According to figures obtained by Southwark Liberal Democrats through a freedom of information request, a total of £542,324 has been spent on agency workers for four council-run children’s centres since April 2011. This amounts to an average monthly cost of £32,000.
Southwark's Labour-run council announced in March its plans to gradually withdraw childcare provision at South Bermondsey Children and Parents Centre and Bishops House Children’s Centre over the next two years.
The council said the decision to close the nurseries in September 2014 was due to cuts to the council's budget of £90 million.
A temporary stay of execution has now been given to South Bermondsey Children and Parents Centre following a campaign by parents to keep the setting open. It comes after an announcement made by the council last month to carry out a review into the viability of all four of their children’s centre nurseries, looking at ways to continue to run the settings as opposed to closing them.
However, the freedom of information request has led local councillors to question the council's decision.
The figures show that of the total cost of agency staff for 2011-2013, £259,228 was spent on practitioners for South Bermondsey Children and Parents Centre. A further 89,639 was spent on staff for Bishops House Children’s Centre.
The amount spent on agency staff for the two other council run children’s centres was £90,618 for Aylesbury Early Years Centre and £102,838 for Camberwell Grove Early Years Centre.
Liberal Democrat councillor for South Bermondsey ward Graham Neale, who has been campaigning to keep his local nursery open, 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 Liberal Democrats will continue to campaign on this issue.’
Nursery World contacted Southwark Council for a comment, but they were unable to respond in time for our online deadline.