The North Eastern Purchasing Organisation (NEPO) has outsourced procurement and management of temporary and agency workers, in a bid to save local public sector organisations 4% of their 16 million annual budget.

The NEPO is a purchasing and contracting consortium comprising public sector organisations including the police, probation and fire services. The outsourcing deal with Comensura is expected to give each NEPO member an 8% average saving in their recruitment costs.

Comensura will provide public sector organisations with a more streamlined internal process, more accurate management information and improved compliance with current legislation.

It is hoped its online system will reduce the time takes local organisations to recruit temporary staff and improve the quality and fit of candidates.

Councillor Dave Allan, chairman of NEPO's joint committee, said: "Not only does the system remove much of the time consuming administrative burden associated with temporary recruitment, it also provides management with much greater control of and visibility into recruitment spend. As it is a vendor-neutral solution it has the added advantage of providing a much wider choice of candidates facilitating streamlined access of opportunity for local recruitment agencies."