It's fair to say there was a degree of scepticism in some quarters when WMTemps was launched back in 2022.
Our goal was to introduce a regional agency service for local government in the West Midlands that would reduce temporary staffing costs, raise the bar on quality and tackle skills shortages.
In short, we wanted to disrupt an established and highly competitive market to give councils a new way to source contingent labour while putting them in the driving seat.
It was an ambitious undertaking – the first approach of its kind in the country. Even members of our own project steering group questioned whether it would get off the ground!
Four years on, WMTemps is the region's market leader with more than a third of West Midlands' local authorities on board – 11 out of 32 – and more set to follow. The statistics speak for themselves. Spend on agency workers has fallen by 28% and up to a quarter of temporary placements have been made permanent in some authorities. On top of that, Opus has partnered with more than 40 employment and education organisations to generate around £2.5m in social value in the last year alone.
Created by West Midlands Employers (WME) via feedback from councils and delivered by Opus People Solutions – both of which are local authority owned and led – WMTemps has achieved a Net Promoter Score of 71, more than double the average for the recruitment industry.
While the savings it has generated are clearly vital, the true value of this partnership approach is in how it brings councils together and shifts the focus towards long-term solutions and stability as part of the West Midlands' regional workforce strategy. It's started a regional workforce movement.
Too often, agency staff are viewed as a quick fix to a crisis. There are recruitment and retention challenges across local government and temporary workers have become an increasingly expensive way to plug gaps as councils compete with each other for personnel.
WMTemps proves it doesn't have to be this way. For participating councils, it's been an eye-opener, giving them a far clearer picture of their agency spend and a mechanism to take control of the situation.
At partnership board meetings councils talk through challenges together and share agency data so that they can benchmark themselves against their peers. Prior to WMTemps, such openness would have been unthinkable.
There has been a shift towards talking about agency workers as part of a long-term solution and an opportunity to encourage temps to make the switch to becoming permanent members of the team. What has made that easier is working with partners like Opus and WME that have the same goal.
By 2028 we expect to have two-thirds of councils signed up. In a region that spends an estimated £350m a year on agency staff, the potential benefits are huge in terms of both savings and greater collaboration around workforce resilience.
Even with a third of councils taking part, it is having an impact across the whole region. For example, each council receives a rebate for spend via WMTemps' framework and every member has opted to pool those funds into projects led by WME. They include a public sector academy that will be launched later this year focused on preparing young people for the world of work, building skills and opening their eyes to the many career paths available in local government and elsewhere.
If the WMTemps approach was applied elsewhere, imagine the impact it could have given the estimated £2bn a year spent nationally by councils on agency staff.
The model we have created can be replicated by any region or group of councils. It takes a lot of conversations across a wide range of groups – including agency workers – and recognition that you may need to start off small and grow organically. We moved towards a tipping point once early adopters realised the benefits and started talking to other councils.
WMTemps was a radical change, but most importantly it has given local authorities a robust service with compliance at its heart and clear routes to raise any concerns.
For a number of areas, local government reorganisation offers an opportunity to do things differently and, crucially, change the conversation around the integral role of agency staff in a council's whole workforce. Hopefully our model will be a source of inspiration.
Rebecca Davis is chief executive of West Midlands Employers
