Health and Community Services Agency Nurses - January 2024 (FOI)

​​​Request

Please advise how many Agency Nurses are employed by Health and Community Servicesas at 31 January 2024.  Also, please confirm on what pay scale and for what length of time has each individual has been employed as an Agency Nurse.

Response

80 Agency nurses were contracted to Health and Community Services (HCS) on 31 January 2024.

The attached table details the first engagement date of each individual contracted. Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied to protect the personal information of individuals, and data has been pseudonymised with an ID number in place of any personal identifier.

Dates of first engagement of agency nursing staff.pdf​

Agency staff are engaged through contract, rather than directly employed into salaried posts within the substantive pay scales. The contract of services is commercially sensitive and as such, HCS considers that disclosure of rates of pay and / or agency fees would likely prejudice the commercial interests of the department and / or others. Therefore, Article 33 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

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.

Article 33 - Commercial interests

Information is qualified exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes a trade secret; or

(b) its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including the scheduled public authority holding the information).

Public Interest Test

Article 33 is a qualified exemption and as such, HCS has conducted a prejudice test as required by law. 

When responding to requests of this nature, HCS has to balance the public interest with the impact that disclosing this information would, or would be likely to, have upon the organisation and / or third parties. Whilst it may be in the public interest to understand the costs of contracting external resources, protecting the commercial interests of HCS is an essential component in controlling public finances, which in itself is in the public interest.

Agency staff services need to be contracted and negotiated frequently to meet clinical demand and cover periods of leave or absence of substantive clinical staff, as required. Disclosing information relating to contractual service arrangements is likely to prejudice the commercial interests of HCS and others. 

When considering the application of this exemption, HCS has determined that whilst it is in the public interest to disclose information, this is outweighed by the necessity to limit any impact on the commercial interests of HCS and third parties in future contract negotiations, and as such, Article 33 has been applied.​