Social workers (FOI)

​Request

A

Please provide the number of cases currently receiving support from a social worker in Jersey

B

Please provide the number of social workers in Jersey.

C

Please provide the % of cases currently in receipt of support from a social worker, by the following demographic:

• Single male, aged 18 to 24
• Single male, aged 25 and over
• Single female, aged 18 to 24
• Single female aged 25 and over
• Dual parent families
• Single parent families

D

Please provide, in detail, the current written policy which describes the eligibility criteria for provision of support from a social worker in Jersey.

E

Please provide the minimum Residential status you need to be to receive support from a social worker in Jersey.

F

Is there a waiting list of people and families who meet the criteria for receiving support from a social worker, but are yet to receive any? If this is the case, provide the reason(s) why.

Clarification

The applicant confirmed that statistics relating only to the Integrated Adult Social Work Team would be sufficient (see note below).

Note

It is important to note that these answers relate only to the business of the Integrated Adult Social Work Team. That team consists of social workers, nurses, and social work assistants and therefore the response below will refer to case co-ordinators rather than social workers.

It is also important to note that this does not, therefore, answer the original question in the way it was originally asked, as an answer can only be given for that specific team. Subsequently, the response excludes all case-holding work undertaken by Mental Health Services, Older Adult Mental Health Services, Leaving Care Services, Jersey Adult Autism Service, and Learning Disability Services.

Response

Figures are current as of 21 July 2016. 

A

The current number of people actively supported by a case co-ordinator based in the    Integrated Adult Social Work Team is 703, plus 522 people who are held on a review database and flagged for review no less than annually.

B

The current staffing in the Integrated Adult Social Work Team is as shown:

• Team Manager x 1
• Senior Social Worker x 2
• Social Workers x 11.5 FTE
• Long Term Care Nurses x 2
• Social Work Assistants x 2 FTE
• Team Administrator x 1

C

The current percentages are as shown:

• male aged under 24: 5%
• male aged 25 or over: 38%
• female aged under 24: 3%
• female aged 25 or over: 54%

This answer is slightly different to the question that was asked, which requested numbers for people aged 18 to 24. 

This is because the team would commonly commence working with people who are under 18 in preparation for transition at 18 years of age.

Information on the marital status of clients is not available as this data is not routinely captured in a format that can be extracted electronically.

D

There is not currently a Jersey policy on provision of social work assessments or services. 

As best practice, the Integrated Adult Social Work Team provides services in line with the UK Community Care Act 1990 (s47) and more recently, the Care Act 2014 (s9). The UK legislation is not legally binding in Jersey.

These state “Where it appears to a local authority that any person for whom they may provide or arrange for the provision of community care services may be in need of any such services, the authority:
(a) shall carry out an assessment of his needs for those services; and

(b) having regard to the results of that assessment, shall then decide whether his needs call for the provision by them of any such services.”
and
“(1) Where it appears to a local authority that an adult may have needs for care and support, the authority must assess —
(a) whether the adult does have needs for care and support, and

(b) if the adult does, what those needs are” respectively.

The provision made is primarily based on eligibility following assessment for Long-term Care Benefit under the Long-term Care (Jersey) Law 2012, which is local legislation.

E

Residential status has no relevance to provision of a social work service. 

Provision of services is subject to the residency requirements of Long-term Care Benefit Legislation and the Health and Social Services Department’s Residents and Non-residents Charging Policy, however provision of an assessment is not affected by residency:

Download Residents and Non-residents Charging Policy (size 320kb)

F

Yes, current staffing versus work incoming means that the service currently has a waiting list of 90.