Agenda item

To receive an update on the Use of Consultants across the organisation

The Head of Strategic Finance introduced a report on Peterborough City Council’s use of consultants, which was part of the Audit Committee’s role to undertake on an on-going monitoring role.  The Committee was also advised by the Head of Strategic Finance that the spend on the use of consultants was on a downward trend and that future use would be determined by the projects the Council had underway.  The report provided an overview of the companies used and projects, which had been broken down by department and had also included a list of consultants/interims that had been utilised by the Council for more than one year since the end of January 2013.

The Head of Strategic Finance responded to comments and questions raised by Members.  In summary responses included:

·         The interim figure of 0.7 had been due to the expenditure on resources to support Adult Social Care commissioning. When the services were transferred to PCC there had been a number of contracts that were not in place and there had been a need to provide resources for these service areas;

·         There had been a number of cases where interims were contracted for a period of more than one year. In some cases it had been appropriate to cover the posts whilst situations such as restructures were conducted.  However, the list of interims had reduced significantly since the first report had been received by Audit Committee;

·         It had not been intended to demonstrate within the reports to Audit Committee, what the benefits of expenditure had been on commissioning consultants and interims;

·         Serco was the main framework provider for the commissioning consultants for the Council and would apply best value and market research throughout the procurement process;

·         The Head of Strategic Finance would highlight with Serco if it had been felt that the best value for money was not being sought for the provision of consultancy services;

·         Some consultants would be contracted through a service company, which was the only way to commission some specialist pieces of work;

·         There would be no overhead costs to the Council if a consultant was on annual or sick leave;

·         A consultant commissioned to undertake a piece of work for the Council would be required to produce a report, which would provide an overview of the work they had undertaken within the month, in order for the Council to pay the invoice; and

·         Implementing a fixed term contract for a specialist piece of work was very resource intensive.

Some Members felt that although there had been an understanding the Council was required to acquire the right skill set to provide its services, consideration should be given to training permanent members of staff rather than seek the services of a consultant. Members also expressed that the commissioning of consultants through service companies seemed unfair due to the difference in tax treatments for the person that was commissioned.

The Cabinet Member for Resources advised the Committee that there were some exit strategies that could be included within the consultancy report where it was appropriate to do so. 

      The Committee:

1.    Considered the updated report on the use of Consultants.

The Committee also agreed that:

Audit Committee Members would be provided with a report detailing the reasons why the Head of Human Resources had been in an interim post at the Council for more than 12 months.