Turnover rate for registered social workers - Find a freedom of information request

I am sending this request under the Freedom of Information Act to ask for the following information.

1. What was your staff turnover rate for registered social workers working in child protection or with children in need in each of the following years? (Where staff turnover is calculated as the headcount of full-time equivalent (FTE) registered social workers leaving in the year divided by the headcount of FTE registered social workers in post at 1 January) i) 2017 ii) 2018 iii) 2019 iv) 2020 v) 2021

2. What was your staff turnover rate for social work assistants working in child protection or with children in need in each of the following years? (Where staff turnover rate is calculated as the headcount of full-time equivalent (FTE) social work assistants leaving in the year divided by the headcount of FTE social work assistants in post at 1 January) i) 2017 ii) 2018 iii) 2019 iv) 2020 v) 2021

3. In your authority's children's services department, what percentage of your registered social worker headcount was defined as newly qualified on 1 January in the following years?

i) 2018

ii) 2019

iii) 2020

iv) 2021

v) 2022

4. In your authority's children's services department, how many full time equivalent registered social workers were in post on 1 January in each of the following years?

i) 2018

ii) 2019

iii) 2020

iv) 2021

v) 2022

5. In your authority's children's services department, how many full time equivalent agency staff were you employing as social workers on 1 January in each of the following years?

i) 2018

ii) 2019

iii) 2020

iv) 2021

v) 2022

6. Do you have a shortage of social workers in your authority's children's services department? If yes, how many full time equivalent social worker vacancies were recorded on your system as of 1 January 2022?

7. What was the total amount spent by your authority's children's services department on agency social workers in each of the following years:

i) 2017

i) 2018

iii) 2019

iv) 2020

v) 2021 

1. i) 2017 -16.2%

ii) 2018 -10.4%

iii) 2019 – 16.2%

iv) 2020 - 13.8%

v) 2021 – 18.6%

2. NA LCC does not employee SW Assistants

3. i) 2018 – 22%

ii) 2019 – 13%

iii) 2020 – 10%

iv) 2021 – 11%

v) 2022 – 8%

4. 2018 – FTE – 270.69 – Headcount – 277

2019 - FTE – 286.75 -Headcount – 293

2020 – FTE – 277.45 – Headcount -285

2021 – FTE – 272.00 – Headcount – 281

2022 – FTE – 243.05 – Headcount – 251

5. i) 2018 – 19.1

ii) 2019 – 5.4

iii) 2020 – 7.2

iv) 2021 – 8.7

v) 2022 – 18.1

6. 31 7. 2017 covers Sept to Dec only as this was when the current contract started

i) 2017 - £474,612.78

ii) 2018 - £1,173,502.00

iii) 2019 - £946,819.81

iv) 2020 - £1,187,847.35

v) 2021 - £1,722,063.07