To receive and if so determined, to approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 2 July 2018.

That the Minutes of the meeting held on 2 July 2018 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To received a report from the Corporate Director of People.

The Corporate Director of People told the Committee that there had been an increase in the amount spent on agency workers within CFW due to the Council having to hire an increased number of agency social workers to fulfil statutory requirements. The Committee were informed that agencies had been making Councils compete on the price of agency workers in order to increase their prices.

Trafford had complied with the agreement which had been reached amongst the Greater Manchester Authorities to set a price for agency social workers. Unfortunately Councils outside of the agreement had been paying more which had led to others amongst the Greater Manchester Authorities having to increasing their prices in order to fill gaps in their service. There were plans to conduct a piece of work which would set the price of agency staff across the North West but this was in the very early stages.

Trafford’s HR department were looking at ways to reduce the Council’s reliance upon agency staff in other ways. One way was by reducing the amount of time that it took for the Council to recruit staff. Committee Members and Officers then discussed the costs of agency versus full employment and how the package offered to staff could be adjusted to reflect the difference in cost. They then talked about the Councils scheme around growing their own support within and how that could feed into the offer.

Following the Update Committee Members were given the opportunity to ask questions. One Member asked whether wellbeing support was being offered to staff.

The Corporate Director of People responded that the Council offered a number of activities and sessions to all staff. Health and Safety Manager was continuing to work alongside HR staff to continually review the offer to see how it could be adapted to maximise its effectiveness.

Another Member enquired whether Executive Members were involved in the approval of agency staff. The Corporate Director of People informed the Committee that the hiring of agency staff was approved at director level and that there was nothing in place to inform Executive Members. The Committee requested that regular updates on agency staffing be given to Executive Members.

A Member then asked whether there was any work being done to create a staffing pool across greater Manchester. The Corporate Director of People told the Committee that a piece of work was being scoped out on a Greater Manchester level and that Trafford were looking at creating their own staffing pool.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted by the Committee.

To receive a report from the Corporate Director of People.

The Workforce Strategy Officer went through the report that had been circulated with the agenda. The Committee were told that the adjustments to holiday pay were linked to developments in case law related to employees’ entitlement. The case law meant that employees who received extra pay, such as for overtime, should receive additional pay equivalent to the additional monies they would have earned during the time had they not been on holiday. The Council had decided to pay 7.66% extra to employees whenever they undertook any of the additional commitments in scope to account for their holiday entitlement. 

Originally the Council were going to make the adjustments for central council employees first and then consider schools. However, during the planning for implementation it became clear that it is best to implement the adjustment for all employees’ at the same time. The Workforce Strategy Officer stated that they were considering the best way of communicating the changes to all affected staff to make sure they understood what the payments were for and why they were to receive them. The Council planned to implement the adjustments by the end of the year.

The Committee were given the opportunity to ask questions but no questions were raised.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted by the Committee.

To receive a report from the Corporate Director of People.

The Workforce Strategy Officer told the Committee that there had been an increase in the number of leavers within August due to organisational change. Resignation was the largest cause of staff leaving with 59% of leavers having resigned. The most common reason for resigning was personal reasons which accounted for 79% of all resignations. The next most common reason for leaving was retirement which accounted for 13% of staff turnover.

The Workforce Strategy Officer then went through the statistics relating to the length of service when leaving. 30% of leavers had worked with the Council for less than two years and 50% had worked for less than 5 years within the organisation. The Committee were told that there was a survey for staff members to complete when they left but it had proven difficult to get people to complete it. HR were looking at replacing the survey with an interview which would be held with either the leavers manager, a member of HR, or an independent person in order to increase the level of completion. The Chair commented that they felt it would be better if the person conducting the interview was not someone who had worked with the leaver in order to avoid animosity and to enable full disclosure of their reasons for leaving.

