Agenda item

To consider a report on the progress with Human Resource and Organisational Development items, including Health and Safety

The Committee received a report which gave a year-end review of the Human Resource and Organisational Development Service for 2014/15 and a summary of the workforce priorities for 2015-16, along with the Quarter 1 Health and Safety data and key workforce data.

During 2014/15, a total of 547 corporate and school employees had been trained on 56 health and safety training courses and 34 workplace inspections and visits to premises had been undertaken.  Annual Health and Safety Reviews in schools who purchased Health, Safety and Risk Management Services had taken place at 17 secondary schools, 4 special schools and 139 primary schools.  4969 accidents and incidents had been recorded on PRIME, of which 93 were RIDDOR reportable.  No Health and Safety Executive investigations had been carried out.    The Corporate Health and Safety Policy had been reviewed, along with the Fire Policy. The Corporate Health and Safety Service had won its third ROSPA Gold Award for Health and Safety.

The Workforce Development team had introduced a new evaluation and feedback process so that each training course could be assessed and the return on investment highlighted.  The corporate learning programme, Towards Excellence, offered employees statutory courses on fire, health and safety, data protection and equality.  Training on adult and child safeguarding had been delivered to employees, students, volunteers and elected members.  A range of monthly management development sessions entitled ‘Business Breakfasts’ had been introduced to improve business acumen, with sessions from a range of externally commissioned providers, such as North West Employers Organisation and Manchester Metropolitan University.  A number of effective communications theories, such as Insights Discovery, the science of Laughology and Neuro Linguistic Programming, had been introduced into management team development sessions.  It was confirmed that it was Council policy to require employees, who left within 12 months of undertaking any extensive training paid for by Cheshire East Council, to pay back the cost of the training; this would apply to the more expensive training, such as post-graduate training, but not for short internal courses.

It was confirmed that no employees had set themselves up as contractors/companies and that all employees were subject to a universal PAYE system.

The apprentice scheme had been refreshed and renamed the A Star Apprentice Programme and the age appropriate wage had been implemented to attract high calibre candidates.  Twelve apprentices had gained employment with the Council in the last year.

The HR Strategy and Organisational Development team had been working on the commitment to adopt the Living Wage for directly employed staff. 

The Local Government Transparency Code 2014 placed a requirement on all councils to prepare and publish a range of factual data on which policy decisions were based.  The workforce elements of the Code had been published on the Council’s website to meet four sections of the code – organisation chart, senior salaries, pay multiples and trade union facility time. 

The staff survey had provided a valuable snapshot of how colleagues felt about working for the Council.   A number of actions had been progressed corporately and locally in teams and services to build on strengths and weaknesses identified.  These included the formation of a Resilience working group, a series of colleague conferences in the services led by the Chief Operating Officer, and the ‘Big Event’ conferences for all staff. 

The HR Delivery team had supported the introduction of the recruitment management system Taleo, which allowed Managers to manage and monitor the advertising and appointment process.  The Committee was assured that paper based applications would remain an option for applicants.  A paper based recruitment exercise, outside of the on-line system, would be considered if there was a strong business case to do so.  The team had provided HR support to the establishment of a number of ASDVs in 2014/15 including ANSA, Orbitas, CoSocius, ESSAR, TSSL and Civicance.  The voluntary redundancy scheme continued to support planned organisational change. A total of 30 staff had left under voluntary redundancy in the 2014/15 financial year, 14 of whom held posts within management grades.  There had been no compulsory redundancies due to redeployment interventions and the successful application of HR policies and procedures.

The Education HR Consultancy service had launched two levels of service – Gold and Silver, for schools and academies to buy back.  In 2014/15 total buy back equated to 90% of schools.  The Service had delivered 5 workshop/training events for headteachers which had focused on leadership and management development as well as briefing on key changes contained in the School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document 2015.  Two training courses for governors had also been delivered covering headteacher performance management.   The Team had also supported major staffing restructures in 5 secondary and primary school/academies and had managed 29 TUPE transfers.  Eight new or updated policies and procedures for schools and academies had been issued.

Details of the Council’s headcount were included in the report.  The Committee requested that to allow for comparison with historical data, the data from April 2013 should be used as a comparator.  It was noted that it was difficult to provide a more detailed headcount due to restructurings which had taken place over the past 6 years.

During 2015/16 the Human Resource and Organisational Development Service would be focussing on a range of priorities grouped under six workforce themes:

·         Culture and values

·         Leadership and management

·         Organisation design

·         Reward and recognition

·         Resourcing and talent

·         Capability and capacity.

The Workforce Strategy Team would be consulting operational managers with regard to current policies and procedures to ensure that they remained appropriate and supported business needs.  The feedback would inform a future work programme with any proposed changes being discussed with Management Group Board and the Portfolio Lead, prior to consideration by Cabinet and Council.

In relation to Health and Safety in Quarter 1 of 2015/16, it was reported that 65 employees from the corporate core and schools had attended 7 health and safety training courses.  School visits and inspections had been undertaken at 36 primary schools and 6 secondary schools.  A new Corporate Health and Safety Audit programme had been brought in with the previous audit format being modernised and it now involved a quarterly electronic survey covering up to five different subjects.  The Quarter 1 statistics showed a total of 598 accidents and incidents in the corporate core, with 2 being RIDDOR reportable and 341 recorded in schools with 4 being RIDDOR reportable.

The turnover of staff between April and June 2015 was 2.58%, with 98 staff leaving the Council.    The number of working days lost to sickness absence per FTE employee were 1.04 in April, 1.71 in May and 2.61 in June 2015. 

A range of actions resulting from the information and data presented in the report were agreed by the Committee.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted