Mr. Andrew Murphy:

The agency is not as permanent. The idea around children in care is to have as permanent a situation as possible for children in families, if that family is permanent, and for the people who are supporting that family to have a permanency around them also. Obviously there are times that people have to move on and change but the current level of change is seen as a lot to absorb by many families with regard to different styles and personalities and so on. If agency staff are being used there will, invariably, be a tendency for agency staff to move on quicker than permanent staff. Employing agency staff before permanent staff gets back to a level of risk.