The number of job vacancies at Halton Council has rocketed in the past year, with the council saying filling posts is proving more and more challenging.

A negative perception of pay and promotion prospects at local councils, falling numbers of applications, failed pre-employment checks and expansion of council services have all been blamed for the huge surge.

A report to Halton Council’s Corporate Policy & Performance Board said there were 610 vacancies advertised in the year 2021/22, a massive increase on the 343 jobs advertised in 2016/17. The council currently employs around 4,200 people, including school staff.

The report said the rise had created a ‘significant challenge’ as the council’s recruitment service did not have the resources to manage such a big work flow.

It said a number of key reasons could be cited for the rise in vacancies:

  • An increase in staff numbers as the council has expanded, including the addition of leisure services and four care homes.
  • A general trend away from local government as an employer of choice, attributed to the poor perception of roles and static pay levels resulting from government austerity measures.
  • Some roles becoming increasingly demanding and challenging due to increased regulation, e.g. children’s social care work.
  • The council being required to recruit additional roles to undertake health related work.

The report said there had also been a trend towards lower numbers of applicants for posts, lower quality applications, and successful candidates rescinding the offer of a post prior to taking up a role - usually because an alternative employment offer has been received from a different employer.

It said situations were also arising where the council found itself having to withdraw offers of employment to successful candidates due to the failure of pre-employment checks. It said this was once a rare occurrence, but is now becoming more common.

As of the end of August, the report said there were 270 council vacancies with 187 in pre-employment checks and 129 school vacancies with 93 undergoing pre-employment checks.

The report said it was exploring a change in approach to attracting candidates and  that HR was exploring new options. This included re-designing the recruitment process, increased apprenticeships, enhanced succession planning to promote from within and establishing multi-grade posts to make roles more attractive.

The report added: “In addition to the above, the council is engaged in a strategic programme of work with the other five Liverpool City Region Councils, headed up by the Chief Executive of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, designed to consider the high level challenge of resourcing the local government sector more generally in the short, medium and long-term.”