Resources & Performance
Director: Mike Parsons
Simon
Information Governance Unit
[FOI #31876 email]
Hertfordshire County Council
CHO150, Room C1, County Hall
Pegs Lane, Hertford
Hertfordshire
SG13 8DQ
Telephone:
01992 555848
Fax:
01992 588117
Email:
[email address]
Date:
29th April 2010
Reference number: FOI/CSF/04/10/2013
Dear Simon
On 1st April 2010, we received the following request for information from you:
Would it be possible to get an average cummulative cost per case of
having a child on the child protection register... E.G case
conferences, allocation of social worker to a family etc.
Your request for information has been considered under the Freedom of Information Act
2000. I can confirm that Hertfordshire County Council does not hold the information you
have requested.
However mindful of our duty to advice and assist we can provide the following
indicative costs for Social Worker (SW) hours only throughout the required process:
Strategy Meeting
SW has to read historical files before meeting if there has been previous involvement with
the family, even for a rough overview this will take at least half an hour plus approx 1 hour
for meeting (SW and Team Manager) - plus time to write up discussion approx half an
hour.
2.0
hours
please note that in several cases there will be more than one strategy meeting.
Agency checks
normally checks with 4/5 agencies - SW/Professional Assistant (PA) writes and faxes
letter and phones agencies.
2.0 hours
Child Protection investigation
SW and PA - this is not easy to give an average for time spent as it depends on each
case, but at least half a day to get Child Protection medical done. If child is subject to
video interview then this would also take at least half a day. Both of these activities might
include transporting the child to the respective meetings, taking them home after and
feeding back to the parents about the concerns that have been raised. Liaison with other
www.hertsdirect.org
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professionals with regard to sharing information and checking out facts; probably about 2
hours. Writing up record detailing all the above about 1.5 hours. Discussion between SW
and TM throughout this process and writing up decision making about 1 hour.
12 hours
Initial Child Protection Conference
Worker has to write the report, have it signed off by a manager, take it to the family to
discuss with parent and child (if age appropriate)
4.0 hours
Attending
the
ICPC,
1.5 hours
Monthly Core Groups
Worker has to arrange meeting, minute meeting and record. TM attends first Core Group -
so 2 x workers at first
meeting.
2.0 hours per meeting
Statutory Visit
SW visits at least every 4 weeks - may also be involved in doing work with child or parent
outside of these Stat visits. Plus write up
3.0 hours per visit
Liaison with other Agencies
Contact by phone/email or face to face meetings by SW with all other Core Group
members (between Core Groups for updates and info sharing)
2.0 hours per month.
Review Child Protection Conference
SW writes report, TM authorises report, SW shares report with parent and child (if age
approp) before the meeting
4 hours per Review
Attending
the
RCPC
1.5 hours
This adds up to
34 hours per month in the first month plus a
recurrent 7 hours per
month plus the
extra 5.5 hours each month there is a review conference.
Each individual child’s circumstances will determine how long a child remains on
the Child Protection Register.
The average hourly pay for a Social Worker varies according to their experience
between £13.41 and £17.44, however at the lower end a recently qualified Social
worker would require more supervision from a Team manager. An agency social
worker costs £25 per hour on average.
The above costs do not include management and administrative support costs, the
salary costs for school, health and police staff who also work on child protection
cases, write reports and undertake home visits, meetings and so on.
These costs also exclude the provision of any purchased services to address the
parenting issues including domestic violence, substance misuse etc nor do they
include services to address the needs of the child for additional support.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me, quoting the reference
number on this letter. To find out more about Freedom of Information, please visit
www.hertsdirect.org/foi
If you are unhappy with the way the County Council has handled your request for
information, you may complain through the County Council's complaints procedure
which
is available at
www.hertsdrect.org/complaints
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If you are unhappy with the outcome of the complaints procedure you are entitled to ask
the Information Commissioner to investigate your complaint. You should write to: FOI/EIR
Complaints Resolution, Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Yours sincerely
Elaine Dunnicliffe
Senior Information Access Practitioner
Hertfordshire County Council
The Information Governance Unit supports Hertfordshire County Council's Data Protection,
Freedom of Information and Records Management activity.
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