Agenda and draft minutes

To enable members of the public to ask questions, express views or present petitions, IF NOTICE HAS BEEN GIVEN, (by telephone, in writing or by email) BY NO LATER THAN 12 NOON OF THE WORKING DAY PRECEDING THE MEETING. As per Procedural Rule 14.4 at any one meeting no person may submit more than 3 questions and no more than 1 such question may be asked on behalf of one organisation.

There was no public participation.

07 March 2024

It was moved by Councillor Laura Mellstrom, seconded by Councillor Roger Shelley and

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting of the Scrutiny Committee held on 07 March 2024 be approved as a correct record, with an amendment to the resolution of minute item 355/23 to read ’06 December 2023’.

Voting

05 For

00 Against

01 Abstentions

The Chair declared the motion CARRIED.

Members are required to declare the existence and nature of any interests they may have in subsequent agenda items in accordance with the District Council’s Code of Conduct. Those interests are matters that relate to money or that which can be valued in money, affecting the Member, their partner, extended family and close friends. Interests that become apparent at a later stage in the proceedings may be declared at the time.

There were no declarations of interest.

The report builds upon the Scrutiny Committee report considered in October 2023 and proposes options and potential solutions to the acute workforce challenges currently being experienced in the authority. It also provides short and long term options to improve the resilience of the Council’s workforce and in particular the recruitment and retention of staff with appropriate levels of training and experience.

The Chief Executive introduced a report which built upon the report considered by Scrutiny Committee in October 2023 and proposed options and potential solutions to the acute workforce challenges currently being experienced by the authority. The report provided short and long term options to improve the resilience of the Council’s workforce and in particular the recruitment and retention of staff with appropriate levels of training and experience.

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, local government and other public service providers, demonstrated a remarkable level of resilience, flexibility and adaptability in order to meet the needs of the crisis we faced. However, in the post Covid-19 era, local government faced a series of acute workforce challenges on a scale which had never before been experienced.

Maintaining sufficient capacity and skills, attractiveness as a career choice, competition from other sectors, flexible working arrangements and the continuous inflationary erosion of pay are all having a severe impact upon the ability of councils of all types and sizes to attract and maintain staff of the calibre required to deliver high quality services. It was noted that at the same time, there was a constant need to prioritise corporate projects and initiatives in order to ensure that the organisation’s resources are aligned to efficient and effective service delivery.

Section 3 of the report outlined the Council’s workforce profile as of August 2024. It was noted that 49% of staff were over the age of 50 and that there was a significant risk that the council would face the retirement of an increasing number of long serving, skilled and knowledgeable colleagues over the next 5-10 years.

Section 10 of the report outlined tactical and strategic measures in relation to recruitment and retention and set out recommendations for Members to consider and put forward for consideration by the Governance and Resources Committee. The recommendations as detailed in the report were discussed in detail and decided on as below.

Recommendation 1: Retain market supplements as part of the Reward and Recognition Policy, however in order to speed-up the process of recruitment, eliminate the requirement to have at least 2 failed recruitment attempts where CLT can agree there is reliable market intelligence / benchmarking information as a means of determining whether a supplement is necessary to recruit.

The committee approved of this recommendation moving forward. It was noted that there were concerns for existing staff affected by lack of resource caused by extended periods of recruitment.

Recommendation 2: (1) Retain welcome payments as part of our recruitment incentives package and increase the maximum payment to £5,000 and rely upon market intelligence / benchmarking information as a means of determining the level of payment to be made. (2) Welcome payments also to be repaid within an increased time of the first 3 years of appointment on a sliding scale.

The committee approved of this recommendation moving forward and noted that for higher graded jobs and senior roles that receive larger welcome payments, the sliding scale should be longer.

Recommendation 3: Expand the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 142/24

The Chair of the Scrutiny Committee will provide Members with a verbal update on the progress made regarding the Scrutiny Exercise scheduled to investigate experiences of flooding in the Derbyshire Dales.

The Chair provided Members with a verbal update on the Flooding Scrutiny Exercise. It was noted that no progress had been made since the last meeting of the Committee on 7^th March 2024, due to staff resources. This was also the case for the consultation and engagement exercise.

The minutes of the previous meeting called on Members of the Committee to arrange a working group to make proposals for a report which would recommend a course of action. The Chair informed Members that he would write to the relevant stakeholders referenced in the minutes for both of these exercises with a view of reporting back to the next committee meeting.

To discuss, and propose any amendments to, the current Scrutiny Committee work programme for 2024/25.

The Chair presented the current Scrutiny Committee work programme for 2024/25. It was noted that the next meeting of the committee would address the corporate plan and policies to identify any possible issues relating to indirect discrimination.

Councillor Sue Bull noted that Officer time was limited, and a review could be undertaken into how this time could be used more efficiently. Councillor David Hughes requested that Councillor Bull write up a proposal regarding this to present to the committee.

Members agreed that there was no need to add any further topics to the work programme at present.