FOI Request - Frontline Child Protection Social Workers
Request 101003041300
1. In your authority’s children’s services department, what was the highest caseload of a frontline child protection social worker as of 1 April 2022?
Please explain how the figures are calculated on occasions where there are multiple children in a family being supported. (Ie. Is there one case per child, or one case per family?)
2. In your authority’s children’s services department, what was the average caseload of a frontline child protection social worker as of 1 April 2022?
Please explain how the figures are calculated on occasions where there are multiple children in a family being supported. (Ie. Is there one case per child, or one case per family?)
3. In each of the following financial years, how many referrals did your authority’s children’s services department receive – where a referral is defined as a request for services to be provided by children’s social care?
i) 2017/18
ii) 2018/19
iii) 2019/20
iv) 2020/21
v) 2021/22
4. What was the number of section 47 enquiries made by your authority’s children’s services in the following financial years?
i) 2017/18
ii) 2018/19
iii) 2019/20
iv) 2020/21
v) 2021/22
5a) How many children in total were on child protection plans within your authority’s children’s services in the following financial years?
i) 2017/18
ii) 2018/19
iii) 2019/20
iv) 2020/21
v) 2021/22
5b) How many children were newly added to child protection plans within your authority’s children’s services in the following financial years?
i) 2017/18
ii) 2018/19
iii) 2019/20
iv) 2020/21
v) 2021/22
5C) How many children exited child protection plans within your authority’s children’s services in the following financial years?
i) 2017/18
ii) 2018/19
iii) 2019/20
iv) 2020/21
v) 2021/22
6a) How many children in total were categorised as ‘in need’ within your authority’s children’s services in the following financial years?
i) 2017/18
ii) 2018/19
iii) 2019/20
iv) 2020/21
v) 2021/22
6b) How many children were newly assessed as ‘in need’ within your authority’s children’s services in the following financial years?
i) 2017/18
ii) 2018/19
iii) 2019/20
iv) 2020/21
v) 2021/22
6c) How many children were removed from the ‘in need’ category within your authority’s children’s services in the following financial years?
i) 2017/18
ii) 2018/19
iii) 2019/20
iv) 2020/21
v) 2021/22
7. In the following years, how much was spent by your authority’s children’s services on early help and prevention services?
i) 2011/12
ii) 2017/18
iii) 2018/19
iv) 2019/20
v) 2020/21
vi) 2021/22
8. On 1 April in the following financial years, how many children designated as ‘in need’ or as a child protection case were either not yet allocated a social worker or had been given a holding allocation?
i) 2018
ii) 2019
iii) 2020
iv) 2021
v) 2022
Response 09-06-2022
1. Due to the structure of the social work department in Moray, the highest number of children open to a social worker was 63. This number relates to a worker with the Access team which exists to investigate all concern reports coming initially to the department. Many of these concerns do not require more than short-term pieces of work with the more longer-term being reallocated to the main front-line teams. In those teams the highest number of cases was 22.
The numbers refer to children identified from our recording system which assigns each person a unique identifier. As we are a small local authority, we do not have a separate team which deals with child protection cases. The cases relate to a main frontline social worker who may deal with child protection cases as well as other types of social work cases.
2. The average number of cases open to a frontline social worker is 14. This number relates to each child as identified by their unique ID from our recording system.
3.
i) 2017/18 **
ii) 2018/19 2229*
iii) 2019/20 2441*
iv) 2020/21 2229*
v) 2021/22 **
* These numbers refer to all concerns notified to Social Work by individuals and agencies relating to children and/or families. They do not always represent a specific request for a service but concerns highlighted will have been investigated by Social Work, and following investigation a service may have been initiated by Social Work or another provider.
** This information is exempt under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 - Information Not Held.
4. This relates to English legislation and not applicable to Scotland. Not held
5a) How many children in total were on child protection plans within your authority's children's services in the following financial years?
i ) 2017/18 86 children
ii) 2018/19 95 children
iii) 2019/20 40 children
iv) 2020/21 46 children
v) 2021/22 62 children
5b) How many children were newly added to child protection plans within your authority's children's services in the following financial years?
i) 2017/18 62 children
ii) 2018/19 47 children
iii) 2019/20 31 children
iv) 2020/21 35 children
v) 2021/22 27 children
5c) How many children exited child protection plans within your authority's children's services in the following financial years?
i) 2017/18 103 children
ii) 2018/19 110 children
iii) 2019/20 56 children
iv) 2020/21 42 children
v) 2021/22 21 children
6a) How many children in total were categorised as 'in need' within your authority's children's services in the following financial years?
i) 2017/18 817 open cases during year
ii) 2018/19 960 open cases during year
iii) 2019/20 593 open cases during year
iv) 2020/21 407 open cases during year
v) 2021/22 1000 open cases during year
6b) How many children were newly assessed as 'in need' within your authority's children's services in the following financial years?
i) 2017/18 780 children started as a SW open case
ii) 2018/19 968 children started as a SW open case
iii) 2019/20 600 children started as a SW open case
iv) 2020/21 527 children started as a SW open case
v) 2021/22 584 children started as a SW open case
6c) How many children were removed from the 'in need' category within your authority's children's services in the following financial years?
i) 2017/18 1652 children left as SW open case
ii) 2018/19 1120 children left as SW open case
iii) 2019/20 631 children left as SW open case
iv) 2020/21 494 children left as SW open case
v) 2021/22 522 children left as SW open case
7. We do not hold this information, therefore this information is exempt under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 - Information Not Held.
8. We do not hold this information, therefore this information is exempt under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 - Information Not Held.