Agenda item

Councillor Glynis Phillips, Cabinet Member for Corporate Services, Lorna Baxter, Director of Finance, and Michael Fletcher, Head of HR Partnering and Advisory have been invited to present the report which was presented to Cabinet on 20 June concerning the Workforce Report and Data Q4. This is expected to form background to the further items on the agenda, but members are recommended to consider the report, ask questions and AGREE any recommendations they may wish to make to Cabinet accordingly.

Councillor Glynis Phillips, Cabinet Member for Corporate Services, Lorna Baxter, Director of Finance, and Michael Fletcher, Head of HR Partnering and Advisory were invited to present the report which was presented to Cabinet on 20 June concerning the Workforce Report and Data for Q4 of 2022/23.

Taking the report as read, Cllr Phillips highlighted some key points. The Council was looking hard at how to reduce its agency spend; in the last quarter £10.8m had been spent. Progress was made in reducing the agency spend in children’s services, with a fall of almost £1m relative to the previous quarter. Concerning its demographic profile, the workforce had relatively few young staff, with only 4.4% of the workforce being under 25 and 22% being under 25. For people in this cohort, social value, work-life balance and a sense of purpose had been found to be more important a hook for staff than simply pay and benefits, a core observation underpinning the Council’s Workforce Strategy. Whilst sickness rates had fallen over the year and were comparable with other local authorities, they remained above target rates and work was being undertaken to reduce them. Stress, anxiety and depression was the leading cause of sickness absence; the Council’s Delivering the Future Together programme was a deliberate effort to invest in the wellbeing of staff, partially to address this issue.

In response the Committee raised the following issues for discussion:

-        Agency spend. It was confirmed that agency spend had remained flat, reductions in spending for Children’s Services was offset by a growth in Environment and Economy. Overall, steps being taken to reduce agency spend across the Council had been developed, 25 suggested steps had been considered and approved by the Council Management Team, with a Task and Finish Group established to work up more rounded proposals. These measures were important to counter the challenge of the increased pay and flexibility agency staff receive, which for many remained highly attractive. Ideas for improving flexibility were put forward by the Committee, but it was confirmed that annualised hours, purchasing of extra holiday and term-time only contracts were already part of the Council’s offer. However, not all jobs were suitable to allow long-term periods of absence or high degrees of flexibility. Teachers, for example, had to be available during term time.

-        Gender breakdown and proportion of disabled workers within the workforce, specifically whether having a 2:1 female to male balance and 6.14% having a disability was normal. It was confirmed that the gender split was within normal parameters, particularly in places with a health and social care focus. The proportion of people disclosing a disability was low and recognised as so. A key measure of success within the Workforce Strategy was the improvement of this measure, and steps were included within the Strategy to make the Council more attractive to prospective disabled applicants, and welcoming once they applied and were appointed.

-        Absence rates. The importance of supporting those with stress, anxiety and depression was noted and the Council’s absence rate vis a vis the private sector and other Councils was queried. Officer experience indicated that the numbers were broadly comparable. The Council did not monitor other public sector comparators but could do so.

-        Longer-term trends. It was suggested that change by quarter or year was a valuable measure, but that some significant changes could only really be appreciated on a long-term view. As such, it would be valuable if longer, five-year trends for key KPIs were also published. In response, it was noted that over a period of five years big structural or organisational changes could take place, and indeed had done so. In such instances comparisons could be misleading as they would not be comparing like with like. The Committee’s view was that higher level, corporate data might be less susceptible to change than individual services, notwithstanding the fundamental changes wrought to corporate-level working practices by Covid-19.

-        The growth in employment and agency rates. The Committee noted that it would be expected that as the number of permanent members of staff increased, as they had, the number of agency staff would be expected to fall. This had not, in fact, happened. Both had gone up. It was explained that the Council had some very significant capital schemes, such as the Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) bid, which meant the Council had needed to bring in a high volume of temporary staff to address the skill and resource deficits created by them. Furthermore, with mandatory responsibilities in certain areas, the Council’s headcount was at least partially demand-led. As demand increased, so would the need for additional staff simply to deliver business as usual services.

It was AGREED that a report be submitted to Cabinet outlining the Committee’s observations around the importance of reducing agency spend, flexibility, and the wish to see the Council’s ambitions to increase the number of disabled staff members employed at the Council; and to include the following recommendations:

-        That the Council increases the contextual data provided in its Workforce Data reports, specifically to

a)    Provide a five-year trend comparison for some statistics (to be confirmed via e mail outside the meeting)

b)    To display directorate levels of turnover as percentage figures of the number employed

c)     To identify a group of comparator councils and provide comparative performance data (to be confirmed via e mail outside the meeting)

Turnover (agency and permanent staff)

Loss of corporate knowledge, impaired continuity impacting service provision, local awareness