Cambridge City Council spent nearly £8m on agency staff

Nearly £8 million was spent on agency staff in five years by Cambridge City Council, which filled middle-ranking posts at an annual cost of up to £92,000 each.

Some positions were filled for several years by agency workers, costing taxpayers dearly in fees demanded on top of salaries, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act.

Opposition councillors said the expenditure was “wrong” and would be better spent on permanent employees.

In its response, the council said it spent £7.8 million on agency staff, including £1.7 million in the last financial year alone.

It spent £1.6 million in 2010/11, £1.9 million in 2009/10 and £2 million in 2008/09, plus £481,000 so far this year.

The highest expenditure was on a senior contracts solicitor who was employed at a cost of £92,437 in 2009/10, and a business analyst who cost £91,006 the same year.

High bills are still being run up, including a programme manager who was paid £64,122 last year and £61,320 the previous year.

Of the agency staff employed last year, eight cost the council more than £20,000 each, and half of those cost more than £40,000 each.

Some posts were filled for more than two years on this basis, the council said.

Opposition leader Cllr Lewis Herbert said the scale of the expenditure was shocking.

He said: “If a service is vital, you need to have the right person but some of these staff have been on contracts for two-and-a-half years and it’s wrong to employ agency staff for that long.

“We should be putting far more effort into recruiting full-time staff for these posts given the cuts the council has to make.”

Cllr Julie Smith, the executive councillor for resources, said the council’s spend on agency staff had been reducing, but promised to investigate how the sum compared to similar authorities.

She said: “We shouldn’t rely on agency staff in most cases, but there are some areas and a range of reasons where we may want to use them.”

These included seasonal posts such as roles at the folk festival and positions of specialised expertise, Cllr Smith said.

Last month the News revealed Cambridgeshire County Council spent up to £690 a day employing temps in its social care team, with many contracts lasting for more than a year.