Witnesses:
Tim Oliver, Leader of
the Council
Sarah Kershaw, Chief
of Staff & Interim Strategic Director for People &
Change
Emma Lucas, Head of
Business Partnering & Employee Practice
Tom Holmwood,
Recruitment Manager
Key
points raised during the discussion:
- The Leader of the
Council introduced the item and confirmed the appointment of Sarah
Kershaw as Interim Strategic Director for People and Change until
the recruitment of a permanent appointment to the post.
- The Chairman asked
how the recruitment and retention challenges being experienced
nationally were being addressed at Surrey County Council, what were
the challenges relating to the Council specifically and what had
been learnt from other local authorities. The Interim Strategic
Director for People & Change said that building on the positive
culture of the organisation and communicating its successes were
key and added that a shift was taking place in some areas, with
joint roles being considered to help address current national
difficulties. Digital insight was important to provide good data
and a pilot was being tested by the Children’s Families,
Lifelong Learning & Culture Directorate (CFLLC) to create and
develop a framework to roll out to all directorates. The Recruitment Manager added that the Council had
worked to ensure effective engagement with prospective employees
and would continue to develop a good working culture to attract
applicants.
- The Chairman asked
what were the specific difficulties within children’s
services and care work areas. The Head of Business Partnering &
Employee Practice explained that evidence based, targeted
children’s workforce planning was taking place to consider
affordability, geographical placements, skills, resourcing and
diversity. This information would help directors form a clear set
of priorities during the next 12-18 months.
- A Member asked if the
Council had considered visiting schools in addition to Further
Education colleges to raise awareness amongst younger students of
the vast career opportunities available within the Council. The
Recruitment Manager said that the Council’s partnership with
the Youth Employment UK Network ensured promotion of vacancies in
an early- careers setting to attract young people. The Talent &
Organisational Development Service had appointed an Early Careers
Lead, responsible for the implementation of strategies to attract
younger people. Developments were underway to ensure that young
people would be offered a role at the end of apprenticeships or
post graduate training programmes. Work was underway to produce
videos for school use to promote career opportunities within the
council.
- A Member noted the
difficulties of appointing Section 151 Officers and asked if
working partnerships with London Borough Councils would provide
recruitment opportunities in addition to developing terms and
conditions to attract candidates. The Recruitment Manager said that
benchmarking combined with the market knowledge of employment
agencies assigned to recruit for senior roles on behalf of the
Council were utilised and terms and conditions remained
competitive. The Interim Strategic Director for People & Change
said that work was underway to ensure succession planning and
career pathways were being addressed around specialist roles to
reduce the risk of competition.
- A Member asked if
recruiting jointly with different authorities for non-director
posts had been considered, for example, Building Control Officer
posts. The Strategic Director for People & Change confirmed
that joint recruitment with partners including the NHS had been
taking place for some time in recognition of the integration agenda
and the necessity of working together to solve the current
difficulties in social care.
- A Vice Chairman asked
what benchmarking had taken place to compare SCC’s pay and
employment with other local authorities. The Strategic Director for People & Change
confirmed that benchmarking was underway and completed
annually.
- A Vice Chairman asked
what roles would be considered to appoint under 30s. The Strategic
Director for People & Change said that any vacancy could be
considered if the candidate had the specific experience or
qualifications required.
- A Member asked if it
was possible to provide more flexibility
around employment offers to attract applicants and provide
flexibility for those with caring responsibilities. The Strategic
Director for People & Change said that the organisation had
proven its ability to be flexible during the last two years and
continued to build on this as a long-term priority whilst ensuring
that services to residents were maintained.
- A Vice Chairman asked
what exit interview data showed as the main reason for staff
choosing to leave Surrey County Council. The Recruitment Manager
noted reasons including culture, management, pay, development and
training, and personal circumstances adding that these were
anecdotal reasons offered in the absence of confirmed
evidence. The Vice Chairman asked for
more data gathering work to be undertaken and presented to the
Select Committee or the People, Performance & Development
Committee at an appropriate time. The Chairman said that if exit
interview data was not being collected, it was important that this
should happen going forward. A Vice Chairman asked if managers
received training on how to conduct exit interviews. The Strategic
Director for People & Change said no specific training was
available for managers but guidance was provided. A Member asked
who staff could approach to express interest in a different role or
more flexibility. The Strategic Director for People & Change
said managers should be approached in the first
instance
- A Vice Chairman noted
that exit interviews were not mandatory but handovers were and
asked if the two could be linked. The Strategic Director for People
& Change noted the suggestion.
