Children's social work out of hours services (FOI)

​Request

A

What is the duty, legal of otherwise, for the States of Jersey to provide a Children’s social work Out of Hours (OOH) service ie is it a statutory service that has to be delivered under a particular law or statute?

B

What is the current annual cost for providing a Children’s social work OOH service?

C

What was the budget set for Children’s social work OOH for 2016. 2017 and 2018?

D

Was there an over or underspend on the Budget in 2016, 2017? Is there a projected overspend for 2018?

E

Is there a dedicated OOH team employed solely to provide an OOH service?

F

If not, why not? Is there a theory or research investigation that has informed the decision not to have a dedicated team?

G

What risk assessment on not having a dedicated OOH team has been completed?

H

Is it a financial decision not to have a dedicated Children’s social work dedicated OOH team?

I

If finance is a barrier to providing a dedicated Children’s social work service, why if it is a statutory service that the Health & Social Services minister has to deliver?

J

How many permanent staff would be required to be employed to staff an OOH service to children? What would this cost?

K

Has any research or investigation been carried out on an OOH service to children in Jersey? If so what were the findings? What different models were considered? How many different jurisdictions were looked at and which ones?

L

How many agency staff are used to cover OOH in Children’s service?

M

Are / Were agency staff paid at a different level in 2016, 2017 and 2018?

N

Which other departments provide an OOH service for Children?

O

What is the emotional and social impact on staff having to undertake OOH work while also undertaking a full-time role as a social worker?

P

How does the states of Jersey exercise its duty of care to social workers who undertake OOH work? What specific support is available? Is there emotional and welfare support available?

Q

How is risk to staff managed while on OOH work?

Response

A

The Minister for Health and Social Services has a statutory duty, set out in Jersey Children’s legislation, to protect children. The statutory duty makes no distinction of core business hours. Out of Hours (OOH) Children’s social work is therefore a policy decision, guided by best practice.

B

OOH Children’s social work is not coded in the financial ledger. Therefore, calculating annual cost would require manually inspecting the ledger on a line by line basis. This would exceed the cost limit specified by the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014.

C

There is no dedicated budget for OOH Children’s social work.

D

As per response C.

E

There is not a dedicated OOH team. The current model replicates a system often in place in more rural jurisdictions.

F

It is not considered viable to have a stand-alone OOH team in place in a small jurisdiction such as Jersey. It is the expectation that each social worker will commit to the OOH rota. There was a recent independent review of OOH service that determined it was not appropriate or viable to have a stand-alone team.

G

As per response F. It has previously been recognised that additional support was required so management oversight has been strengthened

H

No. This was not a financial decision.

I

Statutory duty is in place as outlined in the response to request A. It is not due to a financial barrier.

J

This information is not held. It would depend on what model was considered viable and would ensure sufficient cover. This analysis has not been completed due to the recent review of the service where it was determined not to be a viable option.

K

An options appraisal was carried out which looked at potential OOH cover across Community and Social Services, not solely for the Children’s Service. was an independent report produced that looked at various options for the service.

L

The OOH rota is covered by permanent staff. However if a swap is required and no permanent staff are available to cover, then, on occasion, permission for agency cover will be agreed by Senior Management as required. The number varies depending on factors such as grade, experience and numbers of agency staff available.

M

It is not possible to answer this question. Rates of pay for agency social work staff are negotiated with the agency. Rates will therefore vary for each individual / agency depending on factors such as level of experience.

N

Acute health services (eg at the General Hospital) provide services as part of normal business which includes 24 hour mental health provision for all ages. Additionally, Health and Community Services operates an on-call rota for Corporate Directors so that senior management support is available at any time if required.

O

Participation in the standby and on call rota is likely to impact an individual; they may be disturbed during this period of on call, and they must be sober and available to respond. It is for these reasons they receive a standby assistance and on call payments.

P

All social workers have regular 1:1 professional supervision with their line managers. All States of Jersey staff have access to support and counselling services via AXA PPP Healthcare. Additionally, Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) is made available to staff following any traumatic incident. There is management support available OOH.

Q

Risks to OOH staff are managed under the Department’s Lone Worker Policy. The OOH cover has three tier access to senior, team manager and senior management (Head of Service) support. Visits with the States of Jersey Police are carried out as appropriate.

Article applied

Article 16 A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.

Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014 allows an authority to refuse a request for information where the estimated cost of dealing with the request would exceed the specified amount of the cost limit of £500. This is the estimated cost of one person spending 12.5 working hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.