The amount Herefordshire Council spent on employing temporary workers via staffing agencies rose by over £5 million over the past year, new figures show.

In response to a Freedom of Information request, the council said that the amount it spent on agency staff rose from £3.55 million in financial year 2020/21, to £8.77 million in the previous financial year – a 147 per cent increase.

According to the council’s response to the request, the contract to manage the supply of agency staff is let via a regional framework to a firm called Matrix, the contract running from November 2020 until November 2024.

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Herefordshire Council declined to say how this figure compared with what the likely cost would have been of employing staff directly over the past year.

Its spokesperson said: “Agency staff are filling vacancies while permanent recruitment is completed, providing additional capacity and bringing specialist expertise on an interim basis in areas where the council is making improvements, delivering its transformation strategy and developing services.”

Meanwhile, the council has approved further expenditure of £860,000 with Caritas Recruitment, via Matrix, plus a further £71,000 to cover expenses, in order to “strengthen various teams across children’s social care”.

It will be used to supply 33 “appropriately qualified” staff, both social workers and managers, for a fixed term of 13 weeks, averaging just under £26,000 each for the period.

It is also spending a further £468,000 to have external team of 15 review all open children’s social care cases, thought to number about 1,150.

This aims to ensure that all children and their families are safe, receiving appropriate and timely interventions, that placements are robust and well supported, and to assess the quality of management oversight of the social workers involved.

The moves are a consequence of the High Court judgment against the department last year, in light of which the council has “committed to an urgent and robust review of its children’s social care services and is establishing and improvement strategy”, its decision notice said.

Both costs will be funded from £5.2 million earmarked at an extraordinary council meeting in April last year in response to the judgment.