Request made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
8 February 2025
 
Children’s Services: Leadership Continuity, Agency Staffing Costs, and Financial Impact (2019–present)

This request is made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

It is submitted at a moment of public reflection following statutory intervention in Solihull’s Children’s Services, subsequent service improvement, and recent public statements welcoming improved inspection outcomes.
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The purpose of this request is not to revisit tragedy, attribute blame to frontline professionals, or diminish the progress that has been made. Rather, it is to ensure that the public record is complete in relation to leadership continuity, the scale and cost of recovery measures, and the wider financial consequences for the council during the period in which decline was identified and recovery undertaken.

​Context
Ofsted and the Children’s Services Commissioner identified that the decline in Children’s Services began in or around 2019 and continued through the period of the pandemic, statutory intervention, and leadership change at officer level.
In May 2019, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council entered a period of leadership continuity during which senior political leadership remained in place while Children’s Services declined, statutory intervention occurred, and recovery measures were implemented.
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This request seeks information that will allow residents to understand how recovery was resourced, what it cost, and what financial consequences followed.

​Decline explicitly linked to 2019
“They judged that strategic leaders had overseen a decline in services to vulnerable children and families since the inspection of 2019.”
Report of the Commissioner for Children’s Services in Solihull
Sir Alan Wood

Information requested
1. Agency staffing levels in Children’s Services
For each financial year from 2019/20 to 2024/25 (or the most recent year available), please provide:

• The total number of Children’s Social Care staff (FTE)
• The number and percentage of those staff engaged through agencies
• The number and percentage of agency staff working in:
  • child protection teams
  • assessment / front door teams
  • Children Looked After teams

​2. Cost of agency staffing
For the same period, please provide:

• Total annual expenditure on agency staff within Children’s Services
• Average annual cost per agency social worker (if held)
• Average annual cost per permanent social worker, including salary and on-costs, for comparison (if held)
• Total expenditure on agency or interim staff in senior management or leadership roles within Children’s Services

3. Workforce stability and turnover
Please provide any data held on:

• Turnover rates for agency staff compared with permanent staff
• Average assignment length for agency social workers
• Any internal assessments or reports evaluating the impact of workforce instability on service quality or improvement outcomes

4. Additional funding, emergency support, and budgetary impact
Please provide details of:

• All additional funding allocated to Children’s Services from 2019 onwards that was outside the originally approved budget envelope
• The cumulative value of this additional funding

Including, where applicable:

• Emergency, exceptional, or unplanned funding provided by central government, including but not limited to:
  • Department for Education grants
  • funding associated with statutory intervention
  • improvement adviser or commissioner support
  • any other financial support provided in response to service failure or safeguarding concerns

For all such funding, please indicate:

• the source of the funding
• the financial year(s) in which it was received
• any conditions, expectations, or reporting requirements attached

Please also explain how any remaining additional costs were met, including (where applicable):

• reallocation from other council services
• use of reserves
• borrowing
• capitalisation or other exceptional accounting measures​
• ​

​​Senior leaders “did not know their services”
“The self-assessment of services presented to Ofsted as part of the inspection was judged by them to be a picture that had no base in reality and showed that Solihull’s senior leaders did not know their services.”
Ofsted inspection of local authority children’s services (ILACS)​

​​5. Wider financial consequences
Please provide copies of any documents held since 2019 that assess or discuss:

• The impact of Children’s Services expenditure on the council’s overall financial resilience
• Any displacement, reduction, delay, or cancellation of other services or projects attributable to Children’s Services cost pressures
• Any Section 151 assessments, risk registers, or internal financial briefings that consider longer-term financial risk arising from Children’s Services recovery measures
• Any correspondence or briefing documents relating to discussions with central government about the council’s financial position arising from Children’s Services pressures

6. Value and sustainability assessments
Please provide copies of any internal or external reviews that evaluate:

• Whether the scale of agency staffing expenditure represented value for money
• Whether reliance on agency staffing created longer-term financial or operational risks for the council
• Plans or strategies to reduce reliance on agency staffing and their projected financial impact

Closing note
This request is made in good faith, in recognition of the seriousness of past failings, the importance of recent improvement, and the public interest in understanding how recovery was achieved, at what cost, and with what consequences.
As the borough approaches its first full council election since these events, this information is sought to support a measured and informed moment of public reflection, and to ensure transparency in the use of public funds.