Agenda item

To receive a report from the Head of People, Performance and Waste giving an update on Establishment for the past six months.

The Committee had before it and NOTED a *report from the Head of People, Performance and Waste and the Operations Manager for People Services.

The following was highlighted within the report:

·         There had been a fall in sickness absence.  The 10.45 days sickness per full time employee were reflected in similar organisations across the country, however, in the current year that number was on target to reduce.

·         There had been a fall in agency expenditure.

·         Since the report had been published, the 2024/25 Pay Award had been accepted by the Unions and would be made, including back pay, in November 2024. So the threat of strike action had now disappeared.

·         Training available to Council Employees.

·         The current predictions for staff turnover, were on course.

·         The Structure Charts were appended to the report.

·         The reasons for leaving the Council varied across different service areas.

Discussion took place with regard to:

·         Whether there were a relatively small number of long term sickness absence cases that significantly impacted the overall figures? Last year there had been an increase in both short term and long term absences but this year the Council had made significant reductions to this overall figure. The Council was in a similar position to other councils who were experiencing the same level of challenge. It was asked on how many occasions had managers spoken to individuals who had been sick for more than six days in a rolling twelve month period? The Operations Manager for People Services did not have that figure to hand but would look into it and report back (and in a way that would not compromise data protection and/or employee confidentiality).

·         The number of employees accepting the offer of free flu jabs was approximately the same as last year. With regards to its effectiveness and ability to help reduce sickness absence the Head of People, Performance and Waste felt that the Council would have a better idea when the report came back to the Scrutiny Committee in February 2025 after some of the peak flu and infection season in autumn and winter of 2024/25 had taken place.

·         The level of apprenticeships across the Council. Currently the Council had twenty people on some form of apprenticeship scheme (whether those were people joining the Council as an apprentice or who were an employee who was being upskilled). Next year there would be people joining Leisure Services as apprentices. The Council were committed to growing their own talent as a workforce strategy. Training was provided to support apprentices if they needed more help with english and maths.

·         All service areas were impacted by staff turnover but this was in line with the challenge that other authorities were experiencing.

·         As a result all service areas had recently reviewed and considered their business continuity plans and the impact would be looked at on a service by service basis

·         All vacancies across the Council were looked at on a weekly basis to ensure resource was being effectively assigned and approved.

·         The Council was in the process of finalising a system where similar authorities shared data in order that they could benchmark each other.

Note: *report previously circulated.