AGENCY social workers are costing a council £36,000 more than the cost of a permanent member of staff.
However an all-Wales agreement is in place to manage how agency workers are used and Torfaen Borough Council has said its reliance on them is low compared to other Welsh authorities.
Jacalyn Richards, head of the council’s children and family services, said it has spent £420,000 on agency social workers this year and in the past two years spent “in the region of £600,000 on agency social workers”.
Figures form the end of January 2025 show there were seven social worker vacancies across the department and four agency staff in place to cover longstanding vacancies within the area-based locality teams.
The council has made appointments to fill those vacancies but as some of the successful applicants are students they won’t be in place until they have qualified in the summer.
Torfaen is overhauling the department with the existing locality teams to be disbanded.
Instead it wants to teams to replicate how a child moves through the system with specific teams focused on care and support and work in court while the team supporting children aged 16 and over will become a 15 plus team to assist with better transitions for those likely to require support through to adulthood.
Ms Richards, told the council’s children and families scrutiny committee, the restructure which the council will soon start a formal consultation with staff about, won’t alter how many social workers it wants to employ.
She said: “The restructure is of existing staff we are not looking to lose or gain posts.”
Councillors were examining how effectively the council manages the caseloads of its social workers to prevent “burn out” of staff and ensure children and families are provided with the best service.
The head of service said its analysis of monthly caseloads show demand can be managed within its target that caseloads are reduced to an average of 20 children for one social worker at any one time if it is fully staffed.
“We need to be filling posts and making sure we do that consistently,” said Ms Richards.
While Torfaen’s county plan for 2024/25 identified reducing caseloads to 20 the committee was told it is a “high level target” intended as a guide as workload can vary based on the intensity and support required and the social worker’s experience.
Throughout 2024, the average caseload for full time social workers was maintained between 18 and 20 children.
The council wants to reduce the demand on social workers by setting up an Early Intervention and Prevention hub, which could help assess potential cases, and also reduce the number of children in care, from around 340 a year to the Welsh average of 240.
Changes are intended to improve services for children and families and also bring costs under control.
Ms Richards said her concern around higher case loads numbers is families who require a lower level of support could miss out and their needs, and the response required, could escalate.
Her report for the committee noted there is a national shortage of social workers in Wales, while the number of social work students in Wales has fallen since 2016.
Jason O’Brien, the council director for education and social services, said it has been successful in recruiting students who undertake work placements with it and also said he believes a permanent post with a local authority is better than agency work.
“When you unpick the benefits of working for a local authority they far outweigh the benefits of an agency,” said the director who cited holiday pay, sick pay, pension and support as advantages enjoyed by those directly employed.
He added the council has also been successful in appointing social workers who had been agency staff.
Councillors will recommend the authority continues to train social workers from its existing workforce by continuing to sponsor them to gain qualifications and want the service to inform schools and other stakeholders of the changes it makes as part of its restructure.