A Member of the Committee was interested to understand what was behind the large number of resignations for personal reasons. The Corporate Director of People responded that there had been a spike in resignations within CFW services across Greater Manchester. Part of this increase was due to private sector agencies approaching staff and offering them rewards for moving into agency work. The Chair added that there was a piece of work ongoing within Trafford to look at the offer being made to social workers to ensure that it was competitive.

A Committee Member asked whether the Council conducted a staff satisfaction survey. The Corporate Director for People responded that the Council had done these surveys in the past but it had been a few years since one had been conducted. The Committee requested that HR conduct a survey and that it be done on an annual basis.

The Committee requested that additional information, including gender break downs, be supplied to help them to understand why people were leaving.

RESOLVED:

1)    That the report be noted by the Committee.

2)    That a staff satisfaction survey be conducted on an annual basis.

3)    That additional information relating to staff members who have resigned from the Council be provided to the Committee.

To receive a report from the Corporate Director of People.

The Head of Workforce and Core Strategy told the Committee that the Council were looking at improving the working environment for social workers. High caseloads had been listed as an issue so HR were looking at ways to increase support for them. The Supported Living service had undertaken a review which included the night time provision. As a result it has decided to reduce the number of sleep-in shifts. Instead there were to be waking night services with on call support.

The Head of Workforce and Core Strategy explained that the work force development team were looking at the supervision process to ensure it was fit for purpose. Another piece of work was the reshaping of the Council’s values. Once the leadership team was set in place the new corporate priorities would be selected and then the new organisational values would be adopted. The process involved using tools such as the Workforce update to identify organisational strengths and weaknesses to help shape the values.

A Committee Member enquired as to whom the agency was that the Council had commissioned regarding workforce development. The Head of Workforce and Core Strategy explained the process that had been used to recruit the agency and the work that they had been recruited to undertake. The Committee were informed that part of the work would involve a skill share with Council staff to help improve the Council’s workforce development team.

A Committee member asked what the Council’s recruitment approval process was. The Corporate Director of People detailed the current process to the Committee and informed them that the council were looking to streamline this process and move it back into directorates. By doing this it would enable quicker recruitment to posts and reduce the need for agency workers.

RESOLVED: That the update be noted by the Committee.

To consider a verbal report of the Corporate Director of People.

The Corporate Director of People told the Committee that there had been 4 requests for continuation and all had been agreed. One had been for a three month extension and the rest had been for 1 month extensions whilst HR gathered more information.

A Member of the Committee asked for clarification as to what the Councils obligations were. The Corporate Director of People detailed the Councils policy for sickness and explained that the policy had been designed so that the Council could make judgments on a case by case basis where extended sickness occurred. The Corporate Director of People informed the Committee that all of the exemptions that had been requested elated to severe long term health conditions.

RESOLVED: That the update be noted by the Committee.

To receive a report from the Corporate Director of People.

The Committee were told that following the departure of the previous Chief Executive Officer the role was been filled on an interim part time basis by Jim Taylor who was the Chief Executive at Salford Council. The Corporate Director of People went through the report that had been circulated prior the meeting. The report reminded the Committee that the Council and Trafford CCG had approved the Chief Executive Officer role and the Chief Accountable officer role to be combined. The report then detailed the process which needed to be followed to decouple the two roles which had to be completed before the organisations could appoint permanent replacements.

The report also detailed the recruitment process which would be undertaken once the decoupling of the process had been completed. The Committee were asked to agree the advertisement of the Chief Executive post with a set upper limit of £165,000.00 salary, and the use of an external recruitment agency to aid with the process. The Committee were also asked to recommend that Council approve the recruitment process laid out within the report in accordance with section 4 of the Council’s Constitution.

Following the overview of the report by the Corporate Director of People the Committee were given the opportunity to ask questions. Committee Members asked numerous questions including what the salary of the Interim Chief Executive was and what stakeholder engagement was planned. The Corporate Director of People answered the Committees questions and following her answers the Committee unanimously agreed the recommendations of the report.

RESOLVED: That the Committee agree the recommendations of the report.