Enfield Council will pump an extra £1 million a year into children’s services in a bid to ease the pressure on ‘overburdened’ social workers.

The money will be used to boost staff numbers after a report showed social workers in Enfield were dealing with double the amount of casework compared to the recommendations of a London-wide agreement.

It comes after standards watchdog Ofsted spotted weaknesses in the council’s referral and assessment service during a visit in September.

Inspectors said social workers in the team were dealing with between 31 and 36 cases – significantly higher than the 15 to 21 recommended in a pan-London agreement.

The council has also pledged an extra £600,000 for the service in the current financial year.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting yesterday (Wednesday, November 14), Cllr Achilleas Georgiou, cabinet member for children’s services, said this was a “key priority for the council”.

He added: “We need to invest – not only for the children, but for our staff.

“We have to do the right thing for our children, and we can only do that if we have the social workers on the front line to do the work.

“We can’t continue to overburden our social workers – we need to support them.

“To do that, we are putting in the extra money, and this means we will be recruiting extra social workers in the coming months.”

The money will be used to hire 18 new members of staff to the children’s social care team and cut caseloads to “an acceptable level”.

Enfield Council is facing a £3.5 million overspend in children’s social care during the current financial year.

But spending on children’s services is lower in Enfield than in most other local authorities, according to a council report.

Mary Maguire, cabinet member for finance and procurement, insisted the council would be able to find the extra £1 million a year to spend on children’s services.

The £600,000 for the current financial year will be taken from the local authority’s reserves.

Cllr Georgiou and council leader Cllr Nesil Caliskan called on the Conservative group to back the extra spending pledge when it goes to a full council meeting.