SICKNESS and maternity leave have sent Neath and Port Talbot children's services way over budget again.
At one point this year there were 18 staff absent — forcing council bosses to spend heavily on expensive agency workers.
Councillors have heard that action has since been taken to reduce the absences to single figures.
But the situation has contributed to a predicted £800,000 overspend in children's services despite the council having already invested an extra £136,000 this year.
Finance director Hywel Jenkins said that money had been targeted at improving staff retention, providing more manageable caseloads and looking at ways of reducing the number of children coming into care.
"However the budget is projected to overspend by £800,000 as a consequence of the continued need to employ agency staff to cover vacancies and absences," said Mr Jenkins.
"Arrangements have been put in place to continuously monitor and reduce agency costs and to replace with permanent appointments."
The overspend was flagged up by policy and resources scrutiny committee member David Williams, who wanted more details.
Mr Jenkins said he understood there were around 18 children's services staff members who were either on maternity leave or sickness absence.
"A significant piece of work has been carried out to reduce that to single figures over the last three months," he added.
"When this report was prepared it was about 18 but now there are fewer than 10 agency staff providing cover.
"But we had to backfill just to make sure we are providing the best possible service to the children of Neath Port Talbot, which we are committed to doing."
Social services chiefs have recruited specialist social workers and are widening the net to try to attract other social workers from as far afield as Northern Ireland.
Across the authority there has been a reduction in sickness absence over the last year, falling from an average of 10.07 days for every council employee to 9.68 days.
Each department has been set a target of reducing absence by 10 per cent this year, and the council has embarked on an in-depth analysis of long-term absence.
Councillor Carol Clements welcomed the reduction, but added: "There is still a long way to go to get the figures down.
"Work was done on this before. The figures dipped and went back up again.
"I want to make sure things are in place to ensure this is going the right way and the figures continue to drop."
