A Waste of Public Money?

A spokesperson for public sector union Unite, which in 2008 suggested that recruitment agencies were being paid £1.5bn per year by local councils, tells Recruiter magazine that agency fees are "a waste of public money - agencies regularly charge more than 50% above and beyond what they pay the worker", adding: "We would urge people not to waste money in this way at this time." The Unite spokesperson continues: "If you have members of agency staff [contracted] for a long time - you should have that person on full time… [although] there is no legal timescale for how long an agency or temporary worker should be kept in post."

This is part of a report from the recruitment trade journal 'Recruiter' which is commenting on local authorities use of locum/temporary labour. As a specialist recruiter in legal and finance professionals, we have found that as a direct result of the cuts made in the public sector to legal teams, whereby qualified solicitors have found themselves on the receiving end of redundancy measures, the council has been desperate for the services of agency locum staff. 

Contrary to popular belief, professional agency workers are often a more cost effective way of fulfilling gaps in the public sector workforce, as at the senior end, they usually take care of their own national insurance costs, holiday costs, sickness costs and other benefits that permanent employees will receive. Locum cover will usually provide a streamlined and tailored solution to staffing problems. The public body will only pay for work carried out, and they can be brought in for short term measures where there is a critical piece of work that needs to be completed.

In these times of austerity, agencies and candidates have recognised that rates have needed to be reduced, and certainly agency rates have been streamlined in line with national guidelines, to ensure that the public sector body is achieving value for money. In this way, Sellick Partnership as an agency offer a partnering arrangement for work carried out for local authorities, and supplying to the entire country means that we are best placed to find the most well qualified candidates who are able to offer the right skill set for a specific project, delivering on time and on budget.

I would be delighted to hear your comments on this contentious subject...