THE bill for agency workers in Worcestershire's under-pressure child protection services can today be revealed - £4 million a year.

Worcestershire County Council has admitted more needs to be done to fill empty posts in children's services despite serious improvements in recruitment over the last year.

For the first time council chiefs have revealed how the current tally of 27 frontline agency workers, which work alongside the in-house cohort of 120 full-time equivalents, cost £4 million to employ.

Around 23 per cent of County Hall's child social workers come from outside agencies on temporary deals, a figure which has fallen from the 37 per cent in April last year.

The expense, which is made worse by a national shortage of qualified children's social workers, has led to calls to create an in-house talent 'bank' similar to NHS-style flexible working pools.

The suggestion has come from Labour group leader Councillor Peter McDonald, who says it could help ease the need to pay outside agencies.

But the Conservative leadership says County Hall already operates a bank system which operates across the authority.

Councillor John Campion, the cabinet member for children and families, has taken the step of saying the demand for suitable workers "far outstrips" even the jobs it has going in children's services.

There are now around 690 children in care, a figure which stood at 530 back in 2009, costing in excess of £33 million per year to keep on top of.

As your Worcester News revealed last week, the forecast is for it to rise by around 30 children each year to 2018.

The overall children's services budget is around £70 million.

Councillor Campion said: "The demand for staff in this area, following the national difficulties we have had far outstrips the positions and posts that are available.

"So obviously staff have a lot of choice in this particular area.

"But where they want to work flexibly, we do absolutely give them that option, including working in a 'bank' for us."

He added: "As the workforce becomes more stable, we expect this to reduce."

In April last year the council has 99 full-time equivalent in-house children's social workers and used 37 agency staff daily.

It now offers £4,000 'golden hellos' for certain children's services roles, a market-forces style top-up to compete with councils also facing shortages, which are in many cases considerably worse.