Kensington and Chelsea urged to reveal more about what it spends on agency recruits

By Adrian Zorzut, Local Democracy Report

A campaign group has called on Kensington and Chelsea council to be ‘fully transparent’ about how much it pays recruiters after data showed it has spent about £16million a year filling temporary roles since 2018.

A Freedom of Information (FoI) request found the local authority forked out £16.2m in salaries, fees and other employment-related costs for temporary or agency roles during the 2022/23 financial year, before dipping to £15.9m during 2023/24.

The council acknowledged the expenditure was causing ‘significant budget pressure’, but said that like other public sector organisations, using external providers was necessary to fill hard-to-hire roles, like specialist or technical positions.

Data from the FoI also showed spend on temporary roles hovered between £15m and £16m every year, despite a significant drop from 2021 onwards in posts sourced by an external contractor.

The council said this was due to a general rise in costs caused by inflation. It also refused to reveal how much its main contractor Comensura is paid, saying that information was ‘commercially sensitive’.

But the TaxPayers’ Alliance, a pressure group calling for low tax rates, said the council needed to be transparent about how much it spends on external recruitment agencies.

Elliot Keck, head of campaigns at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers will be deeply sceptical as to whether this enormous spend on agency staff is delivering value for money for taxpayers.

“And this will only be heightened by the troubling decision to avoid disclosing information on salaries and recruitment fees, despite the clear public interest in this topic. Kensington and Chelsea Council should be fully transparent about these payments, to ensure that residents can judge for themselves whether this is a good use of their money.”

The number of roles filled by Comensura dipped to 894 placements in 2021 from 1,300 in 2020. In 2018, the contractor was used to fill 1,543 roles. Kensington and Chelsea Council said all permanent roles are filled by the in-house team and it’s only recruitment for temporary roles that is outsourced.

A Kensington and Chelsea council spokesman said: “We sometimes have to find temporary staff and, as is common practice, use an external provider to help us source qualified officers, especially in hard-to-hire roles which require specialist, technical skills.

“This approach also gives us access to the widest possible pool of talent when we need it, reduces payroll liabilities and supports our drive to provide quality services that are responsive, efficient and effective.”

Comensura has been contacted for comment.

Pictured top: Kensington and Chelsea town hall (Picture: Google Street View)