# Pan London Snapshot 06/07

Stephanie Favell London Borough of Havering

## Participating Boroughs

•
Twenty three  boroughs participated 
(67.6%) 
•
London Borough of Barking and 
Dagenham
•
London Borough of Barnet
•
London Borough of Brent
•
London Borough of Bromley
•
London Borough of Croydon 
•
London Borough of Ealing 
•
London Borough of Hackney 
•
London Borough of Hammersmith 
and Fulham
•
London Borough of Haringey 
•
London Borough of Hillingdon 
•
London Borough of Havering
•
London Borough of Harrow
•
London Borough of Islington 
•
London Borough of Lambeth 
•
London Borough of Lewisham 
•
London Borough of Merton
•
London Borough of Redbridge 
•
London Borough of Richmondupon-Thames
•
London Borough of Sutton
•
London Borough of Tower Hamlets
•
London Borough of Waltham Forest
•
London Borough of Wandsworth
•
London Borough of Westminster

## Non Participating Boroughs

- Eleven London Boroughs did not participate (32.4%) 
-
Bexley Council
- London Borough of Camden
- Corporation of London
- London Borough of Enfield
- Greater London Authority
- London Borough of Greenwich
- London Borough of Hounslow*
- London Borough of Newham
- London Borough of Southwark*
- Royal London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
- Royal London Borough of Kingston upon Thames 

## Current Picture

- Annual LA spend is assessed at £551,575,138.71 - Average annual savings assessed at £1,193,900.00 - There are at least 10,362 FTEs (Full-Time 
Equivalents) across 19 boroughs; 5 did not know headcounts
- Can account for up to 55% of FTE workforce - 50% of the total expenditure is in the realm of social 
care
- 11 of the 23 authorities did not know the average 
length of time a worker was in post

## Current Picture

- 22 of the 23 authorities had managed services in 
place
- 6 authorities had agency worker policies in place

## Order Justifications

- Top three agency staff order justifications: 
- Cover during permanent staff recruitment process 
- Short term sickness/absence cover - Project Work 

## Length Of Service

- Average length of service: 
- 0-3 months - 28.7% 
- 3-6 months - 19.2% - 6-9 months - 15.8% - 9-12 months - 10.8% - 12-24 months - 15.9% - More than 24 months - 7.9% 

## Highest Spending Directorates

- Top three highest spending directorates: 
- Adult social services 
- Children's services - Leisure/Culture/Environment

## Challenges

•
Attitude of managers to change and ensuring they follow the correct procedures
•
Quality of agency staff including agencies not matching the CVs 
with the Job description
•
Candidate supply in some areas e.g. catering  
•
Working to support local regeneration and tackle homelessness 
•
Managing the implementation of Dom Care workers on 
Comensura and finding a process that is responsive to the 
departments needs 
•
Implementation of e-Invoicing
•
Collaboration with other authorities to improve market 
management and benchmark pay rates (being addressed as 
part of the EKE) 

## Positives

- More information about agency staff - where and 
why they are being employed - improved ability to analyse spend
- Introduction of consolidated electronic invoicing and 
on-line timesheet authorisation has introduced significant efficiencies 
- Accurate management information - allows challenge 
of agency worker usage/greater control over staff usage 
- Measurable financial/cashable savings - Reduction in number of temporary staff employed 

## Positives

- A focus on the agency work force  - enabling 
understanding of associated risks which the council were previously unfamiliar with e.g. Ltd co invoicing 
the council direct, employer/employee implied relationships, workers in high profile roles who have not had the correct checks taken out.
- Pay rates have been made uniform - Operational monitoring group which oversees 
performance
- Use if business cases to employ agency staff 

## Reasons For Maverick Spend

- Managers recruiting through their personal preferred 
agencies when sourcing staff from limited talent pools rather than complying with corporate contracts 
- Some agencies refused to sign up or the contractor 
cannot supply and managers are therefore allowed to go outside of the contract to fill these roles. 
- Relates to domiciliary care packages (which cannot 
be processed through MSPs due to confidentiality) 
- MSP unable to find suitable staff in timescales/hard 
to fill posts/Managed Service Provider sometimes unable to supply professional disciplines to the 
required standard 
- Occasional use of self employed consultants

## Avenues To Explore To Make Further Savings

- Utilising our MSP to help with the supply of 
Consultants and permanent employee services
- Reducing the necessity for temps, improving the 
turnaround time for permanent recruitment, having 
controls in place such as an agreed level of authorisers to order agency staff in the first place 
- Benchmarking of pay rates, MSP charges and 
agency costs against (1) other London boroughs using the LCSG/Matrix contract and (2) other West London Alliance boroughs
- The MSP annually reviews supplier margins in order 
to achieve best value. Soft savings are reviewed regularly i.e. regeneration projects. 

## Avenues To Explore To Make Further Savings

- Actively managing and monitoring our maverick 
spend
- New agency cost reduction policy 
- Looking at integrating primary care and mental health 
teams
- Changing authorisation process to a more senior 
level
- Investigating high-earning and long term members of 
agency staff. Each department has an annual target to reduce spend and is required to commit to specific actions to achieve this. 

## Avenues To Explore To Make Further Savings

- Improving contract terms, reducing leakage, 
managing down demand would like to be working with other authorities to collaborate on hourly rates  
and mark ups 
- Extending the neutral vendor involvement to other 
departments. Signing up to the LCSG neutral vendor framework 
- Sustainable work force strategy moving balance to 
more permanent staff recruitment and contracting out of services 
- Introduction of an MSP 
Stephanie Favell Project Manager London Borough of Havering
01708-433438
stephanie.favell@havering.gov.uk