Social work staffing expenditure

The request was successful.

To whom it may concern,

This request concerns the Council's social work provision for both children and adults for the 2015-16, 2016-17, and 2017-18 budget years.

Should the following questions exceed your time and budgetary restrictions, we ask that as per Section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act you kindly assist us in formulating our request before the statutory 20 days waiting time. We are available to discuss this over the phone on 07940074548 if more convenient.

First, please provide a basic definition for permanent social workers and a definition for agency workers (i.e. staff who are used temporarily to cover shortfalls in permanent staffing levels).

Then for each of the three years separately, please detail:

Wage:
a) the average annual salary for permanent social workers in the team, and the annual salary for the most junior level of permanent social worker you employ.
b) The hourly equivalent of these annual salaries, based only on working hours and not on allotted annual leave, bank holidays, development days etc. (i.e. annual salary divided by contracted work hours)
c) the average hourly wage for agency staff.
d) the agency fee, and how this works, i.e. is it a one off up-front cost or an hourly commission for each agency staff member? If it is the latter, please highlight whether this is included within the hourly agency staff wage or is an additional cost on top.

Hours:
a) the total number of annual contracted hours for permanent social workers. Please divide this into working hours, and non-working hours (i.e. annual leave entitlement, bank holidays, development days etc.).
b) the actual number of permanent staff hours worked in total across the whole team.
c) the actual number of agency staff hours worked in total.
d) The percentage of total agency hours that covered permanent staff vacancies, rather than maternity or sick leave.
e) the average timeframe that individual agency staff members worked within the service (i.e. how long do they normally stay?).

Benefits:
a) Any additional benefits offered/given to permanent staff members including pension contributions (and the total cost of these), and any additional benefits offered/given to agency staff members, including pension contributions (and the total cost of these).
b) Any costs that permanent staff members can claim back, but which agency staff members have to absorb themselves - for example travel/petrol costs. In such cases, please detail the total cost of these permanent staff claims.
c) Any incentives you offer as part of the recruitment of social workers, either to social workers themselves or recruitment consultants, for example relocation packages (and the cost of these).

Total Cost:
a) The total cost of permanent staff members and the total cost of agency staff members.

Then, looking at the current situation:
- How many permanent full time equivalent staff members are currently employed?
- How many full time equivalent agency staff are currently employed covering permanent positions (not maternity or sick leave)?
- What are the names of the agencies used by the council to provide temporary social workers?
- What was the number of applications you had for the last five permanent social worker roles that were advertised (and over what time-period this was)?

If there are questions for which you do not hold the information, please tell us why this is, where this information can be found, and who to contact.

Please provide all information in a machine readable format, i.e. an Excel spreadsheet or similar, and not in a scanned pdf format.

Yours faithfully,

M. Richards and A. Charles

Freedom of Information, Croydon Borough Council

 

Dear Mr Richards

 

Freedom of Information Request

 

Thank you for your recent request.

 

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Yours sincerely

 

Joanne Welch-Hall

FOI Co-ordinator

Croydon Council

 

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Freedom of Information, Croydon Borough Council

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Richards

 

Freedom of Information Request

Please see attached the council's response to your Freedom of Information
request.

Yours sincerely

 

Ahtisham Riaz

FOI Coordinator

Croydon Council

 

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