Agency cost to cover shortages of staff racks up huge bill for council

A HUGE bill for agency staff amid severe social worker shortages is adding strain to Sefton Council’s alreadystretched finances.

A report presented to a meeting of Sefton’s cabinet at Bootle Town hall revealed the extent of the council’s overspending on agency staff, which has reached £6.5m over the past year.

More than half of that figure is being spent on ‘managed teams’ – which are entire teams of social workers and managers contracted as a whole from agencies to run parts of the council’s social services functions.

Alongside many councils across the country, Sefton is facing a huge shortage in social workers – a situation it is attempting to resolve by the development of a social work academy to recruit, train and retain newly qualified social workers.

The council is also in the process of recruiting from overseas, with interviews set to take place with a view to bringing dozens of social workers from South Africa to meet some of the strain in the borough.

The report, which details the council’s current financial position, states that significant unplanned rises in children’s service and adult social care spending are contributing to a budget black hole with a £2.2m overspend forecast.

With a month-onmonth increase in overspending for children’s social care, the report states ‘there is a significant risk that this position will worsen further in the remaining three months of the year.’

As a result of previous remedial actions taken from overspends earlier in the year, the report states there is ‘no flexibility left’ to cover the deficit from general balances.

Presenting the report at a meeting of the cabinet, officers said the council was ‘hopeful the various mitigating actions’ put in place, including a recruitment freeze, preventing any further overspending.