A total of £4.56 million was spent on 66 agency workers including social workers and planners in the financial year 2024/5, Wiltshire Council's own spending watchdog has heard.
The figure seems to equate to around £75,000 per agency worker - well above the mean average pay at the council of £35,000 - although the council says when it comes to agency hiring "a simple average does not accurately reflect the true cost of these roles".
At the first meeting of the council's cabinet on Tuesday, councillors were asked to consider approving a new three-year contract for agency workers with the option to extend for a further 12 months, at an estimated cost of £20 million over four years.
Before the matter was put to cabinet, it passed under the microscope of the overview and scrutiny committee, whose job it is to analyse corporate spending within the council.
Tamsin Kielb, the council's director of HR, told the committee that while agency staff were more expensive than in-house hires, they were a vital way of keeping statutory services going – particularly in the adult social care and education departments.
She told the committee that as of April 24 this year there were 33 agency workers in the council - 14 of whom (42 per cent) were in children's services and six (18 per cent) in adult services.
The committee was told that without agency workers in place, there would be impacts on service users and the wider Wiltshire community.
More money had been spent on agency hires in 2023/4 (£5.19 million) and the cost was far below the high of £8 million in 2018/19, the committee was told.
When compared to other councils, Wiltshire spends less on agency staff than Swindon (£16.4 million in 2024/5) and the £16.5 million spent by Cheshire East, a "statistical neighbour" or comparable local authority.
Councillor Jerry Kunkler (Pewsey, Conservative) asked whether existing junior staff could be put on a "rapid training" programme to fill the skills gap.
"I assure you we do," said Ms Kielb. "But there is quite a high turnover in social care."
Councillor Gerry Murray (Tisbury, Liberal Democrat) asked whether hybrid working arrangements might attract permanent staff from a wider geographical area.
He was assured the council was already using hybrid working arrangements as part of its recruiting arsenal.
The report will now be put before cabinet along with the views of the overview and scrutiny committee.
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It was the first meeting of the influential committee under the new Liberal Democrat administration, with former chairman Councillor Graham Wright (Durrington, Independent) re-elected.
The committee is made up of six Tories, six Lib Dems, two Independents, and one Reform UK councillor.
Lucy Townsend, chief executive of Wiltshire Council, said that data shows that they "spend significantly less on agency spend than other local authorities", pointing to Cheshire East 2023/24 figures.
She added the agency staff mainly have done "technical specialist roles such as social workers, planners, as well as some senior leadership positions", and said averaging agency workers "does not accurately reflect the true cost of these roles".
Ms Townsend said as of March 31, the full time equivalent staffing number was 4,355, which can fluctuate, and the total salary budget was £155,818,500 for both agency and permanent staff for 2024/25.
The council added that at the time the committee paper was written there were only 33 agency workers in place.
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