A COUNCIL has been criticised for “wasting” £250,000 on headhunters in just over two years to recruit senior staff - including some who then left their jobs just months later.

West Sussex County Council has been criticised after new figures revealed the authority has spent £243,000 recruiting 20 senior staff members since February 2014 including recruiting for three different senior posts twice.

Opposition councillors also raised concerns about the authority’s reliance on interim directors being paid up to £400 a day.

Leading councillors defended the expenditure claiming the use of agencies to select new senior directors had been instrumental in achieving £5.5 million savings to management costs.

The council also came underfire last month for spending £27,000 on recruitment agents to help select Nathan Elvery as their new £190,000-a-year chief executive.

Liberal Democrat councillor Robin Rogers said the council should have been using its own “excellent” and “capable” in-house HR team rather than using external agencies at a council meeting on Friday.

He said: “This is a lot of money being spent and my question is whether this is a good use of public funds.

“We have recruited two directors of public health and wellbeing, two directors of highways and transport and two directors of economic planning and place.

“This is just in two years so either we have been very careless or this is not a good use of funds.”

Fellow Lib Dem Dr James Walsh said he was concerned about the council's high number of interim directors currently in place, particularly in the fire and rescue service.

He said: “Some are being paid £400 a day which is way above the market level.

“Many of them have come via The Penn Agency and have worked together elsewhere.

“I’m worried what the effect on moral this is having on permanent staff with a number of resignations in the past six to nine months.”

Conservative Cllr Bob Lanzer, cabinet member of corporate relations, said: “The councillor has quoted a big sum of money but I will quote a larger figure in responding to you.

“If you look closely at the budget for all the management posts right up to the CLT [Corporate Leadership Team] in 2014, thanks to an effective recruitment process, we have made savings of £5.5 million since that time.

“The use of a recruitment agency was instrumental in securing a very strong management team that we still have today.

“Some directors have found a job somewhere else.

“If you have someone good, then sometimes they are made offers by other organisations, it is quite difficult to prevent that.”