Agenda item

To consider a report from the Director of Resources and Housing and Director of City Development presenting a summary of performance information relating to the Best City Priority: Culture and the Best Council Ambition: An Efficient and Enterprising Organisation, both of which fall within the scope of the Strategy and Resources Scrutiny Board.

The report of the Head of Governance and Scrutiny Support provided a summary of performance relating to the Best City Priority: Culture and the Best Council Ambition: An Efficient and Enterprising Organisation, which fall within the scope of the Strategy and Resources Scrutiny Board.

In attendance at the meeting were:

·  Councillor Jonathan Pryor – Executive Member for Learning, Skills and Employment

·  Neil Evans – Director of Resources and Housing

·  Tim Rollett – Intelligence and Policy Manager

·  Cluny Macpherson – Chief Officer, Culture and Sport

Members discussed the following points:

• Gender pay gap – It was acknowledged that the Council’s budget had accounted for an increase in pay for lower level paid jobs, such as care workers and catering staff, to help in narrowing the gender pay gap.  It was suggested by the Board that it would be helpful to have a further breakdown of pay by Full Time Equivalent (FTE) and part-time staff both male and female;
• Staff sickness levels - Particular concerns were raised by the Board in relation to staff sickness levels which had increased gradually throughout the year and particularly in all high-volume frontline services despite action plans being in place alongside the wider Health, Safety and Wellbeing Strategy.  The Board was particularly interested to learn that during that 12 month period, 42,289 sickness days were attributed to mental health conditions. The Board was therefore pleased to acknowledge that more preventative measures were being introduced as well as plans to look at specific areas of concern.  It was noted that more emphasis would also be placed upon the role of managers/supervisors in terms of looking out for their staffs’ general health and wellbeing.

·  Workforce representation – It was noted that work is ongoing to explore a better way of reporting in relation to the current KPI on ‘workforce more representative of our communities’ given that this is currently assessed and compared to the baseline of 2011 census data and has always proven difficult to provide a simple numerical way to express an overall result for this indicator.

·  Workforce diversity data – It was reported that disclosure rates surrounding the workforce diversity indicator were low (particularly in relation to the disclosure of being a carer) and whilst such disclosures will remain optional to staff, there will be ongoing efforts to improve disclosure rates in underrepresented areas.

• Staff appraisals - The Board was pleased to see that appraisals had taken place with staff across the Council, although the Members did request more details of why appraisals were low within the Children and Families Service.
• Aging workforce - concerns were raised in relation to the stability of the workforce given that only 6% were under 25 years of age. The Board were advised that redundancies had been kept to a minimum with a reduction of the workforce through natural wastage. It was the hope that more young people would be encouraged to work for the Council through apprenticeships, however the Board acknowledged that apprenticeships were open to people of all ages;
• There were opportunities for disabled people within the workforce however, it was acknowledged that there is still some sensitivity around disclosure of a disability.  Linked to this, the Board was advised of the work of DAWN – the Disability and Wellbeing Network;

• Staff satisfaction – Members expressed an interest to learn more about the results of the staff satisfaction data and acknowledged that the Board would be receiving an update report around employee engagement at its next meeting.
• Customer complaints – Once completed, the Board requested an update on the findings of the analysis work being undertaken by Customer Relations.

RESOLVED –

a)  To note the content of the report.

b)  That the information requested be provided to the Board.