Rochdale Council contributed £60,000 to a new £704,000 recruitment website

Rochdale Borough Council

The Rochdale Borough Council contribution towards the implementation and first year costs of a new recruitment website, launched earlier this year, was £59,894.81.

The total fee for the website and applicant tracking system, paid by The Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan) plus Blackpool Council and GMFRS, was £704,220.

The lead council (for legal and procurement purposes) was Wigan Council and hence Rochdale Council's contribution, like those of the other collaborating organisations, was paid to Wigan Council, which in turn paid the £704,220 to Havas People, part of the Havas Group (one of the world’s largest advertising and communication networks).

We asked Rochdale Council what it got for its £60,000, the reply: 'The website is designed to assist authorities with recruitment throughout Greater Manchester. It provides details of the 12 different organisations which contribute to the website, including information about the services which they provide.'

We asked each of the other 11 organisations, via Freedom of Information requests, how much they had contributed. To date, Bury and Manchester have replied (with identical answers) and each failed to divulge the exact amount they paid, saying all partners... pay an equal share of the build and running costs (which if accurate, based on Rochdale's £59,894.81, would total £718,737.72).

Accounts have to be created to apply for jobs advertised on the site, however, whilst for eight of the organisations involved one account works for all, separate accounts have to be created for each of the other four organisations - that is, to be able to use the website to apply for jobs with all 12 organisations, five separate accounts have to be created.

At the time of publication, Rochdale Council is advertising 45 jobs, mainly jobs in schools, from teachers to cooks and school crossing patrols.