Southwark Council spent half a million pounds on temporary staff for local nurseries last year, according to new figures obtained by Southwark Liberal Democrats.

That is despite the council reviewing the future of four centres that it says have become financially unviable. Local councillors have questioned why so much is being spent on agency fees when the nurseries are still under threat of closure.

£524,124 was paid out to recruitment agencies in 2011/12 for staff working at all nine council-subsidised nurseries and children’s centres in the borough. £362, 984 of this sum was spent on the four children’s centres under review, with £164,383 alone going on the South Bermondsey centre in Tenda Road which was given a temporary stay of execution just last month thanks to a high profile local campaign to keep it open.

Whilst the amounts paid include staff wages, recruitment companies typically take 15-25% commission for providing workers, meaning tens of thousands of pounds is being lost in agency fees. The figure for the Tenda Road nursery suggests several full time staff are being hired through agencies on an ongoing basis. 

Commenting on the new figures, which were revealed in a response to a Freedom of Information request, South Bermondsey’s Lib Dem councillor Graham Neale said:

“The council told us it can’t afford to keep running these nurseries, and then we find out ludicrous amounts of money are being spent on agency staff and fees.”

“Parents in the borough will quite understandably be asking if the Labour councillors in charge of this have been financially competent. They say the nurseries need to make savings, but at the same time they’ve been signing off tens of thousands of pounds in agency costs.”

“Hopefully this new information will force the council to sort out their finances and commit to keeping all four nurseries open. Until we get that commitment, the Lib Dems will continue to campaign on this issue.”