Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Agency spending on children’s social work soars in Aberdeen

A north-east council is increasingly turning to private agencies to staff its children's social work department.
A north-east council is increasingly turning to private agencies to staff its children's social work department.

Aberdeen City Council’s agency spend on children’s social work has nearly trebled in just three years.

Shock new figures obtained by the Press and Journal reveal the council paid out £374,214 on hiring temporary staff in 2015/16.

But by last year, this figure had almost trebled, to £921,615.

The authority stressed the expenditure does not necessarily just include social workers, but could also include other departments such as administration.

But experts have warned the increase is indicative of a “vicious cycle” where short-staffed councils are turning to agencies.

This then adds further strain to overworked social workers, who are then more likely to leave for private firms.

However, last year the council confirmed it hired 17 of these types of staff to work with children.

Agency spending

During the same period, Orkney spent £87,178 on social workers, Moray paid out £81,633 and Shetland paid out £7,217.

Aberdeenshire Council did not hire any agency workers over the course of the same five year period.

Highland Council did not respond to the Press and Journal’s request.

Meanwhile, neighbouring Dundee City could not provide figures for every year but spent £159,000 last year.

Professor Ray Jones, a former director of children’s services and an emeritus professor at London’s Kingston University, said the spending was part of a worrying cycle which had led to more and more social workers leaving for private work.

He said: “What’s happening is that, despite the Scottish Government’s best efforts to buck the trend and protect public services, it’s very difficult to do that in the context of a UK Government that’s continuing to pursue a policy of austerity.

“This means that social workers are under increasing pressure for a number of reasons, firstly because people are becoming poorer and that has an impact on how well they are able to look after their children, which creates more work.

“As the social worker workforce becomes under more pressure it’s difficult to recruit and retain and also staff are now choosing to go and work with private agencies who will pay them a little more.”

And Prof Jones – whose book In Whose Interest? on the privatisation of child protection and social work, was published in December – said it was the private firms that were reaping the rewards.


>> Keep up to date with the latest news with The P&J newsletter


“These agencies are making significant sum of money because it is becoming so difficult to recruit and retain in the public sector, it’s a vicious cycle,” he added.

“And, at the end of the day, you are getting a poorer service because the workforce is chopping and changing, social workers don’t know the families and the families themselves are less trusting because of that – there’s no time to build a relationship.”

An Aberdeen City Council spokeswoman said: “The spend on agency staff is to cover ‘hard to fill’  critical posts to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children and young people.

“It reflects the challenges of recruiting to these posts. The level of spend has reduced in the past year from the previous year.

“We are exploring a range of initiatives to address this challenge including working with RGU.”