Dear Northamptonshire County Council,

Please could you provide me with answers to the following questions?

1. Who is the main contact/contacts for Children’s Social Care?

2. Please provide details of any contracts you may have with ‘Managed Service Providers’ e.g. Comensura or Matrix. This is in relation to the provision of social workers, senior practitioners, assistant team managers, team managers and service managers within Children’s Services (referred to from now on as "qualified social work professionals"?

nb Comensura or Matrix provide neutral vendor frameworks to manage all recruitment agencies on behalf of Public Authorities like yourselves.

3. In the event that you have a ‘Managed Service Provider’ and they have been unable to supply a qualified social worker do you deal directly with other recruitment agencies who can fill your vacancies on an off framework basis?

4. If you do not have a Managed Service Provider in place, please provide details of contracts you may have with individual recruitment agencies or other providers for the provision of qualified social work professionals?

5. Please provide the TOTAL number of qualified social workers currently working on a recruitment agency basis within Children’s Services.

6. Please provide the NUMBER and GRADE of qualified social work professionals working on an agency basis by SUPPLIER.

7. Please provide the NUMBER and GRADE of qualified social work professionals working on an agency basis by DEPARTMENT.

8. Please provide the pay and agency charge rate of each qualified social work professional currently working on an agency basis.

9. What is the total fiscal SPEND on agency qualified social work professionals within Children’s Services in the last 12 months 2013 – 2014?

10. What is the total fiscal BUDGET for agency qualified social work professionals within Children’s Services in the last 12 months 2013 - 2014?

11. What is the fiscal budget for qualified social work professionals specifically for Children’s Services recruitment through agencies for 2014 -2015?

Yours faithfully,

L Dawson