I worked as a health visitor in the Midlands. We were chronically short of health visitors, and the management people were under so much pressure that they kept leaving, clearing the way for people who had no idea what they were doing.
I needed to make a good case for my being on the interview panel, recruiting for a person who would be working closely with me in a quite deprived and under-resourced area. The management reluctantly agreed, but going through the applications was torturous - the line manager in charge of the interviewing could not be bothered to read the applications fully and did not notice whether the essential criteria were met. Also, in a hilarious attempt at one-upmanship, she placed me on a very low chair at the same desk as her very high, luxury chair, to read the applications.
Eventually we shortlisted and invited the candidates.
There were several no-shows, which surprised me. After two attempts at interviewing, we had 3 candidates to choose from. The line manager liked the cheapest person best, but that person had no child protection experience being newly qualified, and eventually we recruited the best candidate.
Had I not been there, the cheapest most inexperienced candidate would have got the job, been unable to do the job properly, and of course then have been promoted into a more managerial position so she could boss the experienced health visitors around and teach them to suck eggs. I know this because it happened after I left. I was in touch with my colleague, who bore the brunt of these fatuous, baseless decisions to recruit "cheaper" people.