Agenda item

(a)       That the Workforce Information report for quarter one be received; and

(b)       That the requests for further information be included in the reports to future meetings. 

The Member Engagement Manager introduced the report to provide Members with an update for the first quarter for 2015/16 for the following:

·         Headcount and Full Time Equivalent

·         Organisational Age Profile

·         Employee Turnover and Stability (Including Redundancies and Early Retirements)

·         Attendance (Including 100% attendance)

·         Performance Appraisals and Development

·         Resource Management (Agency Workers)

·         Equality and Diversity

He detailed the highlights in the report which included that the quarter one figures for 2015/16 showed an overall decrease of 45 full time equivalent (FTE) across the Council.  The cumulative employee absence for 2015 was forecast to be 9.92 FTE days which was slightly higher than the annual target of 9.60.  The majority of absences were within the quarterly target except for Social Services and Streetscene & Transportation which continued to show higher rates of absence.  However, there was an ongoing improvement within these areas.  Senior Management competency based appraisals were being carried out and the roll out of the appraisals to staff was being undertaken.  The agency spend for quarter 1 was £805,000 which had exceeded the quarterly target of £700,000 and the majority of agency spend was within the Social Services and Streetscene & Transportation areas.  The use of agency staff within Streetscene & Transportation continued to be attributable to the number of vacancies at operative level which had yet to be filled pending the roll out of the various business planning proposals.  Social Services were currently carrying a large number of vacancies in some areas due to gaps created as a result of an influx of staff leaving the employment of the authority.  He indicated that the Business Information and Compliance Adviser would respond to matters of detail in Members’ questions.  

            In response to a query from Councillor Ian Smith about ‘the 12 week AWR’ in paragraph 3.06, the Business Information and Compliance Adviser advised that this referred to Agency Worker Regulations and explained that if agency workers had been appointed for 12 weeks or more, then the authority could incur additional costs as the worker would have equal pay as an employee.

Councillor Carolyn Thomas raised concern about the number of agency workers being used in Streetscene & Transportation and indicated that she would raise the issue at the relevant Overview & Scrutiny Committee. 

            The Cabinet Member for Corporate Management, Councillor Billy Mullin, welcomed the dashboard format of the appendix to the report as he felt that the information was easier to read. 

            Councillor Arnold Woolley sought clarification on the reduction in the overall workforce referred to in paragraph 3.01 as this was significantly lower than the 151 active agency placements reported in paragraph 3.06.  The Business Information and Compliance Adviser responded that the number of vacancies was based on full and part time positions overall and therefore this would differ from the FTE figure. 

            Councillor Richard Jones referred to the age profile for non-schools and queried whether the larger number of older employees within Organisational Change was a concern.  The Chief Officer (Organisational Change) said that in the current financial climate there was a large turnover of staff but a significant amount of work had been undertaken on succession planning.  He added that it was important to develop staff to enable them to take on responsibility and that talent identification was a key part of the work.  In response to a further query from Councillor Jones about the large number of employees leaving voluntarily, the Business Information and Compliance Adviser indicated that there was a higher turnover rate in the youngest age group leaving to develop their careers elsewhere.  Councillor Peter Curtis felt that succession planning should be an ongoing project within the authority to ensure that employees leaving the Council could be replaced by staff with the same or better skills. 

            In response to a query from the Chairman, the Business Information and Compliance Adviser confirmed that it would be possible to provide a breakdown of teacher and non-teachers in the dashboard for the age profile for schools.  The Chairman also asked whether details of the ratio of agency and non-agency staff could be provided.  Councillor Andy Dunbobbin suggested that details of multi-skilled employees could be included in the report.  The Chief Officer (Organisational Change) suggested that there was a need to analyse the data within the dashboard to make it more meaningful for future reports.  The Business Information and Compliance Adviser confirmed that the additional information requested could be included in future reports and that the teacher/non-teacher breakdown could be included for the quarter 2 report in November 2015. 

Following a comment from Councillor Curtis, the Chief Officer (Organisational Change) referred to the large turnover of agency staff within the Streetscene & Transportation directorate. 

The Chairman queried whether employees who had stepped down a level to retain their employment would be asked to cover at a higher level on a temporary basis if required.  The Business Information and Compliance Adviser confirmed that employees could be asked to undertake secondment opportunities on a temporary basis if the service required it. 

            RESOLVED:

(a)       That the Workforce Information report for quarter one be received; and

(b)       That the requests for further information be included in the reports to future meetings.