Council spends £4.56m on agency workers

A council has spent £4.56m on 66 agency workers in the 2024/25 financial year with many needed to work in social care.

The figures were shared at a Wiltshire Council committee and were lower than the previous financial year, with a high of £8m in 2018/19 according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Wiltshire Council said they spent less compared to similar local authorities and without the agency workers there would be impacts on service users and the wider Wiltshire community.

The council has just approved a new three-year contract for agency workers too, with the option to extend for a further 12 months, at an estimated cost of £20m over four years.

The £4.65m equates to around £75,000 per agency worker, which would be well above the average council pay of £35,000.

However, the council said when it comes to agency hiring "a simple average does not accurately reflect the true cost of these roles."

The overview and scrutiny committee, whose job it is to analyse corporate spending within the council, heard from Tamsin Kielb, the council's director of HR.

She explained that while agency staff were more expensive, they were a vital way of keeping statutory services going – particularly in the adult social care and education departments.

Ms Kielb added that as of 24 April this year there were 33 agency workers in the council, 14 of whom were in children's services and six in adult services.

She explained that there is a "high turnover" in social care.

After the meeting, Wiltshire Council explained to the Local Democracy Reporting Service that agency workers were mostly for specialist roles including social workers, planners and senior leadership.

Lucy Townsend, Wiltshire Council's Chief Executive, said: "As both the number of agency workers and the duration of their engagements fluctuate throughout the year, a simple average does not accurately reflect the true cost of these roles.

The salary budget for 2024/25 was £155,818,500 for both staff and agency, with there being more than 4,300 staff, but that changes throughout the year.

"Through all our procurement and recruitment processes we are committed to ensuring value for money and effective workforce management" Ms Townsend added.

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