Council officials have spent thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money on staff away days to teach them the secrets behind becoming a successful team.
Activities ranging from two days at a hotel at Brands Hatch to outdoor pursuits at Paddock Wood have been laid on, with a total of £30,086 being spent in two-and-a-half years.
The figures cover events organised by the corporate personnel team for County Hall staff.
Kent County Council admitted it was not a complete list of events, and said it would take too long and be too expensive to provide a comprehensive breakdown for the Freedom of Information request submitted by KOS Media.
This means the true cost of days out could be substantially higher.
Of the details available through FoI, it was revealed that in one case £4,613 was spent on two days at a hotel at Brands Hatch for 25 County Hall workers to show them what made a successful team.
A spokeswoman from KCC, however, said one of the days was a Saturday and no excursions were taken anywhere else, for example, to the racing circuit nearby.
On another day, 54 staff were treated to a day of outdoor pursuits at Treejumpers in Paddock Wood at a cost of £6,404 to the taxpayer.
The reason stated for the Treejumpers away day – which was repeated just nine days later for a smaller number of workers at a cost of £2,891 – was that it was a ‘team event’.
Training days also racked up high bills, with £6,189 being spent to equip 23 staff from the Information Services Group at KCC with a ‘toolkit’ of skills for high performance.
The event, held at the four-star Eastwell Manor in Ashford, aimed to increase levels of self-awareness to allow the team to understand the motivation behind their own and others’ behaviour.
And on another team development day, this time for Kent Extended Services, which works on activities for school children, families and communities, £1,080 was spent on learning to understand each other better.
Six members of staff were also treated to a day at Buckmore Park, a karting circuit in Chatham, at a cost of £1,149.
Reasons stated for the trip were to enable them to improve communication, forge positive links with each other, adopt a ‘joined-up’ approach and work together positively.
Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said Kent residents would be outraged their council tax is funding tree-jumping under the guise of training.
He said: “It is worrying that this is not even the full picture of how much departments are spending on these jollies, as there are cases that are not documented.”
Details obtained from KCC outlined the number of delegates involved for each away day, with numbers as high as 184 for one event. Of the 27 set out, some 671 staff took part.
Although in many cases this would have been the same workers involved on different away days, Mr Elliott questioned the amount of working time lost.
“These spending totals do not reflect the cost of the lost time of those staff members attending days out,” he said.
“Taxpayers will wonder why senior staff at KCC are being paid such huge sums if they aren’t up to the job and need all this extra training.
It is perfectly possible to hold team building events in-house at no extra cost to taxpayers, which is really important, especially in a time of fiscal crisis.”
Of the details obtained from KCC, the most recent team days, in June and July, were held in-house for free.
Amanda Beer, director of personnel and development at County Hall, said the council was committed to delivering the highest standard of services to residents.
“We see successful team-working as equally important as individual skills and it is entirely appropriate that team-building events form part of our staff development,” she said.
“All such events must have clearly stated purposes and outcomes and we encourage teams to organise volunteering days that help local communities at the same time.”
