ALMOST £10m has been spent on agency social workers in Southampton in the past five years, it has been revealed.

City bosses spent £9,467,472 on agency temporary staff in the children’s services department between 2015 and 2019, according to a Freedom of Information request.

A total of £399,078 was also spent on consultants within the children’s services department over the same period of time.

The news comes as in their latest report Ofsted inspectors rated the service as “requires improvement”.

Civic chiefs said there has been an increase in demand and said the situation in Southampton is not different to the one facing other councils across the country.

But the figures have been described as a “huge amount of money”.

A Freedom of Information request sent to Southampton City Council revealed that the amount of money spent on agency temporary staff in children’ s services has gone from £3,277,541 between September 2015 and September 2016 to £1,771,236 between September 2018 and 2019. A total £2,489,190 was spent between September 2016 and September 2017 and £1,929,505 was spent the following year. Meanwhile the cost of consultants employed within children's services has gone from £21,711 between September 2015 and 2016 to zero in the two following years but up to £377,367 between 2018 and 2019.

Hayley Garner, Unite branch secretary in Southampton, said: “It is an absolutely huge amount of money. We have been told we need to save money but we seem to spend money on agency. The children would see multiple people, they are likely to have different social workers. We share Ofsted concerns about that.”

It comes as in their latest report Ofsted inspectors said “some children in care have too many changes of social worker”.

As previously reported, whilst highlighting some improvements watchdogs said progress in children’s services has been “uneven” and “too slow” since the last inspection in 2014. Cllr Darren Paffey, cabinet member for aspiration, children and lifelong learning at the city council blamed austerity for the increase in demand but said to be pleased that the improvements made had been recognised. Now a spokesperson for the city council said: “In keeping with national trends, we have seen an increase in the number of children needing support from children’s services, and in common with other local authorities we are facing challenges when recruiting permanent staff. At the same time, we are working hard to improve the care we provide to children and this means we need to reduce caseloads for our social workers.

“The use of agency social workers needs to be seen in the context of this national picture. As the National Audit Office confirmed last year, local authorities across the country have had to increase the use of agency social workers, and Southampton is no different in needing to do this to cover recruitment needs or meet fluctuations in demand. While these agency staff play a vital role, we are also continuing to develop our recruitment offer in order to attract greater numbers of skilled and dedicated permanent social workers, which would in turn mean that we are able to reduce the spend on agency social workers.”