1. From the financial year 2018/19 to 2022/23, how many agency social work project teams were employed in children’s services?
2018/19 – 0
2019/21 – 0
2020/21 – 0
2021/22 – 3
2022/23 – 5
2. How many in adult social services?
0.
3. How many social workers and managers were on each agency team?
Due to increasing pressures and demand on Children’s Social Care throughout the pandemic, in March 2021 Cabinet approved to introduce two ‘ready-made’ additional social work teams to support the North and Mid & East localities for a period of 3 months, consisting of 2 Team Managers and 12 Social Workers (1 TM and 6 SW’s in each locality).
In July 2021 a further pandemic funding request was submitted to extend these two teams for a further 6 months, with a further one Social Worker added to the East & Mid team
In August 2021 an extension was agreed to further increase capacity by another Team Manager and 6 Social Workers for 7 months (Sept – Mar) to provide support to South and additional capacity in North and to fund the existing teams from Jan – March 22.
The three locality project teams highlighted above were then extended again until they disbanded in July 2023
4. How long was each team was commissioned for?
Please refer to the response to Q3.
5. What were the specific tasks they were commissioned for?
The requirement was to address a backlog of cases that had built up during the pandemic.
In both the North and Mid and East and South Locality, the manager required the teams to work across initial response and childrens and families teams. Whilst the Council had shortages, cases in queue were prioritised. There was a requirement to assess the cases and establish whether they need to be escalated up to full social worker assessments or stepped down to early help.
The purpose of having the teams was to allow the existing social work teams to rebuild some of their resilience.
6. How much did this cost?
2021/22 – £1,087,978.80
2022/23 – £958,550.16