DORSET Council says it is doing all it can to cut down on the use of agency staff.

Finance lead Cllr Gary Suttle says it is one of the areas the authority is targeting to make savings.

The council has previously said there are areas where it may need external experts for specialist tasks or short-term projects where it may not have the expertise, or available workforce, to complete.

Cllr Suttle said he was unable to fully answer a question from Cllr Matt Hall at last week’s Cabinet meeting about whether some agency staff were being employed because the council was unable to fill staff vacancies.

“I want to identify why we use so many agency staff – we may need to make a fundamental change. I am working on it,” said Cllr Suttle. The council no longer has a personnel committee where staffing matters are discussed and available for public scrutiny but previous figures from the transition period between councils showed the costs of external staff exceeding £1million a year. At one point around 60 social work posts were being filled by agency staff because the council was unable to recruit to permanent positions. That position has since improved and the council now has a policy to develop its own social workers.

At that time it was acknowledged that agency social workers cost between £24,000 and £30,000 extra per year than staff social workers – putting the earnings of some at over £65,000 a year. A newly qualified social worker might expect to be paid £23,000 a year.