HAMPSHIRE County Council has created its own consultancy team – despite splashing out millions of pounds on external management consultants.
Permanent jobs on offer include two £59,000 principal consultants, three £44,000 senior consultants and two £37,000 consultant posts. A job advertisement called them ‘transformation team consultants.’
Based at the council’s Winchester HQ, it stated their role is to ‘drive key transformational programmes and projects across the organisation.’
The aim is to reform services and cuts costs to cope with reduced Government funding. As revealed in April, the Tory council is spending millions of pounds on external management consultants while cutting frontline services including rural buses, libraries and social care for the elderly.
The biggest slice of cash – up to £18m – was handed to Deloitte, an international consultancy firm and the council’s private sector partner to support ‘transformational change’ 2013-15.
Under transparency rules, the council is obliged to publish spending over £500 and value of contracts.
An analysis of the figures shows more than £3m was paid to Deloitte between December 2014 and June 2015 for services, including ‘core support’, ‘workforce development’ and ‘cost reduction.’ This works out at about £27,500 per day, excluding weekends.
The council previously defended spending on external advisors, saying it was more “efficient and cost-effective” than recruiting permanent staff and making posts redundant.
But now it has emerged the council has also created an internal consultancy team to work alongside Deloitte. A council spokesman declined to say how many consultants it employed but said their role was to manage specific programmes and it was anticipated “costs will be completely dwarfed by savings generated.”
The internal consultants report to ‘head of transformation’ Michael Lee, appointed in July 2014. As a deputy chief officer, his pay is believed to be between £73,000 and £110,000.
Spending taxpayers’ money on internal and external consultants has angered anti-council tax campaigners, Unison and opposition councillors.
Christine Melsom, of IsItFair anti-council tax group, said: “Why do they need both? If Hampshire County Council is employing its own management consultants, why does it also need Deloitte?
“This sounds less like austerity and more like profligate spending. Will the council now get rid of Deloitte?”
Dave Anderson, Hampshire Unison branch secretary, slammed it as “an entirely ludicrous situation.”
He said: "At a time when services are being cut, jobs are being lost and remaining staff face increasing workload pressures whilst worrying about their own employment security, this money would be better spent on frontline services for Hampshire residents.”
At a meeting of the full council last Thursday, council leader Roy Perry was asked by Labour’s Criss Connor how much Deloitte was paid but didn’t tell councillors – although brief details of the lucrative contract are on the council website.
Instead Cllr Perry promised to send councillors the information but said paid advisors helped slice £300m from the budget and Hampshire had the second lowest council tax of any county in England.
Winchester Lib Dem Cllr Martin Tod said: “Is the council strategy to spend more and more on consultants? It’s not enough to spend on external consultants but the council’s own consultants as well at expense of frontline services.”
After the meeting, Lib Dem opposition leader Cllr Keith House said: "Simply explaining that this was about achieving low council tax failed to explain how spending many millions of pounds of public money on external consultants, and now a new internal consultancy team, could protect services that are being cut ruthlessly month on month, year on year.”
Hampshire County Council is looking for further savings of £98m in 2015-16.