Nottingham City Council spending £670k on temporary staff as recruitment drive fails
Nottingham City Council is spending just over £670,000 on temporary staff as it continues to run unsuccessful recruitment drives. The Labour-led authority says it will consider how to "improve the prospects" of permanent work with the council before advertising for jobs again.
The council has faced issues with the permanent recruitment of staff for the last few years, in common with scores of local authorities around the country. In many departments, the council has therefore become reliant on using interim members of staff.
Extensions to the appointments of interim staff in three separate departments have now been approved - with the spending collectively worth £670,671. The decision will see interim staff in three departments having their contracts extended to cover the rest of this financial year, which runs until April 2025.
Explaining its issues with recruitment, the council says: "Permanent recruitment drives have been undertaken but these were unsuccessful at senior levels... The council has already attempted [permanent recruitment] on several occasions, most recently in October 2023.
"Further consideration needs to be given as to how we might improve the prospects of permanent recruitment before we yet again return to the recruitment market." One department where interim staff are particularly important is the strategic assets and property part of the council.
The interim staff will be supporting that department's disposals team, working on the sale of council property. The council says the sale of its property is "being escalated meaning there is a requirement to retain the current quota of interim staff."
Other departments where the interim staff are based include the corporate portfolio and investment team and the strategic asset management team. Nottingham City Council previously pledged to have more "in-house expertise" going forward after more than £1 million of spending on agency workers and consultants was announced in one week last year.