Camden Labour blow £2.2 million Agency Staff
Cllr Steve Adams was aghast to find that Camden were spending a fortune on 'Agency Staff'
Steve revealed the huge sum frittered away to the budget setting meeting of Camden Borough Council. He highlighted the need to substantially reduce the unhealthy dependence of Agency Staff that has taken over the borough. These informal employees typically cost 15-30% more than the base salary of a permanent employee.
Even the recent Executive Director’s report on the subject of Adult Safeguarding presented to the Audit and Corporate Governance committee included the sentence:
“Vacant posts and the effort required to recruit can impact service capacity and can lead to increased use of agency staff, which has an impact on cost and sometimes quality of service delivery.”
The differential cost to the borough is a massive £2.2M each year. The numbers speak for themselves. Not only should the borough reduce its reliance of this type of staff procurement and the accepted new norm that council employee numbers will rise each year, must be challenged.
Temporary staff introduce a burden on Camden through the need for continual, repetitive induction training and can also result in a lower level of corporate commitment. A happy workplace is one where everyone feels both an intrinsic part of the organisation and permanently embedded in its ethos.
