Witnesses:
Paul Booker, Corporate Health
and Safety Lead Manager
Anna D’Alessandro,
Director of Corporate Finance
Jackie Foglietta, Director of
Human Resources and Organisational Development (HR and
OD)
Susan Grizzelle, Head of
Customer Services
Marie Snelling, Director of
Transformation
Gary Strudwick, Head of
Business Intelligence
Rachel Wigley, Director of
Financial Insight
Key
points raised during the discussion:
- Discussion began on
the HR section of the report. A Member noted that there were a
number of unmet targets and asked what steps were being taken to
address this. Were witnesses content with the range of targets and
progress? The Director of HR and OD stated that the targets were
set at the right level. Some were set by government – for
example, the target on apprenticeships (HROD 06) – and were
therefore out of the Council’s control, while others were set
through the transformation programme, and some took into account
national benchmarking. Apprenticeships as a percentage of the
workforce had stood at less than one percent 18 months ago, so
progress had been made. She acknowledged that the target for
indicator HROD 03 (percentage of staff under 30) was a stretch
target, and the Council had been underperforming on that indicator
for a number of years, but was continuing to work on attracting
young people. Also, the public sector as a whole should be aiming
for lower sickness levels (HROD 04). HROD 05 (off payroll workers
as % of workforce) had been set up by the corporate leadership team
in response to Members’ concerns on interim and agency
workers. The number of off payroll workers increased slightly as a
result of transformation work in SEND and the Agile
programme.
- The Director of HR
and OD continued to explain that Councils had shown a one percent
increase in their workforce from 1 March 2020 to 1 May 2020 due to
the Covid pandemic. However, overall the Council had seen a steady
decrease of employees in the last year (2019-2020). The Covid
pandemic had also helped the Council to recruit to some areas where
historically it had struggled, such as apprenticeships and
healthcare assistant roles. On the other hand, colleges had been
closed for some time due to Covid, so those undertaking
apprenticeships had been unable to work on the qualification for
some time.
- A Member asked the
director what could be done to continue to improve the uptake of
apprenticeships. The Director explained that apprenticeship levy
funding could only be used on training, so the Council still had to
fund apprenticeship salaries. The Local Government Association
(LGA) was lobbying government for more funding. She was of the
opinion that the government had asked a lot of LAs by setting a
2.5% target for apprenticeships as a percentage of the
workforce.
- A Member stated that in 2018/19, there had been
407 employees earning over £50,000 per year; in 2019/20, this
had risen to 558 employees. The Member proposed that the Council
monitor the number of staff members on high salaries. The Director
of HR and OD suggested that the People, Performance and Development
Committee could look into this at their next meeting; however, it
was noted that the Resources and Performance Select Committee
should also remain updated on this, particularly with regard to the
affordability of the transformation programme.
- A Member observed
that the indicator Customer 01 (ASC referrals to preventative
services) had no target. She enquired when a target would be
produced. The Head of Customer Services explained that it was
difficult to formulate a target for this indicator, because in some
cases referrals to partner organisations (as opposed to Surrey
County Council ASC) were more effective and less expensive. A
review was being conducted with Surrey ASC.
- A Member asked
whether all Health and Safety incidents were reviewed. The
Corporate Health and Safety Lead Manager responded that all
incidents reported should be reviewed. The reason the figure for
indicator Health & Safety 04 (percentage of incidents reviewed)
was only at 93% could be to do with timing and turnover of
reviewing managers.
- A Member noted that
there were no targets for all but one of the Health and Safety
indicators, and suggested that the target for these should simply
be continuous improvement against the same quarter last year. The
Corporate Health and Safety Lead Manager said that ideally the
target would be zero incidents, but this was not realistic. He
would take on board the Member’s suggestion and look into
continuous improvement targets for the future. Another Member
suggested that the target should be 100% or zero (depending on the
indicator), and if this was not met, this should be explained in an
annotation. It was agreed that this could be the long-term target,
while improvement on the previous year could be a short-term
target.
- A Member proposed
that employee injury lost time (Health & Safety 05b) should be
shown as a ratio rather than an absolute number. The Corporate
Health and Safety Lead Manager informed Members that the Council
assembled data around injury and incident rates, and this could be
supplied at the next meeting of the Select Committee.
- The Head of Business
Intelligence introduced himself. He was new to the role and was
aiming to move toward a more digital, visual, live reporting style
using a software called Tableau, helping to create a transparent
performance culture across the Council. The ambition was for Surrey
to be an example of best practice. The Head of Business
Intelligence welcomed Members’ input into the new design and
reset of performance reporting.
- A Member said he
would like to see the next level down of performance monitoring
tools within services. The Cabinet Member for Corporate Support
indicated that the new performance data style would allow Members
to interact with and query data more easily; this could help the
Select Committee stay up to date and identify areas of scrutiny.
The Chairman suggested that Members should also look into the new
performance style outside of formal committee meetings.
- Moving onto the
Transformation section of the report, a Member asked for
reassurance that there was a system to ensure that staff working
from home had an adequate internet connection, desk set-up and
other equipment. Did the Council cover staff’s internet
costs? The Director of Transformation said that she recognised the
swiftness with which staff had been asked to work from home, and it
had not been perfect for everyone. Corporate leadership was
discussing the issues mentioned and thinking about the next steps
as part of the Agile programme.
- A Member remarked
that if the Council was going to transform and become more agile,
it had to find suitable platforms to conduct business and broadcast
to the public. Even today’s meeting had been delayed in
starting due to issues with the webcasting. The Director of
Transformation replied that while there had been some issues with
WiFi and bandwidth during the period of working from home due to
lockdown, there had been examples of good use of technology, such
as the outbound calls to shielded people. There was much further to
go in developing the technology to enable agile
working.
- A Member questioned
what system would be used to measure performance on the pathway of
care programme. The best performing county council seemed to be
Rutland; what could be learned from them? The Director of
Transformation replied that that improvements would continue to be
made on this programme, and there was a focus on supporting
independence.
Recommendations:
- The Select Committee
is to be consulted on the new format of the report and a private
workshop for members be arranged by the service area;
- The Select Committee
is to receive the Organisational Portfolio Risk Register as part of
the aforementioned workshop, including details of how the Council
is embedding a new risk management culture.
Actions/further information to be provided:
- The Corporate Health
and Safety Lead Manager to look into the possibility of having
continuous improvement compared to the same quarter last year as a
target for Health and Safety indicators;
- The Corporate Health
and Safety Lead Manager to provide data on injury and incident
rates at the October meeting of the Select Committee.