- A Vice Chairman asked
if the figures reported would have been worse without the
£2.7 million Social Care Workforce Retention Fund award. The
Strategic Director for People & Change said that the Select
Committee would be provided with a response.
- The Chairman
summarised three key areas raised in the discussion ‘why
come?’, ‘why stay?’ and ‘why leave?’.
The Strategic Director for People & Change confirmed the data
gathered in these areas would be critical with intelligence
gathered and used to form an effective programme. The Head of
Business Partnering and Employee Practice said ‘itchy
feet’ sessions were being piloted in Children’s
Services to capture and process data and learn from its
effectiveness.
- The Chairman asked if
Employee Reference Groups (ERGs) required development in their
early stages to ensure that issues were identified in good time. A
Member asked what was the role of ERG members and what did they
discuss. The Strategic Director for People & Change explained
that the groups were grown by staff members and open to all, with
each group having a Corporate Leadership Team (CLT) sponsor in each
network. Any change was driven by the group and their own action
plans.
- A Member said that in
their view most professional disciplines were in short supply and
Surrey County Council should improve strategies to ‘grow its
own’, capitalising on its recently improved reputation. The
Apprenticeship Levy, most of which was returned to the government
was not a good use of funds. The Strategic Director for People
& Change agreed this was an area for focus and work areas such
as current offer, development and placements would be
investigated.
- The Chairman asked if
there were courses offered by Royal Holloway, Kingston and Surrey
Universities directly related to opportunities within SCC and if
so, could SCC contribute to these courses with graduate recruitment
to follow. The Strategic Director for People & Change said that
this happened in some directorates and added that a standardised
approach to supporting this in all Directorates would be
positive.
- A Member asked
for further
information at the next Select Committee meeting regarding work
being undertaken to identify and improve the culture within
SCC, how often recruitment by managers was reviewed to ensure
quality of work and timescales from advertising to recruitment. The
Strategic Director for People & Change confirmed responses
would be provided at a later stage.
- A Member, in
referencing page 66 and un- manageable workloads, asked how often
workloads for Social Workers, in particular, was reviewed and was
there an effective complaints procedure in place to mitigate risk.
The Strategic Director for People & Change said that this
subject did not fall within the People & Change remit adding
that the usual procedures should be followed with line
managers.
- A Member noted Surrey
County Council’s difficulty in recruiting staff whilst there
was an pool of people with disabilities were unemployed and noted
that engagement was required in this area. Diversity not only had
to be valued but actively created within the Surrey County Council
by its directorates. The Strategic Director for People & Change
said that a reasonable adjustments service had started and would
focus on this area.
- The Chairman asked
what was being done to increase the agreed 45 pence per mile fuel
allowance to reimburse staff that needed to use their cars for
work, without the increase being coming taxable. The Strategic
Director for People & Change said that advice was being sought
regarding this.
Resolved:
The Resources and Performance
Select Committee:
- Will seek to agree a
scope for a future briefing session to further explore the issues
raised in today’s meeting ahead of future formal
scrutiny.
- Asks the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and
Resources to lobby HMRC directly and via the County Council Network
(CCN) to review (enhance) the 45p mileage rate for business travel
as non-taxable.
- The Interim Strategic
Director for People and Change to consider as part of their update
to the Committee in six months’ time:
a.
Appropriate opportunities to use Members as
advocates for the Council as a prospective employer.
b.
As part of succession planning, explore the
possibility of setting up a networked approach within the
organisation and with partners to allow officers to gain experience
in other industries and authorities (and vice-versa) to help
develop skills and experience in younger
employees.
c.
Provide an explanation of how the Council currently
collects leavers’ data across Directorates and explore how
this could be improved.
d.
Explore how we can develop a systematic approach to
answering the questions of ‘why come to the
organisation?’, ‘why stay?’ and ‘why
leave?’ building on the itchy feet pilot in
Children’s Services.
e.
That videos continue to be developed to help explain
and promote the work of the Council and its employment
opportunities to school age children in Surrey for use this
year.
f.
Explore how recruitment can work with disability
organisations such as the Surrey Coalition of Disabled People to
better tailor its offer as an employer of choice for people with
disabilities.