Tor receive an update from the Corporate Director of People.

The Corporate Director of People Gave an overview of the update that had been circulated as part of the agenda. The Committee’s attention was drawn to the steady decline in absences over the last six months and the available work force was very high at 96%. The Corporate Director of People thanked the Health and Safety team for their hard work during the pandemic as they had been instrumental in supporting the Council, schools, and other partner organisations to ensure that their premises were safe.  The Council were working at a 20% occupancy rate and this was expected to rise up to 40% by the end of October.  There had been excellent feedback from the workforce and those who had been working at the town hall had followed the measures in place to reduce the risk of infection. The EPIC manager programme had continued to be delivered virtually during the pandemic and the engagement agenda was also continuing to be delivered with more engagement sessions planned throughout September and October. The Epic Manager Programme and engagement sessions had both received excellent feedback with many of the sessions being oversubscribed.

Policy development had been focused on supporting managers and the workforce   in planning workforce reintegration and supporting staff members working from home who had caring responsibilities. The Council was working with North West Employers and Greater Manchester Colleagues to help support staff with their work life balance during these times.

Employment relations case management   was running as normal and the backlog of cases that had amassed during the pandemic was being cleared and hearings were up and running again. The Council was in the process of reviewing the resource hub so that the Council had a more agile way of redeploying staff going forwards as well as making the Council a more attractive employer to work for.

Following the overview Committee Members were given the opportunity to ask questions. Councillor Thompson asked whether any staff members had tested positive for COVID recently and what the response had been to the protocols around self-isolating by staff. The Corporate Director of People responded that yes some staff had tested positive recently although the Councils approach had been very successful with only three cases of COVID 19 throughout the Pandemic and a number of staff were self-isolating as a precautionary measure. There was a situation where five staff members were told to work from home due to possible infection but none of the five were infected.  Bev Norton noted the excellent work of the health and safety team in conducting risk assessments and providing effective procedures to ensure that staff remained safe. Managers had also played a role through supporting their team members to work from home where possible.

Councillor Acton asked many staff had been affected by the guidance on traveling abroad. The Corporate Director of People responded that there had been a number of staff affected by the guidance, in particular when the restrictions on travel from Spain were introduced as some staff members were in Spain at the time.  The Council kept track of all countries where quarantine restrictions were, or were likely to be, in place. In addition the Council were supportive of any staff members who had travelled to areas that did not require quarantine but felt that they should quarantine themselves to reduce risk. Councillor Acton followed up his question by asking whether all staff were following the guidance to contact their manager before travelling abroad. The Corporate Director of People stated that she was not aware of any issues that had arisen where a member of staff had gone abroad and failed to inform their manager. It seemed that members of staff were generally cautious about travelling due to the risks involved and the Council were benefitting from that cautious approach.  The Corporate Director of People added that they were not certain but would look into this further and assured the Committee that the guidance to staff had been reinforced on many occasions.

RESOLVED:

1)    That the update be noted.

2)    That the efficacy of the travelling abroad guidance be reviewed.