Barnsley Council spent more than £500k in a year on consultants

Barnsley Council spent more than half a million pounds on consultants during the 2019-2020 financial year, figures have revealed.
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Information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that Barnsley Council spent a total of £569,126 during the last financial year – a drop of 88 per cent from the previous year’s £1,072,090 spend.

The Labour-run administration said it only used external consultants when specialist advice is needed, and that some of the spend was recovered from Government grants.

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In 2019-20, £220,767 of the cash was allocated to the “place” department, which oversees regeneration projects and the authority’s assets.

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The rest of the consultants’ expenditure was split between the public health, core services, communities and people departments.

Councillor Alan Gardiner, cabinet spokesperson for core services, said:“The council only uses external consultants where specialist advice is needed or there are capacity issues within the council to deliver major pieces of work. Some of this spend is recovered from specific grants depending on how the project is funded.

“Over the last three years, we’ve seen a decrease in spend by 82%, this was due to the completion of projects and us using external consultants only when absolutely necessary.

“Projects that have benefited from external support focus on integrating new systems and ways of working to make us a modern, inclusive, efficient, productive and high-performing council.”