Managers at a cash-strapped council will have to face the future with fewer staff and a severe squeeze on spending, new official papers have disclosed.

Kent County Council (KCC) is set to impose a recruitment freeze of "non-essential" employees while altering working practices and workplace culture.

The new order is outlined in papers, called Securing Kent's Future - Budget Recovery Strategy to be discussed at a meeting of the Cabinet tomorrow morning (October 5).

The report, issued by Conservative political leader Cllr Roger Gough and his deputy Cllr Peter Oakford, warns of a "leaner KCC" in the future without explicitly proposing cuts in personnel.

The authority sees much of the onus will be placed on its managers and staff.

KCC looks set to balance the books for 2023/24 but £86m of efficiencies have to be found for the following year.

The document states: “The cross-cutting review of non-committed spending from KCC funded activity...will include recruitment of staff to vacant roles, agency staff, use of external venues for meetings, specialist and consultant fees, and supplies and services.

"Managers across the whole organisation will be expected to avoid spending in all these areas."

The authority's existing staff have been warned they cannot rely on casual or agency workers to fill gaps.

Corporate directors, for example, will sign off new agency appointments costing more than £600 a day and service directors for hires on £300 to £600 daily rates.

The papers say: "Whilst use of agency staff has a place within the workforce mix of KCC, given its flexibility, it is critically important that services do not become overly dependent on agency workers."

The papers will prioritise staff "capability over capacity" although this was not defined in the document.

Essential workers will continue to be taken on but only with executive sign-off.

The recently reinstated role of chief executive at KCC will be kept on, although it is presently vacant, but will be vital in driving through the changes.

Securing Kent's Future - Budget Recovery Strategy sets out its responsibilities: "The implication is clear. Those councils that cannot balance competing statutory duties, set a balanced budget, deliver statutory services, and secure value for money are not meeting their legal obligations under the Local Government Act 1999."

Adult social care and health (ASCH), home-to-school transport for special needs pupils and children in care currently account for the vast chunk of KCC's budget pressure and overspend.

KCC has set out the need to "direct funds away" from services valued by residents to provide social care and other statutory obligations.

These are driven by a number of factors, not least the cost of providers, complex issues faced by the NHS and rising prices.

Commissioning work and awarding contracts will be controlled more tightly and only renewed according to 'best value' principles.

The papers state: "Nearly three quarters of the council’s spend is with third party providers across the public, private, voluntary, and social enterprise sectors."

While staffing costs are not pressurised presently "the need to review our staff establishment to ensure it is fit for purpose at a council level is important".

Recruitment to "essential" roles will stay in place to protect safety but at the discretion of senior service managers "balancing the immediate need for savings with the immediate service pressures which may be present".

The papers add: "Almost certainly, KCC will need to be a leaner organisation, prioritising staff capability over capacity, with an ability to harness and leverage its scale in terms of service delivery, whether in-house or commissioned, drive new ICT and digital capabilities into its core service offer, with the corporate core enabling and supporting services on a ‘One Council’ basis, freeing services to focus on practice, service quality and resident/client outcomes."

As for the role of the chief executive, the document states: "Whilst members are responsible for the overall strategic direction...we are critically dependent on a strong management cohort...with a chief executive with the capacity to make management interventions on members’ behalf when necessary."

Staff and managers are party to blame for existing pressures because of their "assumption" that "some other part of KCC will ‘find’ the money to meet their client or service needs".

Instead, the papers say: "The council requires a culture of delivering within financial constraints to be an expected and required part of the management culture across all services in KCC."

Dr Lauren Sullivan, leader of the Labour group at KCC, said: "Year after year, KCC has opted for an ideological commission-first approach which has led to reduced services at higher prices.

"Year after year, it has overly relied on consultants and agency staff rather than deal with the reasons why staff do not want to be employed by Kent. Year after year, it has taken a scatter-gun approach to reducing spend rather than understanding the reasons behind the spend to look to prevent this."