Issue - meetings

Members considered a report on the expenditure incurred during 2018/19 on the engagement of externally appointed temporary/agency staff and consultants.

The following points were highlighted:

·         £607,000 had been spent on agency staff and consultants in 2018/19.  72% of this funding was commissioned through West Lindsey’s staffing agency.  The actual cost of staffing services was 5.9% of the overall employee budget;

·         Agency staff were used to cover vacancies, sickness leave and seasonal staff;

·         £211,000 had been spent on consultancy by the Authority to utilise the advice of experts;

·         Finance officers budget for a ‘full establishment’, i.e. a fully staffed Authority.  Vacancy savings were achieved where posts were not filled, or where vacancies were being held for a specific purpose;

·         The only department that relied on agency staff was Waste Services.  £389,000 of funding was allocated to this department.  In the previous year, Waste Services received a ‘high assurance’ rating;

·         When WLDC undertakes large projects that were not classed as ‘business as usual’, it needed to ensure that there were specialist staff to help complete these projects;

·         The cost of consultants would fluctuate from year to year, a bigger issue would be whether the Authority was getting value for money.

Members of the committee questioned officers on the reasoning behind the proposal for the paper to be circulated via the Members’ Newsletter.  All were reassured that the information would still be visible to all Elected and Independent Members through the Members’ Newsletter, and if it was felt that the data warranted a committee report, this could be done with the approval of the Governance and Audit Chairman.

RESOLVED to:

(1)  Accept the content of the report;

(2)  Circulate this report via the West Lindsey Members’ Newsletter in future years.