Agenda item

The Chief Internal Auditor and the Audit Manager presented the report to provide some additional information on a previous limited assurance opinion from 2018/19 regarding use of Agency Workers.

The Chief Officer for Resources and the Head of People Services responded to the report outlining the steps taken so far to address areas for improvement.

Following this information, Members were invited to ask questions.

A Member commented that the information provided will be considered as part of the budget discussions.

A Member suggested that there was looseness in the organisation regarding the use of agency workers, questioned the agency fee, and had concerns about the payment of agency workers. 

It was confirmed that companies must meet certain criteria for us to engage with them to meet the necessary controls and that how the companies are run is not part of our responsibility. 

The follow up audit will identify if the agreed actions have been implemented which will be reported back to Audit Committee.  Some recommendations have been implemented and some are outstanding

In response to a question, the Audit Manager added that more senior manager oversight has been included in the policy as in the recommendation.

A Member asked if it will be possible to recruit all agency staff through Randstad or if other agencies will be required.  It was explained that, within the terms of the contract, Randstad can use other suppliers, so there is no need to go outside of its service, only in exceptional circumstances.

It was explained that, for schools, the spend on supply and agency costs was raised at Joint Advisory Group (JAG).  The new national recruitment service will apply appropriate standards as and when staff needed. 

People Services and Procurement will be monitoring off contract spend and will raise with Chief Officers as necessary. The issues raised in the audit report regarding controls have been built into the contract.  Available is an online dashboard at individual manager level with details of spend, numbers and names of staff recruited, and assignment length so it will be much simpler for managers to monitor their use of agency workers.

A Member asked why agencies are used instead of an in house service and how widely the contract was advertised. It was confirmed that the contract was procured using the tender process.

It was explained that agencies are used where it is difficult to recruit, sometimes leading to lengthy agency assignments.  In response to a question, it was clarified that the introduction of performance targets was declined because agencies are used mostly in social care, schools and waste services where there is a need to immediately replace staff to maintain staffing ratios or to continue services.  It would be difficult to have a performance target in these circumstances.

A Member requested an update as early as possible in the new financial year in view of the sizeable concerns to see what progress has been.  It was agreed that there is a need to allow the new service to embed. 

The Chair thanked the Officers for their Management response.

The Audit Committee noted the significant concerns raised in the report, the action taken by management to address those concerns and acknowledge what still needs to be implemented by management to demonstrate improvements in the way this service is administered within the Council.

If the Members of the Audit Committee are concerned about lack of improvement or progress being made after the follow up review in 2021/22,, consideration should be given to calling in the operational managers and the Head of Service to obtain further assurance that the agreed improvements will be made and that satisfactory progress is being made to address control weaknesses highlighted in the Internal Audit report.