Powys Council worker paid £28k in overtime

A report has revealed that over £28,000 was paid in overtime to a single Powys County Council worker.

At a meeting of the council’s Governance and Audit Committee, members received an internal audit report from SWAP (South West Audit Partnership) who conducted a review into overtime payments made by the council spanning a 15-month period.

During that time £2.84 million had been spent on overtime and of this sum, £2.24 million was attributed to the 2023/2024 financial year.

This is around 1% of the council’s wages bill.

A further breakdown in the report by SWAP revealed that five employees had received over £20,000 in overtime payments, 39 between £10,000 and £20,000, and 92 had received between £5,000 and £10,000.

SWAP principal auditor, Kevin Price, said: “The council did not operate under a single overtime policy and meant the existing rules were fragmented and inconsistently applied across the board.”

He explained that overtime needed to be agreed in advance by managers.

Mr Price said: “We found this process was often informal and lacked proper documentation.

“Noticeably there were a large number of employees that received substantial overtime payments which suggested possible staffing pressures and raised concerns on the impact of long working hours on employee wellbeing.”

He stressed that all overtime had been approved before payment was made.

Cllr Pete Lewington (Conservative) said: “I do find it a concern that we have five employees earning over £20,000 in overtime, I’m pleased to see that the council’s fraud team will be reviewing this as it doesn’t seem quite right to me.

“As well as getting the controls framework correct and operational around this, what is the plan to reduce this unacceptably high level of overtime?”

Cllr William Powell (Liberal Democrat) was concerned that the council is “routinely becoming reliant” on staff willing to work overtime and that this is storing up problems in the future.

He wanted to see a further study done to look at the wider issues of overtime working at the council.

Committee vice chairman and lay member John Brautigam wondered whether the reported signified that there is a skill shortage in the council workforce?

Mr Brautigam: “In my experience it causes those that have the skills to work extraordinarily long hours.”

Cllr Graham Breeze (Powys Independents) said: “Any action we are proposing to take needs to be a matter of urgency, a serious look is needed.

“I’m shocked that it’s allowed to happen at this level.”

Head of workforce and organisational development Paul Bradshaw said: “The main thing for me is that whenever anyone works overtime, they are not paid until the manager authorises it.”

He believed that flexibility to allow overtime had to be built into organisation structures to deal with work demand and that other councils would also report similar amounts of overtime payments.

Mr Bradshaw said: “I would expect to see 1% overtime possibly more, so I was reassured.”

He added that a new computer dashboard was being installed which would allow senior staff to see overtime information, monitor and "drill down” to find out why it’s needed.

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporting Service