Public sector staff report data and statement

​​​​​​​This Freedom of Information response is subject to an appeal with the Jersey Office of the Information Commissioner.

Once published, a link to the Commissioner’s Decision Notice will be added to this page.

Request ​824973128

Agency or temporary to permanent conversion data

For the period 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025, please provide:

a. the number of agency, locum or other temporary workers converted to permanent employment, by department and, where already recorded without creating a new dataset, by pay group or grade;

b. the principal recorded document or documents, dataset, methodology note, calculation sheet, briefing note or equivalent formal record relied upon to support the public statement that moving staff to permanent contracts reduced consultancy costs and was a more efficient use of public funds.

Response

A

32 people who were originally contracted to Health and Care Jersey as agency staff joined as permanent employees between 01 January 2026 and 31 December 2026:

• Allied Health Professions: 6
• Nursing and Midwifery: 22
• Medical (Doctors): 4

At 2025 pay scales, calculated expenditure for these staff at substantive employee rates yields savings of £1.475 million against the average differential pay for equivalent agency work across a full year.

B

The public statement was not made by Health and Care Jersey, and the Department cannot speculate on the records considered as foundation for this comment.​​

_____________________________________________________________________

Internal review request

1. Date period applied to part (a)​

The request sought information for the period 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025.

The response states that:

“32 people who were originally contracted to Health and Care Jersey as agency staff joined as permanent employees between 01 January 2026 and 31 December 2026.”

Please review whether this is a typographical error or whether the response has applied the wrong date period.

Please confirm whether the figures provided — Allied Health Professions 6, Nursing and Midwifery 22, Medical Doctors 4, total 32 — relate to the requested period of 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025.

If the figures do not relate to that period, please provide the reviewed response for the correct period, or confirm the Article relied upon if the information is not held.

Please also review whether searches considered the full wording of the request, namely agency, locum or other temporary workers, rather than agency staff only.​

2. Part (b) – recorded documents / dataset / methodology / calculation sheet / briefing note

Part (b) requested:

“the principal recorded document or documents, dataset, methodology note, calculation sheet, briefing note or equivalent formal record relied upon to support the public statement that moving staff to permanent contracts reduced consultancy costs and was a more efficient use of public funds.”

The response states that the public statement was not made by Health and Care Jersey and that the Department cannot speculate on the records considered as foundation for the comment.

Please review whether that answers part (b) of the request.

In particular, please confirm:

1. whether Health and Care Jersey holds any recorded document, dataset, methodology note, calculation sheet, briefing note or equivalent formal record within the scope of part (b);
2. whether any record is held by another person, team or function on behalf of Health and Care Jersey;
3. what searches were carried out for part (b);
4. whether the £1.475 million savings figure cited in the response was taken from recorded information held at the time of the request, or was calculated for the purpose of responding to the request;
5. if the £1.475 million figure was based on a recorded calculation, dataset, methodology or equivalent record, whether that record falls within part (b) and should be disclosed subject to any applicable exemption; and
6. if no responsive record is held, whether Article 3 is relied upon for part (b). For avoidance of doubt, I am not asking Health and Care Jersey to speculate about records it does not hold, or to create new information. I am asking for review of whether the response correctly considered recorded information held by or on behalf of Health and Care Jersey, including the recorded basis, if any, for the savings figure provided in the response.”
   

Internal review response

The Deputy Medical Director and the Head of Medical Staffing were asked to undertake the Internal Review. Neither party had been involved in composing or approving the original response. 

The Internal Review was coordinated and administered by the HCJ FOI Officer, and took place at Jersey General Hospital on 25 June 2026. The in-scope FOI response, the Internal Review request and the Internal Review Procedure were shared with both reviewers on this day.​

Both the Deputy Medical Director and the Head of Medical Staffing were asked to consider whether:

• the Freedom of Information request had been handled appropriately
• the Freedom of Information Law (Jersey) Law 2011 has been properly applied​

They will also provide an outcome of the internal review by stating whether:

• the original decision is upheld, or 
• the original decision is reversed in part or in full, or 
• the original decision is modified​
  

Was the request handled appropriately and has the Law been properly applied?​

Regarding the queries on data supplied in response to Question A:​

The correct timeframe of 01 January 2025 to 31 December 2025 was considered for the FOI request.

The response provided contains a typographical error in relation to the time period; this will be rectified and a revised response issued to reflect the correct timeframe of 01 January 2025 to 31 December 2025.

In the response, the term ‘agency staff’ was used as representative of any contingent workers (inclusive of agency / locum / other temporary staff) in Health and Care Jersey (HCJ) who were not previously directly employed by the Government of Jersey. The term ‘locum’ is generally reserved in healthcare services for temporary medical staff (doctors) who would be engaged through an agency.

Regarding the queries on the response to Question B, and the calculated savings noted in response to Question A:​

As noted in the original response, the public statement ‘that moving staff to permanent contracts reduced consultancy costs and was a more efficient use of public funds’ was not made by HCJ, and therefore, the Department cannot speculate on the information ‘relied upon to support the public statement’. 

Similarly, the Department cannot categorically state that records are not held by HCJ, or by another person, team or function on the Department’s behalf which were considered as foundation for this statement.​

Senior Finance and Workforce colleagues were consulted for the FOI request. Having established that Health and Care Jersey did not make the public statement, determining whether any records held by Health and Care Jersey, or by another person, team or function on the Department’s behalf were considered for the statement would have been conjecture, and any searches performed speculative.

The Department holds data on its workforce, agency staff and respective salaries / expenditure, and routinely report upon and publish information on workforce, agency use, and spend on substantive and agency staff to the HCJ Advisory Board papers, as well as through FOI. Workforce and expenditure information for Government of Jersey Departments are also available to People and Corporate Services and Treasury, and information on substantive employee pay scales is available on www.gov.je at Public sector pay scales.

As detailed in the response, the figure of £1.475 million was calculated by comparing a full year of expenditure at substantive employee rates (as per 2025 pay scales) against the average differential pay for equivalent agency work across a full year for the cohort of staff in scope of the request. The figure was calculated for the response and provided in line with HCJ’s duty to advise and assist, as per Article 12 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

Regarding Article 3:​

Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 provides a definition of ‘information held’ for the purpose of the Law; it is not an exemption to disclosure. As HCJ cannot definitively state that it does not hold records which the person or body issuing the public statement relied upon for their affirmation that moving staff to permanent contracts reduced consultancy costs, it would not be appropriate to cite the definition confirmed in Article 3.

Outcome

The typographical error in the original response to Question A of the FOI request was acknowledged; this will be corrected and a revised response issued alongside this Internal Review outcome and also published to the FOI Disclosure Log on www.gov.je.

Notwithstanding this, it was agreed that HCJ appropriately handled the FOI request and that the Law was properly applied. The response to Question B was determined appropriate.​

Therefore, the original decision is partially upheld, acknowledging the typographical error in the response provided to Question A and the need to remedy this.