Review of Contact and Community Resource Worker (CRW) service EQIA

Aims of the strategy

The current Contact and Community Resource Worker (CRW) service provides support for arrangements for children and young people to keep in contact with their families when they move into Local Authority care, it also provides sessional support for children and young people across Children’s Social Care. CRWs are employed on a zero hours basis and their centre of duty is their home address for mileage claim purposes.

The Contact and CRW service has been reviewed, and it is proposed that this service comes to an end, and is replaced by a new Keeping in Touch (KiT) service, with a small resource moving to the Children's Advice and Duty Service (CHAD). It is proposed that all posts in the new structures are permanent posts, and there will be no zero hours contracts moving to KiT or Children's Advice and Duty Service (CHAD). Staff will also have an opportunity to express a preference for a zero hour contract in the Harbour service.

The KiT service will provide support to children and young people to keep in touch with their families, primarily where this time needs to be supervised or is in a period of assessment.

Staff within the KiT service will be employed on permanent contracts, and will have a Centre of Duty at one of three bases.

Staff within the Children's Advice and Duty Service (CHAD) service will be employed on permanent contracts, and will have a central Centre of Duty.

Staff that join the Harbour bank will have a zero hour contract and one of two centres of duty (Wimborne or Weymouth).

Background to the proposal

The Contact and CRW service has historically been seen as a “flexible friend” – a low cost service which enables Children’s Services to respond to intermittent and unexpected demand. The hypothesis is that the service is not low cost, and carries the following overheads:

the management team who deploy and support CRWs
avoidable travel costs which are built into CRW terms and conditions
avoidable travel costs which are built into a county wide delivery model
obligations created by zero hours contracts

In line with service improvement, there is an identified need to align the service with our approach to permanence and our approach to children on the edge of care. It is therefore recommended that the service should be restructured with a view to create a new contact service (KiT) and have a small number of staff based within the Children's Advice and Duty Service (CHAD) service.

The KiT service would have a structure and capacity determined by affordability. It would be a fixed offer operated from venues at key locations in Dorset and a pool of permanent staff. The offer would be around a weekday/office hours service.

Intelligence and Communication

Data, information, evidence and research used and how it has influenced the decision-making process

internal service monitoring data
information from the service
workforce profile

internal service monitoring data was poor – this indicated that this should be an area for development in any future service. The data was good enough to understand at a very broad level the likely demand for a Keeping in Touch service, which has been factored into the development of an affordable model, and this will need to be kept under review to understand how the level of demand and any flexibility required in service delivery to meet need.
the team co-ordinators have shared the current challenges people working for and with the service experience, including:

challenges for children and their families needing to travel to meet
suitability and availability of venues to meet
challenges for staff in supporting family time

Workforce profile

Once the new KiT service is established, monitoring data will be required in order for the service to be able to report on its own impact.

Engagement or consultation that has taken place as part of this EqIA

Initial meeting with trade unions 04 June 2021 to introduce the draft proposal for a new Keeping in Touch service.

Formal consultation to start 28 June 2021 and end 28 July 2021 (30 days), with the opportunity for individual interviews with staff week commencing 21 July 2021.

During consultation, two alternative proposals were received and considered.

Feedback

There has been an end of consultation update meeting, held on 30 July 2021 and there is an outcome review meeting on 10 August 2021 which follows a period of reflection.

Questions from individuals will have responses prior to 10 August 2021.

Queries raised through sharing alternative proposals will be responded to as part of the outcome review documentation due to be shared 10 August 2021.

A written response to the alternative proposals will be provided as part of the outcome review documentation due to be shared 10 August 2021.

Assessment

Impacts of the strategy

Impacts on who or what?	Effect	Details
Age:	Neutral	The majority of the workforce are aged 25 – 64 years old, with a significant proportion in the 65+ age range. It may be that certain people will find the regularisation of hours within the KiT service easier to manage. The work within the Children's Advice and Duty Service (CHAD) will primarily be over evenings and weekends, if this is a second employment, then some staff may find this harder as it could mean long days. Employment is based on fitness and capability, not age.
Disability: (including physical, mental, sensory and progressive conditions)	Unclear	None of the workforce has declared themselves disabled, although the number may be high due to no answer/prefer not to say (30.4%). There may be some changes to venues used to deliver services and accessibility will be an important factor. The new KiT service presents opportunities for all employees across the service and we will work with any employees with disabilities to support employment in new roles.
Does this affect a specific disability group?	Physical disabilities	n/a
Gender Reassignment & Gender Identity	Unclear	Dorset Council does not currently collect data on employees for this category.
Pregnancy and maternity	Neutral	The regularisation of working hours could provide different opportunities to those with children around childcare arrangements, which may be beneficial to some staff. The capacity within the service for flexible working at times of increased demand also offers some flexibility. For pregnant women appointed to any post (or who later become pregnant) medical advice will be taken and reasonable adjustments put in place.
Race and Ethnicity	Neutral	Approximately 75% of employees in Children’s Services are White British, with a large proportion (c. 16% preferring not to declare race/ethnicity). An approximate total of 9% have declared themselves as Black, Minority or Other. This new service presents new opportunities for all employees.
Religion or belief:	Unclear	A large proportion of the workforce has not reported their religion. The new KiT service presents new opportunities for all employees. It is recognised that some employees may find regularised working hours more difficult due to religious and/or cultural beliefs, and where this is identified, time off or changes to working patterns or adjustments will be considered. Please see action [ plan for info.
Sexual orientation	Neutral	Just under half of employees have declared themselves heterosexual, with half again not declared. A very small proportion have stated they are bisexual. This new service presents new opportunities for all employees. Please see action plan for info
Sex (consider both men and women):	Neutral	The current workforce is largely made up of female employees (just over 70%) with just under 29% male employees. This new service presents new opportunities for all employees.
Marriage or civil partnership:	Neutral	We do not have this data for employees, however the new service presents new employment opportunities for all employees, regardless of marital or civil partnership status
Carers:	Neutral	We do not have this data for employees, however the new service presents new opportunities for all employees. Staff that benefit from the flexibility of zero hours contracts in order to continue their caring roles may find the regularisation of hours more challenging to manage. Conversely, regular and consistent hours could provide certainty that makes managing a caring role easier. Staff will have the opportunity to express a preference for a zero hours contract with the Harbour.
Rural isolation:	Neutral	Staff will be able to make use of centre of duty bases, providing opportunities to build working relationships with colleagues and increasing the potential for peer to peer support.
Social & economic deprivation:	Neutral	We do not have this data for employees, however the new service presents new employment opportunities for all employees. Permanent contracts will provide a greater level of employment security.
Armed Forces communities	Neutral	Data not collected to understand the impact in this area. The service will operate with non-discriminatory practices.

