Has Norwich City Council a staffing and recruitment problem? Questions about the use of funds at Norwich City Hall have been repeatedly raised after it was revealed that spending on temporary staff has more than trebled in recent years.
“Why is the Norwich City Council so reliant on temporary staff? Why is 20% of the wage budget going to agencies?” queries Green Party councillor Liam Calvert. “Other nearby councils based in the city spend around 6%.”
Like many local authorities, Norwich City Council has contracts with temporary staffing agencies to provide workers for short-term and temporary vacancies. But new figures show the council spent £5.1m on freelance or agency workers in the 2023/24 financial year. Previous years expenditures were around £3.8m in 2022/23 and £2.6m in 2021/22.
Recruitment challenges
The authority is facing significant financial pressures and previously warned that it needs to make more than £9.5m in savings to plug a future gap in funds over the next five years. So the rise in the agency wage bill is causing significant alarm. Opposition politicians at the Labour-run council have criticised the “ballooning” spending. But City Hall says the expenditure is necessary given difficulties recruiting permanent staff.
“Local authorities often have good reasons to employ short term staff such as filling vacancies until permanent appointments can be made, or for projects where outside expertise is needed,” said Calvert, councillor for Wensum ward.
“Unfortunately it seems that this administration has completely lost its grip on the process at a huge cost to local residents.”
The cost of temporary staff
By means of a Freedom of Information request, Green Party councillors discovered the pay rates for agency and contract staff as well as the commission rates. Examples include:
- £750 per day for a temporary fire safety manager, the permanent position would normally cost £201.
- £944 per day for an interim chief finance officer, the permanent equivalent would be paid £451.
- £700 per day rate for a Parking & Markets Manager with the payment to the supplying agency being £825 per day, including commission of 17.8%.
- £650 per day rate for a Parks and Open Spaces Manager with the supplying agency receiving £767 per day including commission of 18%.
- £13.18 per hour for a Customer Contact Adviser with the supplying agency receiving £20.68 per hour including commission of 56%.
The figures relate to contracts starting between March 2021 and June 2024. Using the council’s published pay policy the BBC identified the rates for permanent posts on equivalent bands.
It is not just the cost that is an issue
A spokesperson for Norwich City council explained that sector-wide skill shortages and market forces including agency commission fees are driving the costs.
Calvert argues that rather than “throwing money at the problem” the council should be investigating why some positions are hard to fill. The high levels of pay is not the only issue he sees. The repeated use of short term agency and temporary contract staff in key statutory and other roles also means “the council suffers a loss of the continuity and experience needed to properly serve residents”.
Calvert acknowledges that many of the temporary officers do excellent work. However “it is hard to see how Norwich City Council can justify paying huge multiples of a standard wage, in some cases, we have had interim managers for well over a year.”
Lucy Galvin, leader of the Green Group at Norwich City Council has drawn attention to the additional fact that the disparity in pay between temporary & permanent staff is lowering morale.
The council’s response
Mike Stonard, council Labour leader, claims that Norwich is one of many local authorities struggling to recruit and appoint good quality, substantive staff on a permanent basis.
“I absolutely refute that the Labour administration doesn’t have a grip on interim costs,” said Stonard. “We are not an outlier, and it is disingenuous and unfair to criticise the administration. There is a lot of work being done on this and we have made significant improvements recently.”
The council claims their most recent data shows a halving in their agency spend and a reduced agency head count of one-third. Furthermore, the council only use agency staff where they have been unable to recruit permanently, or where they have short term projects, or where there is a need for specific skills and expertise.
Calvert believes the council needs to change its recruitment approach to be successful in a competitive job market. He draws attention to the need to provide quality training, to be innovative and to offer an attractive work environment such as a fully paid 4 day week. The latter he said was a measure the council “committed to investigate and then backed out of.”
Failure to get to grips with permanent recruitment and the staffing bill will leave Norwich residents wondering whether they can trust the current administration to give value for money with their council taxes.
“Norwich is a great place to work and live,” says Calvert. “Norwich City Council needs to look at how it can attract and retain high quality staff in a way that doesn’t rely on using taxpayer money to paper over the cracks.”
