intensive foster parents would likely breach the privacy of individuals and therefore, Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

F

The Scheduled Public Authority have determined that to provide the specific number of enquiries would likely breach the privacy of individuals and therefore, Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

G

There is no provision within the law for a third sector organisation to exist in Jersey to provide this service therefore this is not being considered at this time.

Articles Applied

Article 25 - Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.