Agenda item

The Assistant Director of Professional Services, introduced the report and detailed the arrangements the Council had in place for the use of temporary staff.  He advised that the Council may well see a rise in the use of temporary staff in the next savings round in order to protect staff who may become at risk as part of restructuring proposals and to safeguard future jobs.  The strategy was anticipated to save the council money at the same time as safeguarding as many jobs as possible for existing staff.  Members welcomed the report and confirmed that, whilst wanting to have permanent staff at the Authority, there were some specialist roles where the employment of a specialist contractor would be most cost effective.  Members particularly supported the strategy for use of temporary workers as this would lead to the maximum opportunity for existing staff who may find themselves at risk to be considered for vacancies. 

Councillor Stokes raised a number of concerns including the degree of involvement of staff representatives in developing the strategy, the amount of money a temporary staff member actually received via their agency and the correlation between use of agency staff and turnover.  The Assistant Director advised that staff representatives had been involved and consulted through the normal forums.  He advised that monitoring information was being compiled centrally and would be reported to Committee in due course and would include information on turnover.  The Overview and Scrutiny Committee had considered the report at its meeting on 13^th September 2011 and had requested that sessional workers be included in the monitoring. 

Resolved –

(a)  That the report be noted.

(b)  That the tight financial and approval framework that supports the decision making on use of temporary workers be noted.

(c)  That the business rationale that sits behind decisions to employ interims, contractor and temporary staff and how this supports the council to meet it’s overall objectives be noted.