Wokingham borough council has defended concerns surrounding a spend of £4.53 million on agency and temporary staff over the last 14 months.
Wokingham Today was contacted by a reader following the publication of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request that revealed the amounts.
The reader, who asked not to be named, said: “This situation highlights a troubling lack of oversight, strategic planning, and financial responsibility.
“There appears to be little regard for the fact that this is public money — intended for essential services — not excessive payments to consultants.
“Senior leadership seem content to depend on costly external hires, often earning significantly more than permanent council staff — some even surpassing the salary of the Prime Minister.
“This raises serious concerns about governance, fiscal prudence and competence of staff.”
The reader asked why the political leadership allowed such “significant” spending on interim staff, and why senior roles remained unfilled for years despite continued interim appointments?
In a statement to Wokingham Today, Cllr Rachel Bishop-Firth, Wokingham borough council’s executive member for resident services, inclusion and fighting poverty, said: ‘Wokingham borough council has been ranked one of the best-run councils in England by an independent research group.
“We rank 5th in the country for getting the best value for residents out of every pound spent.
“This year, we are finding savings of £7.8 million on top of £23 million of savings during the previous two years.
‘Effective management of agency staff is part of this rigorous cost management.
“ We have saved £2 million on agency costs in the last year alone. Our council officers achieved this through innovations such as training our own social workers; using an approved process to hire agency workers which ensures their pay is in line with the market rate and helps to control costs; and success in encouraging temporary workers to join us as permanent employees.
“Agency worker costs are scrutinised four times a year by a public cross-party employment and staffing committee.
‘We shouldn’t forget that agency and contract staff are often the most cost-effective way of filling roles. A lot of council work is project based, such as improved roads, IT systems and procurement projects.
“Temporary staff, hired only for the time that the council needs them, are often the most cost-effective way of delivering these projects for our residents.
“There are some other areas, such as adults and children’s social care, where the council has a statutory duty to deliver services to residents and there is a severe national shortage of staff.
“In some cases, we can only provide these services by using agency and contract staff.
“We are responding creatively to these challenges by making early offers to undergraduates, recruiting trainees and growing our own social work workforce.
“Our council officers continually look to find improvements in the way we serve residents, and this level of progress is a tribute to their hard work and innovative thinking.”
