DORSET County Council has been accused of 'squandering' more than £60,000 on a consultant to help it improve its communications.

The council has revealed it spent £63,525 on bringing in a communications expert to help address a number of areas identified for improvement in a review.

Sarah Pattison, from the Dorset branch of the GMB union said that the council had a track record of spending money on 'expensive' consultants when resources could be better deployed elsewhere.

She said: “Staffing issues have became a problem through much of DCC over the last few years as a result of cuts and redundancies.

“We are very reluctant to see consultants brought in to carry out work rather than see jobs go to existing employees to avoid redundancies and keep capable experienced people and resources in the local economy.

“Consultants are expensive and invariably come in from outside to say what those commissioning them want to hear.

“DCC has a long history of squandering resources on consultants and that is no reason to believe that this will not be more of the same.”

She added: “Spending £63,525 of public money on communications consultants is a complete and utter waste of resources that could go directly into supporting existing employees to deliver valuable local services.

“The Dorset County Council branch of GMB is fully opposed to squandering public money on consultants.”

County councillor Peter Wharf said he felt the council's use of communications did have room for improvement.

He said: “There is still a lot to do to make our communications as effective as it should be for a modern organisation.”

Head of policy, partnerships and communications at Dorset County Council Sam Fox-Adams said that the authority's communications department had spent £63,525 on consultants in the current financial year and that was its only outlay in the last three years.

He said: “In March this year the council invited a team from the Local Government Association to carry out a peer review of communications and consultation across the council.

“A number of recommendations were made by the review team and the council brought in additional communications resource with the expertise to help deliver them.

“This consultant, Peter Holt, assisted the council's communications team in developing the way it works to provide local residents and also council staff with the key information they need during a period of huge change.

“This included work on media relations, website and intranet, social media and the 'Your Dorset' community newspaper, as well as helping to identify and reach audiences for specific, targeted communications.

“He also supported work on the major Ask Dorset consultation exercise undertaken across the county last summer, when almost 12,000 residents gave us their views on council services - information which will help us shape our future spending priorities.”

Mr Fox-Adams revealed that the county council's current net annual budget for communications activity was £241,000 with the authority employing six full time equivalent permanent posts as well as additional communications resources paid for from grants and contributions from specific projects such as public health and waste management.

The figure also does not include Mr Fox-Adams himself, who has a wider brief than just communications.

Mr Holt was employed as a consultant from April 28 to December 19.

CONTACT ME:

t: 01305 269801

e: harry.hogger@dorsetecho.co.uk

Twitter: @echodorch