Issue - meetings

Report CSD15106D

On 3^rd September 2015, the Executive and Resources PDS Committee received a report setting out details of expenditure across the Local Authority on consultants for the financial years 2014/15 and 2015/16 to date, covering both revenue and capital budgets, and requested that this information be referred to all other PDS Committees for Members’ consideration. 

In considering the expenditure on consultants within the Education Portfolio for the financial years 2014/15 and 2015/16 to date, the Portfolio Holder for Education noted that as the Local Authority moved towards becoming a commissioning authority, it was important to ensure that work be undertaken to identify the best way to purchase consultancy services where it was required and consider how value could most effectively be scrutinised.

A Member emphasised that the Local Authority prided itself on its high quality, experienced in-house staff and queried if the use of consultants was always necessary.  The Director: Education confirmed that the use of consultants was limited to the delivery of specific pieces of work that required specialist knowledge or where there was no capacity to carry out the work through in-house staff.  There had been no cases within the Education Portfolio where a previous staff member had been made redundant and subsequently re-employed as a consultant.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.