Use of agency staff

The use of agency staff gives the council flexibility and ensures the continuity of essential services.

There are good operational reasons for using agency staff to cover for short term absence, either through vacant posts or sickness absence and particularly where there are important frontline services to be covered eg social work and refuse collection. Another use of agency staff may be for the provision of short term specialist skills.

Our target is to reduce the use of agency staff and to reduce sickness absence in the current and future years.