Agency workers cost council £2m
MERTHYR council spends £2m a year on almost 80 agency staff, including some who have been in position for more than a decade.
The interim chief executive said there was a culture at the council of covering core posts with agency workers, some working for 10 to 12 years.
Ellis Cooper made the comment during a meeting of the council’s governance and performance scrutiny committee in which it discussed an update on human resources.
Fran Donnelly, an officer from the council’s human resources department, said the council spends around £2m a year on 78 agency staff in core posts at the council, excluding care.
Figures show that from April to July this year, over £574,000 was spent on agency staff with just over £220,000 in the refuse and waste department and over £98,000 in the supported housing department.
Councillor Clive Jones described the four-month figures for agency staff in refuse and waste and supported housing as “massive figures” and said it can’t be right that agency staff are in permanent posts
He said: “Surely there are savings to be made here. In the financial situation we find ourselves surely this must be a priority.
“We should be looking at these costs as a matter of urgency.”
Ms Donnelly said the council was looking at potentially creating its own agency from which to recruit staff but no decision had been made on this yet.
She said: “We are actively trying to reduce our agency spend. Realistically agency would only cover short-term sickness.”
Mr Cooper said some agency staff had been with the authority for some time, as long as 10-12 years and there was a “historic legacy” of this happening.
He said: “We have a culture in this authority of covering core posts with agency staff. Agency use goes back a number of years.”
He said two years ago it tried to make 10 agency workers in the refuse department into permanent staff as it had the money to do that.
“We are looking at what we can do. There will always be a requirement for agency staff. We are looking at how we address it (long-term agency staff).
“Ethically it is a challenge. We can’t magically fix it. It is going to be a transition over a period.
Following a question from Councillor Gareth Lewis, it was revealed that the long-term agency workers work in frontline services, such as parks and highways, and some are social workers.
Councillor Tanya Skinner, the chair of the committee, said agency workers would not be on the same terms as permanent staff and added she didn’t see that as being very ethical if they have been with the authority for a long period of time.
Speaking about the figures, she said: “When you see those figures you do almost want to fall off your chair.
“£200,000 on refuse and waste is crazy. Are we saying there is no solution? We are never going to get completely rid of it but 78 is a high number. Are we saying we are going to be stuck with that?”
But Ms Donnelly said the 78 staff was out of a total of 1,427 core staff and Cllr Skinner said the number was not that high in relation to the overall workforce.
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