By Matt Jarram, Local Democracy Reporter
Nottingham City Council will spend more than £1,000 a day on an external consultant to ensure significant savings can be made in the future.
The Labour-run authority has decided under a delegated decision – made outside of a council meeting – to spend no more than £134,000 to extend the post it currently has in place.
The transformation programme aims to make significant savings in the long-term for the authority, which is being monitored by the government following the collapse of Robin Hood Energy.
In total, the programme – which includes creating a culture change across the organisation – aims to deliver more than £33.2m of savings by 2025/26 and deliver at least £3 of benefit to the taxpayer for every £1 spent.
The council approved the extension of an external contractor – known as the transformation lead – to the value of £134,000 under a delegated decision made on February 23.
The council says the post is required to provide specialist advice and ensure the council reaches the financial targets within its Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) where £38m of savings need to be delivered within the next four years.
The council said: “The capacity, expertise and skillset at this level is not currently available within the council. However, part of the role of this consultant is to develop the skillset within the organisation for the future.”
Extension of the agency contractor acting as transformation lead requires a day rate of £1,012. They will be in position until September 30.
The money will come from the council’s Transformation and Improvement reserve to fund this role – some of the reserve is made up of £20m of government funding.
The cost of this appointment includes agency fees and will not exceed the value of this decision.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service reported earlier this month that the council is employing external consultants to sort out its financial problems because of a lack of internal expertise.
On just one day – February 4 – the council approved a total spend of up to £766,000 on elements of its transformation programme.
This included agreeing to pump £96,000 into employing two consultants for six months of work helping it to sell off assets. This works out at a day rate of £400.
Council Leader David Mellen said at the time some of the money for the programme is coming out of a £20m government grant and does not affect day-to-day services.
But the Labour-led authority has not disclosed exactly how much of the money spent on the programme is coming out of its own pocket.
However, it says the overall investment will save the council millions in the long-term and is needed to make sure change happens quickly.
Speaking at the time of the earlier spend, Cllr Mellen said: “We successfully applied to Government for £15m of capitalisation funding which has helped us to create a transformation reserve.
“Some of this reserve money is being used to appoint external experts and set up new business support and customer service arrangements to drive the transformation activity that’s been identified is needed at the council. This does not impact on our budgets for running day to day services.
“We need external expertise at this early stage of the council’s transformation with changes required at pace, but over time we will build in-house skills so that our own staff can pick up the reins and deliver real change.
“We expect the renewal of business support activity to save the council in the order of £3.5m. Similarly, modernisation of our customer service activity is ultimately expected to deliver savings of around £8m.”
