'Workforce crisis' behind councils' agency spending

Councils across north-west England are spending more on agency and temporary workers, BBC research has found.

Freedom of Information requests by BBC Politics North West have revealed that some councils' payments to recruitment and employment agencies have increased by sevenfold over the last five years.

Some local authorities said much of this spending is on social care staff.

The Local Government Information Unit said there was an "intense workforce crisis" in local government and councils have become "very dependent" on agency staff.

The two biggest authorities in the region both paid out about £30m last year.

Lancashire County Council, which covers an area with a population of 1.2 million people, spent £32.7m in 2023/24 - up by around a quarter from five years ago.

Manchester City Council - which has a population area of around 550,000 - spent £29.2m - almost double what it was spending five years ago.

It said more than half of its agency spending related to adult social care.

"These costs began to rise during the pandemic and have remained high in the light of factors including inflation, ongoing pressures on social care due to inadequate funding over the last 14 years and challenges around recruitment in some care settings post-Brexit," the authority said.

Three of the biggest increases were in Oldham, Blackburn with Darwen, and Sefton in Merseyside.

In Oldham - the sixth largest borough in Greater Manchester, serving a population of about 240,000 - spending has more than tripled over the last five years to £20.1m last year.

Adbul Jabbar, the council's deputy leader, said although the authority had been affected by inflation and rising demand, it also transferred services back in house in 2022/23.

"A significant amount of agency expenditure previously incurred by Unity Partnership is now recorded as agency expenditure incurred by the council," he said.

"This is possibly why Oldham's percentage increase may differ from neighbouring authorities."

Blackburn with Darwen saw an almost tenfold increase - from £290,003 in 2019/20 to £3.1m in 2023.

Corrine McMillian, director of the chief executive's department at the council, said: "All sectors have had challenges in recruitment and retention and consequently utilise different resources dependant on the need at a specific time."

She added the authority was reviewing its recruitment strategies and had "strengthened" its recruitment team which had led to a decrease in agency spending in the current financial year.

In Sefton, the spending increased from £2.1m in 2019/20 to £15.5m last year.

The council said around three-quarters of last year's spend was in recruitment in children's care.

"This reflects the council's commitment to improving our children's services after our inadequate rating by Ofsted in 2022.

"This has enabled us to put the right people in place and make much needed progress with these improvements."

The largest authority on Merseyside, Liverpool City Council, had the same level of spending last year as it had in 2019 - £15.6m.

But it had fallen in the years in between.

Liverpool City Council said it had made "extensive use" of agency staff, particularly around changes to its management last year.

"At a senior level, a fully permanent team is now in place, replacing interim appointments with permanent staff.

"We face particular pressures in recruitment for key social care staff, including children's social workers and other professionals, and have had to employ agency staff to deliver these critical services.

"Improvements in recruitment and other changes are being implemented to reduce agency costs in future years."

In Cheshire, Cheshire East Council spent £16.5m last year - up by more than 70% five years ago.

It said there were challenges in recruitment in some areas such as legal and ICT services, as well as social worker recruitment.

But it added it was also spending money on more senior roles.

"Currently, there are a number of senior management interim workers engaged with the council to provide leadership capacity and stability to the senior leadership team to progress and deliver its transformation programme, and while the current senior leadership recruitment campaign is undertaken and permanent appointments take up their posts," it said.

Neighbouring Cheshire West and Chester Council - which serves about 40,000 fewer people than Cheshire East - spent half as much.

It spent £8.5m last year - double what it was spending five years ago.

"Currently qualified social care accounts for about 65% of our total agency worker spend," Cheshire West and Chester Council said.

"Without this spend, which is primarily to cover for permanent recruitment, agency spend over the last five years would actually have reduced by about 28%, despite a general wage increase of about 23% in the same period."

Jonathan Carr-West, the chief executive of the Local Government Information Unit, said councils had seen costs go up in almost every area, so were "spending more on everything".

"At the same time, we have an intense workforce crisis in local government.

He said it was "really hard" for authorities to find staff in certain areas, including adult social care.

"Most of those services are outsourced by councils to private providers," he said.

"Now that creates a context in which councils become very dependent on the use of agency staff to fill gaps where either the private providers aren't supplying the services or the council can't afford to take on full time staff or can't find full time staff to take on."

He added that there seemed to be a trend in councils bringing back services in house.

"But it is very difficult for councils to bring on full time staff, because we have a huge staffing crisis.

"Councils can't run a deficit, they have to balance their books each and every year, and that means that sometimes short term solutions, while they might be more expensive in the long run, are actually all they can do, because they have to just balance out their books in that financial year.

"They can't commit to expenditure in future years, which you need to do if you're bringing on full time staff."

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