Issue - meetings

To enable the Cabinet to consider the comment made by the Resources and Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee following that Committee’s scrutiny of the Council’s transformation of staffing resources.

RESOLVED that the comment of the Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee be noted and the comments of the Corporate Finance & Governance Portfolio Holder, in response thereto, be endorsed.

Cabinet was aware that, at the meeting of the Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 3 December 2020 (Minute 109 referred), the Committee had been provided with an overview of the Council’s transformation of staffing.

It had been reported to the Committee that throughout 2019 a significant focus had been placed on preparing staff to work more flexibly and with greater autonomy. Two programmes had been key to this: InDependence and Managing Remote Teams. All courses had been delivered by external providers who had worked very closely with the Organisational Development Manager and HR Operations Manager on design, development and content.

The InDependence programme had been designed and developed by the Organisational Development Manager with input from an organisational psychologist. The workshops had been delivered by a team of six internal managers who had been trained in how to deliver the programme. In total 273 staff had attended that programme. The Managing Remote Teams course had been attended by 52 managers and team leaders.

In addition, a booklet entitled Modern Working, Your Guide had been circulated to all course attendees.

Members of the Committee had heard how a number of policies had been updated to support flexible working including the Allowances Policy (2018) and the Remote Working Policy (2019) which also included the Flexi Hours Scheme.

To further support the move towards greater flexible working and staff personal accountability online training had been overhauled. The Council had used a specialist online provider (iHasco) for all health and safety awareness training. That shift had resulted in greater compliance as staff could plan their own training schedule according to their work patterns. Compliance rates were in excess of 90%. Face to face delivery was still used for those requiring additional support or greater detail.

During the consideration of this report the Committee had made the following comment to Cabinet:-

·           that the adaptability of the staff and Councillors in relation to the restrictions introduced for COVID19 to continually deliver success, be formally recorded and appreciated.

The Cabinet had before it the following response thereto which had been submitted by the Portfolio Holder for the Corporate Finance & Governance:-

“I would like to thank the Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee for their comment and appreciation of both Staff and Councillors during the pandemic. I agree that Staff and Councillors have shown great flexibility, adaptability and a commitment to keep the business of the Council moving forward, alongside responding to the additional demands of the Covid response and recovery programmes.”

Having considered the comment submitted by the Resources and Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee together with the Portfolio Holder for Corporate Finance & Governance’s response thereto:

It was moved by Councillor G V Guglielmi, seconded by Councillor McWilliams and:-

RESOLVED that the comment of the Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee be noted and the comments of the Corporate Finance & Governance Portfolio Holder, in response thereto, be endorsed.