COUNCIL cash being spent on costly agency children’s social workers has more than tripled since 2012 to £3.6m per year, new figures have revealed.

COUNCIL cash being spent on costly agency children’s social workers has more than tripled since 2012 to £3.6m per year, new figures have revealed.

Slough Borough Council has spent more than £7m on agency social workers for children’s social care since the start of 2012 with a more than threefold increase from £950,400 in 2012 to £3,672,000 last year, a Freedom of Information (FoI) request has revealed.

Despite the council promising to reduce the reliance on temporary staff, on average in 2014 there were more agency staff employed by the council than permanent staff, according to the FoI – a stark contrast to 2012, when agency staff accounted for less than a quarter of children’s social workers at the council.

Cllr Diana Coad, from UKIP, said: “Slough Borough Council’s claim of reducing reliance on temp staff clearly hasn’t happened. It’s probably one of the reasons why we have such bad Ofsted reports.

“It’s a worry for children’s safeguarding.

“They say one thing, trumpet about doing this and that and the other but when you get down to the nitty gritty they haven’t done what they promised.” The council said that it has received an encouraging response to the national recruitment campaigns launched last month with two more planned in July and September.

A spokeswoman from Slough Borough Council said: “As part of the second phase of the campaign, we are having an open day for social workers to come and visit, talk to our existing staff and see our facilities.

“We are also working directly with our existing agency staff setting out the benefits of becoming a permanent employee.

“We have boosted wages and offer competitive salaries and retention payments and we are working with higher education establishments so we can get the best newly qualified social workers.

“However, there is a national shortage of social workers and we are competing for the best in a very tight market. Agency social workers are used to ensure we provide the best care and protection for local children when we have gaps in our permanent workforce.” Conservative Cllr Wayne Strutton said: “Why is it that Slough Borough Council has not been able to employ people on a full time basis for a number of years, given the fact we pay a comparable salary?

“One of the difficulties the council face is that people don’t want to work for Slough as they are a difficult council.”