£5m bill as agency staff plug key gaps in council workforce

Caerphilly Council spent more than £5 million on agency staff last year, owing to a national shortage of some social workers and sickness absence in other services.

Officers told a council scrutiny committee they were committed to improving sickness rates and reducing the reliance on agencies – which are often drafted in to keep key services running.

More than half of the agency placements required last year were for teaching assistants.

Members of the committee called the overall spending “substantial” and “astronomical”.

Lynne Donovan, the director of people services, said the council was “continually working” to review and reduce the use of agency workers, “but the nature of some of this work means we are going to need [them]”.

“For example, if we don’t have enough employees to send a refuse crew out, we can’t not do that”, she explained, adding that other contracts for groundskeeping were seasonal in nature, and therefore most likely to attract agencies.

Ms Donovan said there was a national shortage of senior practitioners for social care, and “without these agency workers, there would be frontline services not provided”.

Cllr Ceri Wright asked why so many of those social workers were opting for agencies.

“It is a choice – there are many people now who would rather be engaged by an agency than be employed,” replied Ms Donovan. “We are constantly having discussions with the agency workers, to see if they would come and work for us.

“But at the end of the day, it is their choice, and most authorities are in the same position as us. Some authorities are staffing their teams solely with agency workers.”

The committee’s chairman, Cllr Gary Johnston, noted last year’s spending on agency staff included more than £2 million in education.

“Is there any other way we can do this apart from going to agencies?” he asked. “Surely if we have our own pool of teachers on standby, that would be better value for money.”

But Ms Donovan said each individual school decided how to appoint staff.

“While we can make recommendations to them, they are responsible, so even if we had a bank of staff and recommended them to the schools, the schools could say no,” she said.

Cllr Colin Mann noted a report on sickness levels showed nearly 70% of council staff took “little or no” absence last year, but for those who did, personal stress was the main reason for taking time off.

“Are we looking into this stress situation – what do we actually know about this?” he asked.

Ms Donovan said the situation was complex, with some workers facing “really difficult situations in their personal lives”, but there were “no patterns” to work-related stress at the council.

Executive director Mark S Williams added the council’s leadership wanted to “crack” sickness rates but “you can’t click your fingers and completely turn that around – it is a step at a time”.

The committee report also showed the council’s workforce has decreased by 229 full-time-equivalent roles since March 2024, and of those workers to leave, most had retired or moved to new jobs.

Some 27 compulsory redundancies have been made in the past three financial years, which Ms Donovan said were typically because of service closures or grant funding had dried up, and redeployment within the council was not possible.

Earlier this month, senior officers distanced the council from previous warnings up to 600 full-time-equivalent jobs could be lost, arguing the “illustrative” figure was issued when the council faced more acute budget pressures.

The council still faces an unanswered budget gap of nearly £8.5 million between now and 2029, but the new report shows the reduction in staff to date has been mainly carried out through its vacancy management programme.

Ms Donovan said staffing levels are “something we’re keeping a careful eye on to make sure we’re able to provide services and have enough staff to do so, while also working with our colleagues in finance to ensure we’re all meeting the targets set within our budgets”.