6 YEARS AFTER DANIEL PELKA CHILDREN’S SERVICES STILL UNDER PRESSURE
DEPARTMENT TOLD TO CUT SPENDING ON AGENCY WORKERS AFTER £750K BILL
THE council department which looks after the city’s most vulnerable youngsters needs to cut agency workers after spending more than £750,000 on them in the first quarter of the year, it has been warned.
Concerns about the case load of social workers and use of agency staff in the council’s children’s services department were first raised in 2014 when the council was slapped with an ‘inadequate’ rating - the worst possible - by Ofsted inspectors.
It followed the harrowing death of tragic schoolboy Daniel Pelka, who was beaten to death by his mother and stepfather after years of horrific abuse on March 3, 2012.
After his death, the tragic youngster’s name was used in a campaign - Do it for Daniel - to recruit new social workers in a bid to reduce the reliance on agency workers.
But a fresh report prepared for a meeting of the authority last week revealed the department - now rated as ‘requires improvement’ - is still relying on agency staff.
It spent £751,000 on agency workers in the first quarter of the year - almost 62 per cent of the £1.24million cost on agency staff across the council in the period.
The use of agency workers for children’s services rose £60,000 compared to the last quarter of 2017/18.
Speaking at a council meeting on Thursday, September 27, Cabinet Member for Strategic Finance and Resources Councillor John Mutton (Lab, Binley and Willenhall) said: “I am concerned that the cost of agency staff is still going up.
“We are in special measures in my opinion for far too long and we are heading in the right direction. However we have problems in other ways particularly financial and are spending three quarters of a million in one quarter - £3million a year on agency staff.”
Cabinet member for Jobs and Regeneration Cllr Jim O’Boyle (Lab, St Michaels) said the issue is being taken “very seriously”.
“I’ll be more confident that you will see a reduction in quarter three. I will anticipate there will be significant reductions in quarter four.”
He added: “We continue to make as many good strides as we possibly can to reduce wherever possible the number of agency staff.
“We are halfway through quarter two and it is very challenging position.”
A council report presented to the meeting cited ‘a shortage of competent and experienced social workers regionally’ as the reason for the use of agency social workers.
It added: “The ongoing recruitment campaign to attract children’s social workers to Coventry is currently being boosted by use of a specialist recruitment agency.”
Cllr Mutton said: “In some areas of the council there’s now our own pool of temporary workers so rather than going through an agency and paying 25 per cent on top we can ring people up who can come in for a month or two months.”