BBC Jul 3, 2009

By Angela Harrison BBC News education reporter

Some colleges says they have paid out for consultants for stalled building projects

College employees' unions in England say millions of pounds is being wasted on agency staff and consultants.

A survey by two unions of 79 colleges, carried out under the Freedom of Information Act, found £51m was spent last year on such services.

Almost £30m was paid for agency staff, both academic and support staff, with £21m spent on consultants.

The body which represents colleges says flexibility in the workforce is needed and finances are rigorously monitored.

Several of the colleges spoken to by BBC News said they had spent money on consultants to prepare for building programmes - many of which had been stalled due to poor management at the body responsible for giving out the funds, the Learning and Skills Council.

Release of the figures comes as staff at about 20 colleges prepare to stage lunchtime demonstrations on Friday over redundancies and closures of workplace nurseries.

'Shocking'

The survey, by Unison and the University and College Union (UCU), covered the financial year 2007-08.

The unions say they targeted 79 colleges that had refused to give staff earning less than £17,000 an agreed pay increase of £550 in 2008-09.

Consultants were brought in by colleges for advice or work on capital building programmes, fees, legal affairs, business support and personnel, the unions said.

Unison's national officer for further education, Chris Fabby, said: "It is shocking that further education colleges are closing down nurseries and cutting jobs at the same as wasting millions on consultants' fees.

It's small wonder that staff are so sceptical when college principals talk about the need for making cuts and tightening belts Barry Lovejoy, UCU

"Many FE colleges say they cannot afford to give their low paid staff a minimum salary increase of £550 this year.

"But they could save millions if they recruited full-time, permanent staff instead of using agency workers."

He said employment agencies routinely charged more than 50% on top of what they paid their staff.

Barry Lovejoy from UCU said: "It's small wonder that staff are so sceptical when college principals talk about the need for making cuts and tightening belts.

"Staff are the lifeblood of institutions and it is a disgrace that management are putting their jobs on the line by spending tens of millions on consultants and agencies."

Special needs

Among colleges with the highest totals for spending on agency staff was City College, Birmingham.

It spent £2.8m in 2007-08 on agency staff (out of a total annual staff budget of £21m), and £92,815 on consultants.

Acting college principal David Gibson said the college was aiming to bring down spending in both areas. This year, he said, spending on consultants would fall to £73,000.

"We have two new buildings and about £50,000 of the money was spent on consultants.

"Spending on agency staff is also coming down. We will have cut it by 10% this year and more next year."

Mr Gibson said the college spent so much on agency staff largely because it had many students with various special learning needs.

"We need specially trained support workers. One student might have a physical disability, another might have speech problems.

"The college has the biggest amount of students with special learning needs in the Birmingham area."

Building fees

One of the colleges which spent the most on consultants in 2007-08 was North Devon, with a bill for £2.2m. It had spent £78,500 on agency staff.

A spokesman said the spending on consultants was mainly in preparing for a new building, which was now stalled because of the fiasco over the college rebuilding programme.

"The consultancy fees are entirely related to our capital project to build a £100m new campus in Barnstaple.

"That project is currently on hold because of problems with the Building Colleges for the Future programme and we are awaiting further guidance from the LSC about how cost relating to that will be recouped."

Last week the LSC announced that only 13 projects would go ahead this year, out of 79 which had been approved in principle.

Lewisham College in south London had another of the biggest totals in the survey for agency staff: £2.6m.

A spokeswoman for the college said: "Agency fees are for teaching staff to cover absences; to ensure that learners always have their classes covered by a skilled teacher.

Colleges take their responsibilities as recipients of public funding very seriously Evan Williams, Association of Colleges

"Consultancy fees were primarily spent on specialist consultants involved in our new accommodation strategy.

"We'd like to add that Lewisham College has no dispute with Unison."

Evan Williams, from the Association of Colleges, which represents those in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said their individual circumstances varied greatly in terms of financial situation, location and curriculum.

But they were responsible independent organisations, free to set their own budgets including whether, how and when they used both agency staff and consultants.

"Many of the consultants employed will have worked on capital projects, such as surveyors and architects, as well as for specific IT projects," he said.

"The flexibility in the teaching workforce is important in order to provide the most appropriate courses for learners across a broad and varied curricula.

"Colleges take their responsibilities as recipients of public funding very seriously and are rigorously monitored and audited by the Learning and Skills Council and others."