Agenda item

Councillor Andy Hull, Executive Member Finance, Performance and Community Safety was present and was accompanied by Liz Haynes, Law and Governance.

During consideration of the report the following main points were made –

·         It was noted that there had been a reduction in the use of agency staff and Islington compared favourably with other London Boroughs, especially given the number of directly employed manual staff that Islington had

·         The highest number of agency assignments took place in Environment and Regeneration and Housing and Adult Social Services, and this reflected the need to employ staff due to the responsive nature of these services

·         It was noted that a number of departments were below target for the use of agency staff and this showed that progress is being made

·         Considerable work is being carried out to provide management information to show Corporate Directors and managers their use of agency workers

·         It was noted that a new contract would be in place by January 2018 and it is anticipated that this will reduce spend costs on agency staff

·         Members enquired as to the number of vacancies that the Council currently had and that this information should be provided to Members. Members also expressed concern that agency staff were employed in Contact Islington and that alternative measures of filling such posts should be investigated

·         In response to a question it was stated that the campaigns are underway to recruit to permanent and fixed-term contracts and projects to explore different ways of working

·         Reference was made to the fact that the high level of budget reductions that had to be made over recent years, as a result of Government funding restrictions, had resulted in consequences for staff and in staffing reductions and increased workloads and stress for staff, especially in non- frontline services, such as IT and HR. It was stated that the Council had made the decision to protect front line services

·         Members were informed that following the introduction of IR35 it is hoped that this will lead to a reduction in agency workers

·         The view was expressed that future reports should show details of the overall number of agency staff employed by department over a period of time to show if it is reducing and also the average length of assignment and where assignments have taken place for over a 12 month period

·         In response to a question it was stated that monitoring did take place to ensure that all staff employed through an agency were paid the LLW

RESOLVED:

(a)   That Members note the improvement in reducing agency staff

(b)  That the next report on agency staff to the Committee include the following –

·         The overall number of agency staff employed on a departmental basis with a comparison with the previous year and the average length of assignment, and where assignments have taken place for more than 12 months

·         The number of vacancies that the Council currently has to be filled

·         The number of staff in the past 12 months who have had time off for work related stress conditions

The Chair thanked the Executive Member and Liz Haynes for attending