Permanent Vacancy Rates in Social Worker Positions and Agency Spend
Case reference FOI2025/00137
Received 22 January 2025
Published 20 March 2025
Request
How many permanent vacancies do you have for qualified social workers across both children and adults services and this as a percentage would be useful
How many agency ' social worker' staff do you currently have for children and adults services and what percentage is this against your FTE roles
Lastly, If known do you know what was spent on agency social workers in 2024 again in both children and adults services
Please note: It is just 'Social Worker' Vacancies not any senior roles Reason for the request is to put together a cost analysis to show the significant cost savings against hiring from overseas to reduce agency staff due to the national shortage in the UK
Response
Please note: It is just 'Social Worker' Vacancies not any senior roles
How many permanent vacancies do you have for qualified social workers across both children and adults services and this as a percentage would be useful
A: 21 full vacancies (17.5%), 63 full vacancies and permanent posts covered by agency workers (52.5%)
How many agency ' social worker' staff do you currently have for children and adults services and what percentage is this against your FTE roles
A: 42 (35.55%)
Lastly, If known do you know what was spent on agency social workers in 2024 again in both children and adults services
A: Children’s Spend on Agency Social Worker posts between 01/01/24 – 31/12/24 – £4,467,248
Agency spend on Adult social workers for 2024 is £370,293
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
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