Social care cost goes up tenfold in three years

Wednesday 02 November 2016

The cost of agency social workers in Jersey has rocketed in three years as the meltdown from child sex abuse scandals continues to affect the Island.

And Health Minister Andrew Green says he will pursue a “rigorous” campaign to improve child care in Jersey, even if means costs will continue to spiral.

In 2013, the Island only employed nine agency social workers and a further 79 State-employed - and they cost the States £180,000.

So far this year, although the numbers of total State-employed social workers has remained static – 81 – a further 57 are agency staff, which has cost the States a whopping £1.8million.

It means since 2013 Jersey has become increasingly reliant on agency staff, to an alarming degree.   

It is not a statistic the Minister is satisfied with, but he says the child abuse scandal which rocked the Island and triggered the Jersey Care Enquiry, is still having an effect.

Deputy Green said: “The fact is we are fishing in a very small pool and the problem stems from the child care scandals that will not see public confidence restored until after the Jersey Care Enquiry releases its report later in the year.

“I do not regard the fact that we now have so many agency staff as ideal at all, in fact, it is not ideal, but we are pursuing a very rigorous policy when it comes to child care. We need to improve child care services and that means the case loads which were put onto staff which were unacceptable can no longer be tolerated.

“But would I much rather have our own staff rather than agency staff working as social workers, yes, absolutely. In-house staff can build up much better relationships and that in the long term can only improve child care, but the situation is what it is. We have to accept that our standing in this area will not improve until after the enquiry report is released.”

The JCE report will be published later this year after it investigated allegations of years of sexual abuse of children in the Island. 

Senator Sarah Ferguson said she will ask the Minister why the numbers for agency staff have risen so markedly at the next States sitting in a fortnight.

She said: “We are using seven agencies to provide staff and I would like to know which agencies they are and how many each are providing.  

“It is a revealing statistic that we are now employing so many agency staff and it is costing so much. To date this year nearly £1.8m. We have also lost a lot of our own staff. Is that because they were incompetent or have we lost them through natural wastage and voluntary departures? I don’t know the answers to that but I will be asking.”