Issue - meetings

Use of Consultants

Meeting: 01/03/2021 - Community Services Scrutiny Committee (Item 9)

9 Use of Consultants pdf icon PDF 485 KB

To consider the report of the Corporate Director Regeneration and Community Services.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Consideration was given to report of the Corporate Director Regeneration & Community Services and the Head of Community Services.

 

The Corporate Director Regeneration & Community Services presented the report which provided information requested in relation to the expenditure incurred during 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 on the use of consultants to support, supplement and complement the work of Officers across the Council.

 

He said the advantage of engaging Consultants was also that they are only required for a shorter period of time which enabled the Council to pay for a particular skill on demand and only when needed. This was often an effective use of Council resources and avoided the need to employ additional staff, with specialist knowledge and skills, on a permanent basis.

 

During 2018/19 and 2019/20 the Council spent a total of £0.7m & £1.1m on consultants across all services, and the Appendix attached to the report identified those consultants, the costs and the reason for engaging consultants in relation to the Environment portfolio.

 

A Member asked how often the engagement of consultants had resulted in projects being taken forward.

 

In response the Corporate Director said the Appendix identified a number of areas where the use of consultants had led to additional external funding being secured.

 

The Member said a breakdown of the figures would be beneficial in terms of the amount spent on consultants compared to projects taken forward. 

 

The Corporate Director undertook to provide a breakdown of the figures in relation to the Environment Portfolio to the next meeting of the Committee. 

 

A brief discussion ensued when the Corporate Director explained that where external funding was secured, this may be part of a larger project that the Council may also be contributing to.

 

A Member referred to the Appendix and sought clarification on the Waste Project.  He also expressed concern regarding the risk in using earmarked reserves for a test track facility.

 

In response the Corporate Director said the Waste Project was a joint project with Torfaen CBC and Monmouthshire CC.  He said the cost was a one-off spend in relation to specialist legal advice required in setting up the joint arrangement and was funded by WG.  In relation to the test track project, he felt that the specialist advice had been useful and necessary to deliver a project of that scale, and Members also felt it was the right approach to identify any opportunities for the Council.  The spend was from earmarked reserves not to the detriment of any other projects.

 

The Committee AGREED to recommend that the report be accepted and the use of consultants be noted (Option1).