Issue - meetings

This report provides the latest information on the Workforce for 2025/26.

Discussion

The Chief Organisational Culture Officer introduced the report which provided the latest information on the workforce for 2025/26 and requested that it move to an annual report to allow full year comparison.

Workforce growth and turnover – the almost 10% growth in workforce with little additional output was queried. The Chief Organisational Culture Officer reminded Members that there had previously been a number of reports to full Council looking at increasing some of the back office provision in Children and Adults, Legal, HR and Finance. This had been due to the sheer demand and increase in activity, as well as reduced government funding. It was also important to note that there had also been vacancy freezes for many years. Any appointments were within the budget agreed by full Council.

The Chief Organisational Culture Officer further advised that part of the turnover issue was burn out from operating with vacancies and people managing very high caseloads, and it was necessary to ensure appropriate numbers of staff to ensure manageable caseloads. Some additional resource had also been brought in for the Local Government Reform work (LGR), the MedPay review, recruitment and legal. She did not have a full breakdown of exact numbers but it could be provided on request. With specific reference to one year turnover, it was high and work was ongoing to resolve this such as better inductions and looking at recruitment and how positions were advertised in the market. Some of the figures would also be resources where there had previously been grant funding and fixed term appointments.

Annual comparators with other organisations were carried out in June which was why it was being requested that this report be changed to an annual report.

Stress and anxiety – the Chief Organisational Culture Officer advised that as Members were aware a new Sickness Policy had been introduced and the bite sized training continued to be delivered. Reasonable adjustments were being introduced so that returnees could ease themselves back with part-time adjustments. The occupational health provision was the care first provision to support people and this would be going up for retender next year, which provided an opportunity to consider more professional support for colleagues.

The staff survey had highlighted that many managers did not feel well equipped to support staff who were experiencing mental ill health issues and stress. To this end work was being done with a healthy mind and well-being group around how managers could be supported better. There was also ongoing work with the Public Health team around healthy workplaces. The Chief Organisational Culture Officer offered to report back to a future meeting on the action plan being put in place.

Salary transparency – in response to a query as to how many members of staff had salaries exceeding £50k, the Chief Organisational Culture Officer advised that this information could be obtained on the Council’s website transparency pages.

Equality and diversity – it was noted that declaration rates remained low despite continued work on building trust  ...  view the full minutes text for item 508