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Wolverhampton council saves £200,000 in recruitment costs

Wolverhampton Council has saved £200,000 in fees to private agencies since launching its own in-house recruitment firm, according to new figures.

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Yoo Recruit was set up two years ago to find temporary staff for the local authority, still one of the city's biggest employers despite cuts over recent years. It now has a £7.4 million turnover.

The savings have meant that the council has also been able to pay the so-called 'living wage'. Finance bosses have voted to plough the surplus £200,000 back into the business.

The in-house agency was created as part of a drive to fill temporary council jobs in areas such as catering, cleaning and social care without the need to ship out the contract to an external agency.

Yoo Recruit opened in Queen Square in the former Midland Box Office building, which the council owns, following a £12,000 refurbishment in April 2014.

It came at a time when the cash-strapped authority announced plans to shed 2,000 staff from its workforce over a five-year period as part of a strategy to save £123 million due to Government funding cuts.

Many of the jobs being supplied – primarily cleaning, catering, leisure and adult social care staff – are part-time. The council has a target to save at least £326,000 a year by cutting out the middle man.

Recruitment

A revenue report by senior finance officers to the cabinet this week said: "As a result of recruitment through Yoo Recruit Limited, the council has been able to avoid fees which would have otherwise have been incurred, including approximately £225,000 in relation to the permanent recruitment of individuals who had been previously employed on a temporary basis through the agency.

"The council has, therefore, realised savings in excess of the £200,000 target that was built into the 2015-16 approved budget. It is proposed that the net surplus is retained by Yoo Recruit to enable further business development."

Last week it was revealed the council had beaten its budget target by more than £9m following a year of belt-tightening and a 'more commercial approach' to running services. The underspend was largely the result of a £3.6m special dividend from shares in Birmingham Airport and the delivery ahead of schedule of the early intervention programme in children and young people services, saving another £3.4m.

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