To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the rate of (a) absence and (b) absence resulting from injury at work was among those social services employees for which his Department is responsible in (i) Essex and (ii) Castle Point in each of the last five years; what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of such absences; and if he will make a statement. (283885)

Children and families' social care workers are employed locally by a range of organisations across the statutory, third and private sectors. The Department for Children, Schools and Families does not collect employer-level data about absences of social care staff or the costs of such absences.