FOI1039 – FOI request concerning the contract for and spend
on agency social workers and occupational therapy staff
I can confirm that Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust holds some of the information you
requested:
1.
Do you have contract of supply in place for temporary agency labour for Qualified
Social Workers and Occupational Therapists?
Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust currently has a contract in place with NHS
Professionals for the supply of temporary agency labour.
2.
When did this contract start and when does it expire?
1 May 2013 – 30 April 2016
3.
How much temporary agency labour spend for Qualified Social Workers has there
been this financial year, so far?
Social workers are not a staff group that we employ and therefore under our section 16 duty
to provide advice and assistance, we recommend that you contact local Councils. In most
cases social workers are employed by local Councils rather than NHS Trusts, and therefore
Councils will be better placed to provide you with the information requested.
4.
How much temporary agency labour spend for Occupational Therapist’s has there
been this financial year, so far?
For the financial year to date, the agency spend for occupational therapists is £9000.
5.
How many temporary Qualified Social Workers did the Trust have deployed in
September 2015?
None
6.
How much agency spend has there been in the trust for Qualified Social Workers
within the current contract?
None
7.
How many agency Occupational Therapists are there deployed across the NHS at the
moment?
As of the 29 October 2015, there was 1 agency occupational therapist working through the
NHS Professionals platform.
8.
Can you break down the spend per agency from 1st April 14 – 30th April 15?
I can confirm that Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust does not hold information
regarding the spend per recruitment agency used in the breakdown requested. This is due to
our financial ledger grouping agency expenditure for reporting purposes meaning that we
would need to undertake a manual trawl of the ledger to ascertain the information
requested. We strongly believe that this exercise would take in excess of 18 hours;
accordingly, we are unable to provide the requested information under the appropriate limit
set out in section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Fees Provisions.
The appropriate limit is defined by these two documents as £450 for NHS Trusts set out at
an arbitrary rate of £25 per hour and 18 hours of compliance with an individual request. We
confidently estimate that there are over 5000 lines of expenditure which will require analysis
Freedom of Information, Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust
6 Sterne Road, Tatchbury Mount, Calmore, Hampshire, SO40 2RZ
Email: [email protected], Tel. (02380) 874662
to extract this information. We believe that it would take approximately 2 minutes to
identify any recruitment agencies in each line of expenditure and therefore it would take
166.6 hours to undertake such a manual trawl. We believe, given the reasons laid out above,
that using a section 12 exemption under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is
appropriate.
9.
Do you currently use a framework? If so which frameworks?
Crown Commercial Services Framework
Freedom of Information, Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust
6 Sterne Road, Tatchbury Mount, Calmore, Hampshire, SO40 2RZ
Email: [email protected], Tel. (02380) 874662