Agency workers in the public service

 I have long argued that underpaying teachers and nurses is a false economy. As trained professionals leave to take better-paid jobs in supermarkets, one has to fill the resulting gaps with workers from contract agencies who are not only more expensive in terms of their hourly rate but also have little invested in the establishment they are recruited for, since they are only there on a short-term basis. 

So I was surprised by a story in today's Evening Post, quoting a local authority's HR representative to the effect that it was more expensive for schools to employ staff directly because of things like pension costs, which she said were "spiralling". She had been responding to an enquiry by reporter Richard Yuile who was following up a Carmarthenshire council committee report that the total agency spend by primary and secondary schools in the authority's area was £9.6m in 2022-23, nearly double that of three years previously.

Given that the pension contribution has to be paid by someone and therefore must be factored into the agency worker's price, and that a fee has to be charged to give the agency its profit, it is difficult to see how a contractor can be cheaper. I am clearly missing something. Perhaps an insider could put me wise.