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."
Do you support teachers going on strike? Let us know in our poll here.
The contracts for those taking up the interim roles were due to expire at the end of March, but the council has now approved an extension until the end of September, at a net cost of £1.153 million. This money will again come from council reserves.
It comes after the Improvement and Assurance Board (IAB) overseeing improvements at Nottingham City Council recently said the amount of "competent" finance staff at the authority was a major concern. The IAB, appointed in the wake of issues including the collapse of Robin Hood Energy, said in its most recent report on the council that the "reliance on 'interims' is a major weakness and clearly if contracts are extended after March 'interims' could still choose to leave the council.
"Taken as a whole, in terms of finance, some positive progress has been made and should be acknowledged but overall the extent of progress falls short of what the IAB would have expected." In its delegated decision approving the £1.153 million spend, published on March 6, Nottingham City Council acknowledges that not all interim staff will agree to a contract extension.
The authority says: "It should be noted that whilst all interim staff will be offered an extension, not all will choose to extend their contracts and it will be necessary to secure alternative interim resource to secure continuity as far as possible over the course of 2023. All interim contracts... are subject to one month's notice of termination for both parties and therefore provides a flexible resourcing arrangement as the council transitions to a permanent structure."
The council is currently drawing up plans to "redesign and restructure" its finance service, with the authority expecting to consult with staff and trade unions on these plans over the summer. Outlining the current issues in its finance team, the council says: "There are significant deficiencies in accounting practices, financial systems, processes and procedures associated with financial control, budget management and forecasting arrangements and a lack of financial management capability of budget managers within services across the organisation."
The council is drawing up its financial improvement plan with the support of consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The authority recently approved a £600,000 spend on the company's work, on top of a previous £500,000 spend.
Although the newly approved funding will cover interim resources up until the end of September, the council says it may need extra cover beyond that point. It says a "period of transition" will be needed for the interim team to hand over to permanent staff.
The authority also says it is possible that some permanent posts will not have been filled by the end of September, and that further contract extensions may be needed up until December 31. Speaking at a council meeting in February about work to improve the finance team, Councillor David Mellen said: "There is no substitute for having permanent staff, people who have committed themselves to work in Nottingham and be here for the foreseeable future."
READ NEXT:
- Met Office warns of delays and loss of power as yellow weather warning announced for Nottinghamshire
- Popular DJ 'devastated' after records worth £250,000 stolen from home after Nottingham gig
- MBE holder among 38 tributes, death and funeral notices from across Nottinghamshire
- Cars bumping into each other 'all the time' at Nottingham busy roundabout
- 'Cloned' car with cardboard number plate in windscreen seized in Nottinghamshire