Key to effects or impacts

Positive - the proposal eliminates discrimination, advances equality of opportunity and/or fosters good relations with protected groups.

Negative - protected characteristic group(s) could be disadvantaged or discriminated against

Neutral - no change/ no assessed significant impact of protected characteristic groups

Negative - protected characteristic group(s) could be disadvantaged or discriminated against

Action Plan

Issue	Action to be taken	Person(s) responsible	Date to be carried out by
Age Disability Gender Reassignment/Gender Identity Race and Ethnicity Religion and Belief Sexual Orientation Sex Marriage or Civil Partnership Social and economic deprivation Armed forces	The recruitment and selection for this service will be undertaken in a fair and non-discriminatory way. Equal opportunities will be given to all employees within Children’s Services to apply for the roles. A shortlist will be drawn up based only on relevance of the candidate’s ‘Expression of Interest’ letter/statement for the role. Candidates will attend interview with a fair and impartial appointment panel (drawn from the service) who will base decision-making on suitability for the role with evidence given against job description, person specification, context statement, together with references. Selection decisions will be made by the panel based only on experience, skills, capability and behaviours.	KiT – Louise Drury (Head of Service, Children in Care) and Matt Chislett (Service Manager, Corporate Parenting and Permanency) Children's Advice and Duty Service (CHAD) – Emma Pleece (Service Manager, Children's Advice and Duty Service (CHAD)) Harbour – Paula Bates (Service Manager, Harbour and residential)	By the end of the recruitment process
Disability Rural isolation Social and economic deprivation	The work undertaken to identify venues for service delivery will need to ensure accessibility for those with disabilities.	Tracey Old (Strategic Commissioner), Louise Drury (Head of Service, Children in Care), Jess Maskrey (Lead Manager, Assets)	By launch of any new venues
Carers Single Parent families	Part-time working will be considered, subject to operational needs. The consultation period will be used to understand the individual challenges and how this can be aligned with the service need.	KiT – Louise Drury (Head of Service, Children in Care) and Matt Chislett (Service Manager, Corporate Parenting and Permanency) Children's Advice and Duty Service (CHAD) – Emma Pleece (Service Manager, Children's Advice and Duty Service (CHAD))	By the end of the recruitment process

Issue

Action to be taken

Person(s) responsible

Date to be carried out by

Age

Disability

Gender Reassignment/Gender Identity

Race and Ethnicity

Religion and Belief

Sexual Orientation

Sex

Marriage or Civil Partnership

Social and economic deprivation

Armed forces

The recruitment and selection for this service will be undertaken in a fair and non-discriminatory way. Equal opportunities will be given to all employees within Children’s Services to apply for the roles. A shortlist will be drawn up based only on relevance of the candidate’s ‘Expression of Interest’ letter/statement for the role. Candidates will attend interview with a fair and impartial appointment panel (drawn from the service) who will base decision-making on suitability for the role with evidence given against job description, person specification, context statement, together with references. Selection decisions will be made by the panel based only on experience, skills, capability and behaviours.

KiT – Louise Drury (Head of Service, Children in Care) and Matt Chislett (Service Manager, Corporate Parenting and Permanency)

Children's Advice and Duty Service (CHAD) – Emma Pleece (Service Manager, Children's Advice and Duty Service (CHAD))

Harbour – Paula Bates (Service Manager, Harbour and residential)

By the end of the recruitment process

Disability

Rural isolation

Social and economic deprivation

The work undertaken to identify venues for service delivery will need to ensure accessibility for those with disabilities.

Tracey Old (Strategic Commissioner), Louise Drury (Head of Service, Children in Care), Jess Maskrey (Lead Manager, Assets)

By launch of any new venues

Carers

Single Parent families

Part-time working will be considered, subject to operational needs. The consultation period will be used to understand the individual challenges and how this can be aligned with the service need.