Dear Sir or Madam,

RE - Recruitment of Social Workers

Under the Freedom of Information Act please email me a copy of any
information you hold on your policies, procedures and guidance for
the recruitment of Social Workers. Including how, when and where
job adverts are placed, how long they placed and after the closing
date how long the interview process should take. How the
shortlisting of job applications is undertaken and recorded. How
long you retain copies of job applications and related information.
How shortlisted candidates should be interviewed and what methods
of assessment and interview are used. How interview questions,
assessments and case study exercises are devised and formulated.
Copies and details of any guidance and training interviewers are
given on how to conduct interviews, record and evaluate how
interviewees respond to questions, complete assessments or case
study exercises. What procedures should be followed to inform
candidates of the outcome of any interview/assessment. What
criteria is used to make one candidate more successful or
employable than any other.

Yours faithfully,

Charlotte R Quinn

Link: [1]File-List

Thank you for your Freedom of Information Act request received this week.
Your request has been processed, and your unique reference number is
262899. Please make note of this reference number should you need to
contact us about your request.

Our team has sent your request to the appropriate service area within
Islington Council, and an officer from that team will respond directly to
your request.

If you have any questions, please contact us by email at
[2][Islington Borough Council request email] or by phone on 020 7527 1788.

Kind Regards,

Amy Harms
Knowledge Manager
TSG Information Governance
Islington Council
60 Highbury New Park, N5 2DJ
Tel: 020 7527 1788
Alternative contact: Kit Good 020 7527 1789

www.islington.gov.uk

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References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01C9A3FA.EC1991E0
2. mailto:[Islington Borough Council request email]
3. http://www.islington.gov.uk/freedomofinf...
4. mailto:[Islington Borough Council request email]
5. http://www.islington.gov.uk/

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of
Information reviews. This request is currently overdue a response
from Islington Borough Council. By law, the response had to be
prompt but no later than 15 July 2009

I am writing to request an internal review of Islington Borough
Council's handling of my FOI request 'Recruitment of Social
Workers'.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/re...

Yours faithfully,

Charlotte R Quinn

Dear Ms. Quinn,

My apologies for the delay in responding to your FOI request.
Unfortunately my time scales for responding to your request slipped due
to the holiday period and the dreaded flu.

Many of the questions which you have asked are matters of general
practice rather than recorded guidelines so I have described the main
process and am happy to provide you with specimens if you so wish.

The recruitment process depends upon a core recruitment document 'person
specification', which contains the core requirements for the job, listed
under the headings of : qualifications, experience, knowledge, skills
and abilities.

Each of the requirements should satisfy a non-discrimination test, viz.
should not directly or indirectly discriminate on the grounds of race,
gender, disability,age, sexuality and religious belief.

This document is used to draw up the advert, do the shortlist and
conduct the interview and finally to score the candidates to reach a
final judgement.

All jobs are advertised on the council's website - See:
http://www.islington.gov.uk/Careers/. The recruitment process for
social workers is basically not different from that of other job roles
within the council.

Jobs are usually out for advert for two weeks.

Once the job advert has closed candidates are shortlisted, invited to
interview, interviewed, references and other checks undertaken. In
December 2007 for all jobs the time lapse from advert close to
provisional offer date - was 21.4 days in the preceding 12 month period.
For social workers because of the safe recruitment aspect and the
importance of rigorous checking this may take slightly longer

Candidates are shortlisted by the selection panel using a shortlisting
analysis form. This provides a grid for the person shortlisting to
assess each candidate against the person specification.

Shortlisted candidates are invited to interview. The interview panel
and / or chair of the panel should have attended the recruitment and
selection training [see below].

Interview questions are usually formed based on the requirement of the
job role. The questions are usually set by the interview panel.

Case studies, if they are used should reflect the job role requirements.

During the interview, candidates are scored against each item on the
person specification and the scores recorded on an interview assessment
form.

The successful candidates will be the one with the highest scores.
Usually each item is scored on a 1 - 5, with 1, being the lowest score.

At the interview the panel may inform the candidates about how they are
going to give the results of the interviews - generally this is either
by phone or by letter within an agreed timescale.

In terms of the training - anyone involved in recruitment/selection must
attend our recruitment and selection training.

The objectives of the full day course are listed below:

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

* Recruit and select in line with the policy and procedure and
principles of equality of opportunity

* List the stages of Islington's Recruitment and Selection procedure

* Write a person specification from a job description

* Short list an application form against a person spec in line with
Islington's equal opportunities in employment procedure on recruitment
and selection

* Explain the roles and responsibilities of panel members, including
the chair.

* Write interview questions from a person specification and use
different questioning techniques

Inevitably the recruitment process depends on a considerable of
professional interaction and the training depends upon role play which
is difficult to copy to you.

Again may I apologize for the delay in my response. If you have any
further queries please do not hesitate in contacting me.

Best wishes,

Kevin Glover

Human Resources

Corporate Resources
London Borough of Islington

First Floor

7 Newington Barrow Way

London N7 7EP
Tel: 020 7527 2802

Fax: 020 7527 2965
Alternative Contact: HR Express on 020 7527 6070 www.islington.gov.uk

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Dear Ms Quinn,

I have had a look at the request and the response that was made to you and
it seems that your primary area of concern related to process issues
- mainly that the request was overdue. Your FOI request, reference FOI
262899, was received on the 17th June 2009 and responded to you on the 23
rd July. The due date, in terms of the legislative requirement under the
Act to provide you a response within 20 days, was the 15th July.

The Council takes the issue of compliance seriously, with regular reports
to our Corporate Management Board and devolved responsibility within
service areas to respond to information requests. Sometimes we do not
resolve the requests on time and are striving to constantly improve this
process.

Please accept the Council's apologies for the overdue response.

In terms of the response received, can I assume that you're satisfied that
we have provided you with the information you were seeking? If you are
not satisfied, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

yours sincerely

Jeremy Tuck

Chief Information Officer
Islington Council
London
N5 2DJ

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References

Visible links
1. http://www.islington.gov.uk/freedomofinf...
2. mailto:[Islington Borough Council request email]
3. http://www.islington.gov.uk/

Jeremy Tuck
Chief Information Officer
Islington Council
London
N5 2DJ

Dear Tuck, Jeremy,

I wish to request an Independent review of how you have failed to
provide the information I requested, you have not provided any
information that existed at the time of my request, you have just
provided new information in the form of a policy statement.

For a better idea of what information I am actually requesting
please view responses from other local authorities, as shown below.
They seem only to happy to provide a fuller and less restrictive
response to my request.

Northamptonshire County Council

21 Documents disclosed

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/re...

Tower Hamlets

5 documents disclosed

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/re...

Kensington & Chelsea Borough Council

19 Documents disclosed

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/re...

Wirral Borough Council

12 Documents disclosed

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/re...

It appears when comparing the above responses to Islington Borough
Council's, you consider it maybe ok to give a very limited,
possibly unlawful, response to my request.

Yours sincerely,

Charlotte R Quinn