14.01.15
Local authorities spend billions on agency staff
Local authorities across the country are spending billions of pounds on agency and interim staff and consultants, and even re-hiring former staff they had made redundant.
An investigation by the Times found that since 2010, councils have spent £5bn on consultants and agency staff, including former employees. Five councils spent more than £100m on agency staff since 2010-11, while many more were found to have spent in excess of £50m.
Crisis-hit Birmingham City Council (BCC) topped the list compiled by the Times, spending £155m since 2010-11, followed by Essex County Council (£133.5m) and Kent County Council (£127m).
Seventeen London boroughs also spent between £50m and £125m on agency and consultancy staff.
Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of Taxpayers Alliance, said: “This [£5bn] is a scandalous figure and one that needs to be justified.”
However, in response to the claim, BCC said no staff who earn more than £70,000 had been re-hired by the council in the past 12 months.
A council spokesperson said: “We use agency staff for short-term periods where there is insufficient capacity or expertise within the council’s own workforce. This can be for a range of reasons including specialist one-off technical projects or to ensure that vital front-line services such as social care, can continue to be delivered to citizens, during spells of sickness.
“Such staff can also be used when services are being remodelled and in an interim state – which has been increasingly the case since central government cuts began having an impact on the council.”
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