Issue details

The Council’s corporate spend on Agency staff across the Council in 23-24 is £6.1m. The Housing and Property Directorate account for approximately 50% of this spend.
Prior to 1st April 23, staff would approach agencies direct to bring in agency staff to fill vacant roles or to provide additional capacity as and when required. The majority of spend was non-compliant with the Council’s Commissioning and Procurement Standing Orders and on occasion, the Public Contract Regulations 2015.
In 2022, a project was set up to review agency spend and several solutions were implemented, including the roll out of the Crown Commercial Services Temporary Agency Worker Framework (RM6277) which included multiple agencies across a number of job roles. This went live on the 1st April 2023.
A number of roles in Housing and Property Services have been in place before the CCS Agency Framework was rolled out in April 2023.
Several services have also indicated that some of the more specialist roles are difficult to fill using the providers on the framework. Additionally in some cases, preferential rates have been negotiated directly with the Agency, something we would not be able to do through the CCS framework.
Through a combination of continuation of role and the inability to recruit from those willing to supply staff via the framework there are some posts recruited to from outside of the framework agreement.
Finally, the Housing and Property Directorate are currently in the middle of the HTIP project. As part of the project, resources within departments will be reviewed to identify what each service requires in terms of resources to support the services we deliver to our tenants and residents. While we wait for this project to be concluded, the Housing Service is looking to extend several business-critical roles to maintain the service currently being delivered.
The roles within the report will require the Council’s Commissioning and Procurement Standing Orders to be set aside. Two of the roles in the report will be in breach of the Council’s Commissioning and Procurement Standing Orders however the possibility of challenge will be remote.