Agency staff costs at Royal Borough double in one year to more than £3.4m
MILLIONS of pounds are being spent on agency staff in the Royal Borough with costs almost doubling last year.
The council forked out £3,426,480.80 on temporary staff in 2013/14, close to double the £1,735,404.76 spent in 2012/13, The Observer has uncovered through a Freedom of Information (FoI) request.
It is believed the hefty bill is largely due to the number of agency social workers the council is employing.
The Royal Borough's struggle to retain permanent social workers has been well documented since the council moved away from nationally-agreed terms and conditions in February last year.
Cllr Lynne Jones, a member of the children's services panel, said: "It is all down to the move away from the terms and conditions. I asked whether this would affect social care staff and was assured at the time it wouldn't. That does not seem to be the case.
"Agency staff have their benefits as they are usually highly experienced, but it means there is a lack of consistency. It is not the way to run a service. Added to the fact efficiency savings are being made everywhere, this is surely a real drain on resources."
The worst directorate for spend on agency staff was Children's Services where the total spend in 2013/14 stood at £1,547,652.90 - almost four times the 2012/13 figure of £456,007.14.
In the Adult Services and Community directorate, the figure nearly doubled to £871,473.20 in 2013/14 from £449,132.45 the previous financial year. A Royal Borough spokesman said: "The use of agency staff across directorates is a normal and manageable way in which the council is able to meet the demands of service delivery to residents across the borough.
"In respect of staffing needs in adult and children's services, a number of measures have been put in place to try to reduce the reliance on agency staff while at the same time providing quality and cost effective services.
"This includes an enhanced remuneration and continuous development package for social workers that also takes account of case load numbers and supervision support.
"The council will, on occasions, look to fulfil certain tasks to deliver key services by employing agency staff where the necessary skills, knowledge and experience is lacking within the existing workforce until permanent workers with the required abilities can be recruited."
According to a separate FoI, at the end of the 2013/14 financial year, 22 temporary qualified social workers were employed in Children's Services and five in Adult Services.
The council rated its own children's safeguarding department as 'inadequate' by Ofsted standards in March, although steps have been taken to improve the standards of the department.
Cllr Jones added: "Alison [Alexander, the director of children's services at the Royal Borough] has been making progress since she came in, but it will take time.
"They need to make sure they employ the right permanent staff, rather than rushing into it and employing the wrong staff just for the sake of improving the numbers of permanent staff."
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