Staff in children services working remotely
Case reference FOI2022/01403
Published 21 October 2022
Request
During the last two years I would like to know how many work days the Director of Children's Services has physically worked in Herefordshire and how many days he has worked remotely.
I would also like to know what is the policy on children's services social workers working remotely and if there is a minimum numbers of days that they are required to be in the office.
Response
During the last two years I would like to know how many work days the Director of Children's Services has physically worked in Herefordshire and how many days he has worked remotely.
Officers are not required to clock into or out of an office, and therefore no central record of where an employee is working from is held. The council's flexible working approach places an emphasis on what an employee does not where they do it from, and this is monitored at all levels for performance management purposes. Officers may choose to record where they are working from in their electronic calendars, but this is often for the purposes of desk or room bookings and therefore may be an incomplete or an inaccurate reflection of their whereabouts i.e. they may spent the day working in the office in an area that did not require prior booking so they may not have recorded anywhere that they were physically in a council office. It should also be noted that during the autumn / winter of 2021 the council followed the government's recommendation to work from home to stop the spread of Covid-19. In 2022 revocations have also been taking place in council buildings and that has had an impact on the number of staff who can work from the offices at any one time; it has only been since August 2022 that these restrictions have started to be lifted.
The current Director of Children's Services has only been in post since October 2021. Since October 2021 to 30 September 2022 his electronic calendar has recorded that he worked from Herefordshire 73 days and worked remotely 157 days. It should be noted that the number of days recorded for working from Herefordshire will be an under-report for the reasons set out above. These figures exclude annual leave entitlement and bank holidays.
Data on the number of days spent working in Herefordshire or remotely is not held for the previous post holder.
I would also like to know what is the policy on children's services social workers working remotely and if there is a minimum numbers of days that they are required to be in the office.
The council operates a flexible working approach under its Flexible Futures policy. The policy identifies worker styles for all its employees based on the needs of the role and the services delivered under that role. Social workers are in the main flexible workers which means they work what is best to deliver their roles and the service. This is a combination of community working to work with children and families, homeworking to complete paperwork, assessments, etc. and office working to work alongside managers, colleagues for development and collaboration purposes. As such there is not a minimum number of days they are required to be in the office, this would vary depending on case requirements.
Documents
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