Liz Hammond, Interim Director for Change and Organisational Design, introduced a report which had been requested by the Chair and Party Spokespersons in relation to the Council’s use of interims and consultants in the past two years. The report focussed on the engagement of interims and consultants in the financial years 2016/17 and 2017/18.

The current agency contract was managed through Matrix SCM who operated a ‘managed service’ on the Council’s behalf, acting as a ‘broker’ with the wider recruitment market to ensure best value and the right candidates were put forward for temporary placements. The contract was the result of a collaborative tender process within the LCR, contracted to March 2021.

In 2011, Wirral Council employed 5,010 full time staff, in September 2018 it was 3,252. In less than eight years, the Council's workforce had reduced by 35% (1,758). The Council no longer had spare capacity and resources among its permanent workforce to be able to deliver projects outside of its normal day to day work. A workforce reduction of that scale would bring a major impact on any organisation, in any industry. The Council was coping with this reduction in permanent staff in part through the targeted use of temporary staff where needed. From the Council’s perspective, whilst there were agency fees, an interim appointment did not carry pension or other on-costs (approximately 28% for directly employed staff) or any long-term cost to the organisation.

In response to comments from Members, Liz Hammond stated that it was not a simple calculation as to how much interims were being paid to divide the net cost by the number of interims in each year, as some might be more senior and others more junior. Fixed term contracts were an option but the necessary skills weren’t always available under this option as specialists in certain fields preferred to work as consultants or interims.

Some Members commented that Councils generally needed to stop paying large amounts of money to consultants who appeared to be on a ‘merry-go-round’ of ripping off Councils. A Member suggested a column could be inserted in the list of interims showing the day rates which were being paid to each interim. Liz Hammond suggested that this could be misleading as it was not a like for like comparator.

A Member expressed concern at the Matrix system used to recruit staff and the need to look beyond this as evidenced by the recent recruitment difficulties within Planning Development.

Another Member suggested the need to look at the reasons why there were difficulties recruiting in some areas of the Council and why people had chosen to leave. Liz Hammond responded that there was a national trend within Children’s Services of a shortage of staff and a poor Ofsted report would not have helped the Council’s reputation in the market.

Responding to further comments, Liz Hammond stated that Wirral Council was not out of kilter with other local authorities in its use of Interims / Consultants. The numbers for 2018/19 were likely to be similar to this year’s.

The Chair thanked Liz Hammond for her presentation to the Committee.

Councillor Dave Mitchell then moved:

“This Committee makes a recommendation to the Audit and Risk Management Committee and the Cabinet stating that a ceiling should be set on the amount consultants and interim staff are paid, and this should reflect the national pay grades for such work.”

The motion was not seconded and was therefore not put to the vote.

Another Member suggested that the Council should look outside of the Matrix system when recruiting specialist staff.

Philip McCourt suggested that the Interim Director could be asked to look into the possibility of some of these suggestions before the Committee made a decision.

Resolved – That the Interim Director of Change and Organisational Design prepare a report for a future meeting outlining the possible benefits and dis-benefits of setting a ceiling for the amount consultants and interim staff are paid, reflecting the national pay grades for such work; the possibility of recruiting from outside of the Matrix agency system if the Council is unable to recruit the specialists it needs; and of adding a column in to the list of interims / consultants showing the day rates next to each post, prior to the Committee reaching any decision on the matter.