Children's Services agency staff (FOI)

​Request

A

The amount of money that has been spent on agency staff for Children’s Services between 2011 and 2015 – a breakdown for each year.

B

A breakdown on what the money was used for, including accommodation, expenses, salary. The number of agency staff that have been drafted in for Children's Services between 2011 and 2015 a breakdown for each year and the percentage of the work force.

C

The number of agency staff in managerial positions that have been drafted in for Children's Services between 2011 and 2015 - a breakdown for each year.

D

Total number of fulltime employees who work for Children's Services.

E

Total number of fulltime managers who work for Children's Services.

F

A breakdown of the length of time spent by agency staff in the Island for each year between 2011 and 2015.

G

The reasons why agency staff were called upon between 2011 and 2015 and the process once their temporary contract is up - are more agency staff hired or fulltime staff?

Response

A 

B

This information is not held in the Health and Social Services Department’s human resources or finance systems and the time required to collate the information from alternative sources would exceed the limit specified in regulations.

C

As above.

D

131 (excluding managers as of 18 May 2016.)

E

Eight (as of 18 May 2016).

F

This information is not held by the Health and Social Services Department. 

G

Agency staff are contracted when permanent staff have been unable to be recruited to posts which are required operationally. These may be frontline social workers in Children’s Services or managers.

Children’s Services work with some of the most vulnerable children in Jersey and the filling of posts on a permanent basis is the preferable course of action. 

However, staff of the appropriate skill, knowledge and experience can be difficult to recruit to some posts and so sourcing agency staff is the appropriate safe course of action to meet operational requirements. 

Recruitment processes will continue while agency staff are in place to try and secure permanent staff and once secured, plans for handover and conclusion of agency staff contracts will take place.

In 2014 and 2015, there were a number of management posts including the director which needed to be filled by experienced senior professionals; these were filled by agency or interim staff in advance of recruitment to the posts on a permanent basis.

Exemptions and or refusals applied to this request:

Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014 allows an authority to refuse a request for information where the estimated cost of dealing with the request would exceed the specified amount of the cost limit of £500. This is the estimated cost of one person spending 12.5 working hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.