City council spends pounds 10m drafting in agency staff; Action demanded to reduce bill to taxpayer.

Byline: DAVID BARTLETT 

LIVERPOOL Council spent pounds 10m on agency staff last year, prompting calls for Merseyside authorities to set up their own employment agency.

It comes a day after it emerged the local authority was on course to spend almost pounds 7m this year on consultants.

Last night, the Labour opposition suggested that Merseyside councils should create an employment agency to fill vacancies within the local authority.

Liverpool Council has an pounds 11m gap in its budget next year, and may have to shed 1,000 jobs over the next three years.

Wirral faces a shortfall of pounds 13.6m next year, while Sefton may have a pounds 15m black hole and is looking to cut 400 jobs.

Last night, Liverpool Council said it was looking at a variety of options to make savings.

Cllr Paul Brant, deputy Labour leader, said: "It is an enormous sum on money to have spent and represents nearly all the budget gap that the council is facing in the coming financial year [pounds 11m].

"Effective use of the council's surplus staff could reduce the use of agency staff.

"The council should consider creating its own inhouse agency with other local authorities as the NHS has done and significantly reduced costs."

Liberal Democrat and executive member for corporate services Cllr Paul Twigger said the council was already looking at how it could introduce joint tendering.

He said: "What's important for me is that we get value for money and that we operate in an efficient way."

He said there was a "myriad" of reasons why the council had to use employment agencies.

"As a headline figure it [pounds 10m] does not look great, but if we look at the details there are lots of reasons why employment agencies are used."

Roy Gladden, of GMB union, said the costs would shock most people.

He said: "It is one of the areas that is giving us cause for concern.

"The council used to have a floating pool of staff that were employed directly by the council to cover holidays and sickness.

"We would welcome any ideas for discussion that would alleviate costs if it would bring back fulltime jobs to the council, rather than using employment agencies."

Angela Blundell, of Unison union, said: "We are aware, in some circumstances, that agency staff can be beneficial, but we have been questioning the use of long-term agency staff where there is no reason to continue doing so."

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Cllr Paul Twigger