Agendas, reports and minutes

Minutes of Meeting of the Redesign Board of the Highland Council held in Committee Room 1, Council Headquarters, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness on Tuesday, 26 March 2019 at 11.00am.

Present:
Mr B Lobban (Chair), Mr R Bremner (by v/c), Mrs C Caddick, Mrs M Davidson, Mr J Gibson, Mr A Jarvie, Mr G MacKenzie, Mr A Sinclair, Mr C Smith, Mr P MacPherson

Also Present:
Mr J Gray                                     

Officials in attendance:
Mr M MacLeod, Head of Planning and Environment/Council Redesign Lead 
Mr S Walsh, Head of People and ICT
Mr D MacKenzie, Trading Standards Manager (Review Team Leader)
Ms R MacDonald, Trainee Accountant 
Miss J MacLennan, Democratic Services Manager

Business

1. Apologies for Absence

Apologies for absence were intimated on behalf of Mr G Adam, Mr A Christie, Ms M Smith, Mr A MacKinnon, Mr L Fraser, Mrs H Carmichael, Mrs C Wilson and Dr I Cockburn.  

2. Declarations of Interest

There were no declarations of interest at the meeting.

3. Redesign Review of Agency and Casual Workers: Final Report
                                                                                                                                                                   
There had been circulated Report No. RDB/4/19 dated 20 March 2019 by the Trading Standards Manager (Review Team Leader).
 
Following a summary of the report, Members raised the following issues:-

• thanks should be conveyed to the Officers concerned for the excellent report which had been produced;
• there was a need for further information on the current costs associated with the employment of Teachers on a temporary basis;
• in regard to agency workers, the current statistics highlighted that the average time taken per person for induction was 9-10 hours and it was hoped that this could be reduced if possible;
• consideration should be given as to whether temporary/seasonal staff could be used more widely in future throughout the year;
• in terms of agency workers, it was noted that the Council currently had a contract in place with Global and as such that agency should always be used other than in exceptional circumstances;
• if other agencies were to be used, there was a need for the Council to negotiate the same terms as were used with Global wherever possible;
• it had to be highlighted that the costs associated with the employment of agency workers had been negotiated with Global and had been reducing year on year and this was welcomed;
• there was a need to make the current process more robust and ensure that it was fully monitored in future;
• there was a need for further information on the initial discussions which had been held with High Life Highland;
• there was a need to monitor the implementation of any new proposals to ensure that they were being fully implemented;
• it would be beneficial to consider instigating a similar process across the Council in respect of future agency costs in line with what had been actioned in respect of recruitment controls; and
• there was a need to examine all aspects of this issue on a wider scale and specifically to take into account the impact of the current recruitment freeze as part of such consideration.              

Thereafter, the Board AGREED TO RECOMMEND the following as set out in the final report:-

Short term implementation – 

(i)    a global contract should be rigorously enforced and consideration given to an extension of the scope of the contract in future;
(ii)   a full review should be carried out of all ongoing individual agency contracts and arrangements – this should include taking a commercial approach and consideration of all options that could reduce costs for the Council;
(iii)  the findings of the review pointed to the need for a rigorous process for control of agency use across the Council – a process to monitor and control the use of agency needs therefore needed to be instigated. The recruitment controls process provided a useful template to use, with peer review at its core, with the Resources Governance Board as a sensible governing body. All agency hires had to be monitored and guidance given to Managers and Supervisors;
(iv)   a new post of ‘Agency Coordinator’ should be created to assist the main facilitator of consistent agency use – this post would best be situated in the central HR team and receive support and guidance from HR management. The new role would report to the Talent Manager (change fund post);
(v)    specific problems identified during the project to be referred by the Board to HR to take up with the Services involved. This would include for example seeking to recruit permanently where agency staff were continually used or improved use of attendance management processes;
(vi)   the use of agency and casual staff to be included in a new integrated system for tackling all vacancies, based on the following hierarchy to tackle vacancies (where Managers must consider all options starting at 1 and proceeding in order – additional guidance would be produced for Managers which clearly described their obligations - 

1.  Ensure that attendance management procedures are fully implemented
2.  Reshuffle existing staff and duties
3.  Reduction/reprioritisation to reflect reduced resources
4.  Secondment from within the Council
5.  Temporary filling of post
6.  Permanent filling of post
7.  Hire staff through casual or supply
8.  Hire agency staff using Global
9.  Hire using agency other than Global 

(vii)  recent training on attendance management should be followed up by further information to Managers to remind them of their obligations and consideration given to monitoring compliance of Managers with the attendance management policies – this tied in with ongoing work by Attendance Support Officers.

Long Term Implementation –

(viii) during future agency contract deliberations, the possibility of a managed contract should be closely monitored and a feasibility study carried out into it as an option;
(ix)   to improve the flow of secondments across the Council, an ambitious and wide ranging system should be set up for internal secondments, with the implementation of a new process which enabled secondments within the Council whenever this was in the best interests of the Council’s goals. This was consistent with the Council’s Workforce Planning Strategy when Transition was one of the four priority work streams and this could include the option of extending these arrangements to outside bodies, in particular High Life Highland;
(x)    as part of the Workforce Planning theme to provide management training, a module should be incorporated which covered the new integrated approach to tackling all vacancies and the coordinated approach to agency and supply recommended by the review. The training should include face to face sessions, supplemented by online materials; and
(xi)   a concerted pan-Highland campaign to be launched to attempt to recruit to ‘hard to fill’ posts using innovative techniques, the Talent Attraction Manager post to focus on social media and other networks as described in East Lothian and Aberdeenshire Council policies, recruitment of trainees alongside agency for an appropriate period and focus should be placed on the Council’s MA scheme to develop our own.               

4. Redesign and Change Update         

Verbal Updates were provided at the meeting on the progress of projects within the Change Programme and issues raised as follows:-

Trade Services – noted the terms of the update and agreed that there was a need to take account of any management restructuring as part of this review.
 
Grey Fleet – noted the terms of the update and agreed that there was a need to ensure that current progress was maintained and that consideration was given to certain issues, such as mileage claims across the Council, the availability and reliability of video-conferencing facilities which required to be improved in some cases (including direct access from out with Council buildings) in order to avoid travel for face-to-face meetings where feasible and the availability of the Skype service).
    
Transport – noted the terms of the update and that this review would include School Mini-buses.
 
Waste Management – noted the terms of the update.

Education Transformation – noted the terms of the update.

Service Income – noted the terms of the update and agreed that the different cash collection arrangement currently in place across Council Services would be included in the review.
  
Transient Visitor Levy/Tourism Developments – noted the terms of the update.

Energy and Renewables – noted the terms of the update and that discussion was ongoing with the Scottish Government. Also, agreed that those members of staff who had been trained in LEAN reviews should be used more widely where possible in future.
 
Asset Management, Property Rationalisation and Investment – noted the terms of the update and agreed that Schools would be included in the review and that efforts would be made wherever possible to reduce energy consumption across the Council.

ICT Development/Digital – noted the terms of the update.
 
Workforce Planning – noted the terms of the update.

Redesign – noted the terms of the update.
        
The meeting ended at 12.10pm.