Freedom of information response

1. What was the value of spend on temporary staff from recruitment agencies by the Council from April 2022 to April 2023? –

£13162877

1a. Please ensure that a gross spend value is detailed and include all spend associated to any contract let for the management/provision of temporary staff by a contracted provider (whether Vendor neutral or Master vendor). Please ensure that all figures are provided separately by year.

Unfortunately we are unclear what you wish to be provided for this question, if you can explain or rephrase we will send a separate reply for this question.

2. If you have a managed service provider (MSP) in place for the provision of temporary agency staff, please provide the following.

Matrix

2a. How was the contract to manage/provide the supply of agency/temporary staff let?

-Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act has been applied as this information can be found online here: https://www.thurrock.gov.uk/our-contracts/current-contracts

2b. Who was the contract to manage/provide the supply of agency/temporary staff let to?

-Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act has been applied as this information can be found online here: https://www.thurrock.gov.uk/our-contracts/current-contracts

2c. When did the contract to manage/provide the supply of temporary/agency staff commence, how long does it run for and what is the end date?

-Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act has been applied as this information can be found online here: https://www.thurrock.gov.uk/our-contracts/current-contracts

3. If you don’t have a managed service provider (MSP) in place for the provision of temporary recruitment agency staff, which recruitment agencies do you use, and what basis were they awarded?       

- N/A

4. Please can you provide details of the names of the decision-makers who ultimately decide which recruitment agencies your organisation uses.

Unfortunately we are unable to provide in full the information you have requested.  We do hold the information but an absolute exemption applies.  Personal Information (Section 40,2) Personal data of any other person (third party data) is exempt under section 40(2) if disclosure would breach one of the data protection principles. This aspect of Section 40 is an Absolute Exemption and is therefore not subject to the Public Interest Test. The names of officers working for the Council is personal data specific to them. It is therefore subject to the provisions of the Data Protection Act. Information can be withheld if its disclosure would be likely to breach one or more of the Principles of the Data Protection Act. There is no prior expectation on the part of team Managers (or other officers working below the level of Director) that their names and job titles / positions would be published into the wider public domain under FOI. A disclosure made under FOI constitutes a publication to the world at large. We believe that to disclose this would be likely to breach the first Principle of the Data Protection Act by unfairly contravening their right to privacy and confidentiality in the work place.  

However, in the interests of transparency we are able to share details relating to senior officers (Director level and above). For these officers, there is already a greater expectation of openness about their role given their level of accountability for service provision and budgetary decision making. For your information please see the following link which outlines staff details of Director and above https://www.thurrock.gov.uk/chief-executive-directors-and-services 

5. Please provide the name(s) of the person(s) who the manage the recruitment agency contract on a day-to-day basis.

-Please refer to our response for question 4 above.