Nottingham City Council will spend more than £1million employing people to cover vacancies in its finance department after "limited success" in recruiting permanent staff. Last summer, the authority was said to be "in danger" of not meeting its legal responsibilities due to a vacancy rate of more than 30 percent in its finance team.
Councillor David Mellen, the leader of the Labour authority, therefore approved just over £2m in funding from council reserves. The money was partly used to provide vacancy cover for permanent posts ahead of a recruitment campaign.
But the council says it experienced "limited success" from its recruitment campaign due to a "national shortage of suitably qualified and experienced staff." The authority also says its salary levels are not "competitive in the market."
