Workload pressures and Children's Social Work Teams 2

The request was partially successful.

Dear Warwickshire County Council,

1. The Care Planning, Placement and Case Review Regulations 2010 (Care Planning Regulations)

a. Can you please specify the workload implications of the implementation for Children’s Social Work Teams?
b. Did your Authority create any new processes and paperwork to meet the requirements of these regulations? If yes please specify?
c. What work did your Authority undertake to identify the workload implications of the above named regulations?
d. Did your Authority identify any resource implications for Children’s Social Work Teams from the implementation of these regulations If yes please specify?
e. How much average extra Social work time is required to meet the requirements of these regulations per Looked after child?

2. Time off in lieu

a. How many hours are staff working on average a week for each social work team?
b. Please specify the current average amount of TOIL balance per worker for each of your Children’s Social Work Teams?
c. Please specify the current maximum amount of the TOIL balance of any individual worker on each of your Children’s Social Work Teams?

3. Sickness absence and stress

a. If you don’t record ‘work related stress’ please provide the current average level of sickness absence recorded as stress for Children’s Social Work Services in comparison to the Council average?

4. New ways of working

a. Have you implemented any new ways of working for your Children’s Social Work Teams? If yes please describe and specify?
b. Do you have any plans to introduce further new ways of working for your Children’s Social Work Teams in the next 12 months? If yes please specify?

Yours faithfully,

Mr J. Jones

Warwickshire County Council

Dear Mr Jones,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST
Thank you for your request for information, which I acknowledge was
received by the County Council on 05/09/2011

Your request is currently being considered. If the County Council is able
to provide you with the information you have requested, then under the
Freedom Of Information Act you are entitled to receive it within 20
working days.

For your information, the FOI Act defines a number of exemptions which may
prevent release of some or all of the information you have requested. The
County Council will assess your information request in light of the
exemptions. If exemptions do apply, then the County Council may decide
not to release all, or part, of the information you have requested. I
shall inform you if this is the case, and advise you of your rights of
appeal.

If the information you request contains reference to a third party then
they may be consulted prior to a decision being taken by the County
Council as to whether to release the information to you. You will be kept
informed if this is the case.

Any information provided to you would ordinarily be provided to you as an
e-mail, in normal font size. If you require an alternative format, e.g.
paper copy, in a different language, or in audio, large print, etc. then
please let me know.

The County Council will not charge a fee to provide you with the
information you have requested, provided the cost of dealing with your
request is less than **450. If it appears likely that your request will
cost more than **450 to deal with then I will write to you again asking if
you are willing to pay the fees incurred, and setting out clearly what
those fees will be, in accordance with the FOI Act.

If you have any queries or should you wish to make a complaint about the
manner in which your request is being dealt with then please do not
hesitate to contact me at the above address in the first instance. Any
complaints will be dealt with under the County Council's internal review
procedure.

Further information about your rights under the Freedom of Information
Act, is available from the Information Commissioner's Office (0303 123
1113) or [1]www.ico.gov.ukand on the County Council's website.

I will be in touch again shortly.

Yours sincerely

Jonathan Sheward

Information Administrator
Information Governance Team
Resources Group
Warwickshire County Council
Saltisford Office Park
Ansell Way
Warwick
CV34 4UL

Tel no: 01926 743044
Int: 58 3044

E-mail: [email address]

This transmission is intended for the named addressee(s) only and may
contain sensitive or protectively marked material up to RESTRICTED and
should be handled accordingly. Unless you are the named addressee (or
authorised to receive it for the addressee) you may not copy or use it, or
disclose it to anyone else. If you have received this transmission in
error please notify the sender immediately. All email traffic sent to or
from us, including without limitation all GCSX traffic, may be subject to
recording and/or monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.ico.gov.uk/

Warwickshire County Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Jones,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST

Your request for information has now been considered, and our responses
are provided below:

1. The Care Planning, Placement and Case Review Regulations 2010 (Care
Planning Regulations:

a. Can you please specify the workload implications of the
implementation for Children's Social Work Teams?

At this stage it is too early to specify the workload implications
for Children's Social Work teams. Certainly the regulations mean that the
frequency of visiting to
children will increase and our processes mean that the meetings
to manage care planning arrangements will increase.

b. Did your Authority create any new processes and paperwork to meet
the requirements of these regulations? If yes please
specify?

We have created new process and paperwork as follows:

The introduction of a Looked after children strategy meeting to
consider requests for accommodation under s20 of the Children Act 1989
The introduction of a form to approve placements for all out of
area placements with non-Warwickshire registered foster carers.
New care plan
New health assessment forms
New PEP forms
New placement plan
New processes re visiting arrangements.

c. What work did your Authority undertake to identify the workload
implications of the above named regulations?

No specific work has been undertaken re the workload implications
although we will be monitoring these through allocation and reporting
mechanisms.

d. Did your Authority identify any resource implications for
Children's Social Work Teams from the implementation of these
regulations If yes please specify?

At this stage we have not identified specific resource implications
although these will be monitored as outlined above.

e. How much average extra Social work time is required to meet the
requirements of these regulations per Looked after child?

As above.

2. Time off in lieu:

a. How many hours are staff working on average a week for each social
work team?
b. Please specify the current average amount of TOIL balance per
worker for each of your Children's Social Work Teams?
c. Please specify the current maximum amount of the TOIL balance of
any individual worker on each of your Children's Social
Work Teams?

Warwickshire does not formally collate the working hours for social
workers. This is discussed between managers and social workers on an
individual basis in
supervision through the workload management tool. Any issues
arising from workload management are reported to senior managers.

3. Sickness absence and stress:

a. If you don't record `work related stress' please provide the
current average level of sickness absence recorded as stress
for Children's Social Work Services in comparison to the Council
average?

Absence for the 2010/11 financial year:

All figures are days lost per full time equivalent.
Warwickshire county council figures exclude schools and
firefighters.
Stress related to work is not captured, figures above include all
absences relating to stress whether or not it is related to work.

.4. New ways of working:

a. Have you implemented any new ways of working for your Children's
Social Work Teams? If yes please describe and specify?

Warwickshire has been undergoing a transformation to business
processes.
We introduced "Project Nomad" 3 years ago and the majority of
teams now have a tablet pc which enables them to work more flexibly across
the county.

b. Do you have any plans to introduce further new ways of working for
your Children's Social Work Teams in the next 12 months?
If yes please specify?

We are working upon a transformation of ICT processes to implement
electronic social care recording.
We are also moving to a model of co-locating teams from
different professional backgrounds to improve holistic service delivery.

You have the right to request that the County Council carry out an
internal review if you are not satisfied with the way your request was
dealt with or wish to appeal the decision. A request for an internal
review should be made in writing and addressed to me at the address above.
All requests for an internal review will be dealt with under the County
Council's internal review procedure.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the internal review you may
appeal to the Information Commissioner's Office, at the following address:

FOI Compliance Team (complaints)
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113

Yours sincerely

Jonathan Sheward

Information Administrator
Information Governance Team
Resources Group
Warwickshire County Council
Saltisford Office Park
Ansell Way
Warwick
CV34 4UL

Tel no: 01926 743044
Int: 58 3044

E-mail: [email address]

This transmission is intended for the named addressee(s) only and may
contain sensitive or protectively marked material up to RESTRICTED and
should be handled accordingly. Unless you are the named addressee (or
authorised to receive it for the addressee) you may not copy or use it, or
disclose it to anyone else. If you have received this transmission in
error please notify the sender immediately. All email traffic sent to or
from us, including without limitation all GCSX traffic, may be subject to
recording and/or monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation.