Agenda item

Kevin O’Leary, Director of Environment and Regeneration, Sean McLaughlin, Director of Housing and Adult Social Services and Steve Key, Finance and Property Services were present for discussion of this item . Debra Norman, Assistant Chief Executive, Human Resources and Governance was also present and laid round updated figures for the Committee.

Councillor Andy Hull, Executive Member Finance and Performance was also present.

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

·         Councillor Hull stated that significant progress had been made in reducing the number of agency staff and there was a time lag on the data and that there would shortly be an additional 78 agency posts would become permanent staff with a further 42 planned

·         The target is to reduce the number of agency staff employed to 10% of the workforce by the end of 2015/16 and the figure is currently at 17%

·         The updated figures show that the number of temporary staff now employed had reduced from 972 to 869 posts

·         It was noted that the agency staff workforce is more ethnically diverse than the Council workforce, however the Council workforce employed more staff with disclosed disability

·         Councillor Hull stated that progress is being made in reducing agency staff, however the message had been conveyed to Directors and middle management that more needs to be done to reduce the figures, It was added that agency staff could now only be employed with the approval of the service Director

·         Councillor Doolan expressed concern that the agency figure is still some 4.6 % above the London average, and that he was concerned at the high levels of BME agency staff in comparison to full time staff

·         In response to a question it was stated that in terms of the appointment of agency staff to permanent posts in Environment and Regeneration Department, the Council recruitment procedures had been followed

·         Councillor Doolan expressed the view that the Committee, should at a future date review the Council policy on recruiting agency/temporary staff into permanent posts

·         The Chair stated that there is a need to ensure that managers update their records regularly so that the levels of agency staff are regularly monitored and assessed

·          In response to a question it was stated that the updated figures on the transfer of former Enterprise staff taken on permanently be sent to Councillor Doolan

·         In response to a question it was stated that in E&R the agency staff model had been inherited from the previous contractor Enterprise and that it had taken time to remodel the service but there will always be circumstances in which agency staff would be required, however measures such as increasing the flexibility of staff were being considered. Reference was made to the fact that the Housing Scrutiny Committee were recommending annualised hours for some staff in grounds maintenance and schemes like this could be considered

·         It was stated that the fact that a high number of BME agency staff had now been employed permanently in E&R and this would increase the BME headcount figure

·         It was stated that a market supplement could be applied to certain posts where there is difficulty in recruiting and a specific case could be made. This has not been applied often and requires approval of the Chief Executive or Audit Committee dependent on the sum involved

·         It was noted that in Housing and Adult Social Services many of the technical posts transferred over from Kiers had left a number of anomalies of staff being employed on different terms and conditions and these needed to be regularised. In addition, it was stated that because of the improvement in the construction industry it is proving difficult to recruit staff in certain areas

·         Reference was made to the number of agency staff employed on a limited company basis for tax purposes. It was stated that whilst people were encouraged not to do this the Council would be disadvantaged if they did not allow this, as it was legal practice and as competition in some areas for staff, such as social workers, was intense, especially across London. The Chair stated that this was an issue that could be looked at in the forthcoming Tax Avoidance scrutiny to be carried out by PPS Committee

·         Members were informed that no agency staff were employed on exploitative zero hours contracts

·         In response to a question as to why agency social workers are employed it was stated that this is necessary as some of the funding from the NHS for these posts was temporary and if these posts were made permanent, there could be a risk of redundancy in the future for permanent staff. In addition, the need for savings in future years, because of the reductions in Local Government spending, needed to be considered and to reduce the level of redundancy payments required

·         It was noted that whilst there may be problems in the employment of BME staff this was not just an LBI problem and LBI staff is actually representative of the community. Measures are being taken to increase BME representation in higher paid jobs in the Council and by removing names from application forms

·         Reference was made to the fact that a scrutiny review on Equalities took place a few years ago and it would be interesting to review whether this had had an impact on how many BME and other disadvantaged staff had been employed, particularly in higher graded posts and the Committee should also like to receive yearly updates on these figures

·         In response to a question it was stated that agency staff were sometimes employed in a variety of posts, which led to them being on the payroll longer than originally envisaged

·         Islington had one of the largest home care provision services in London and therefore it will always be necessary to employ agency staff to maintain cover and care

·         A Member expressed the view that whilst it was recognised that in certain services there needed to be flexibility around employing agency staff the level was still too high and there was a need to ensure that employment of agency staff is cost effective

·         Discussion took place with regard to the employment of agency social workers and it was stated that particularly in Adult Social Care, and the implementation of the Care Act, it was necessary to avoid future redundancies to employ agency staff because of planned reductions in staff and budgets. This would avoid future redundancy payments to staff. With regard to agency Social Workers being on LTD, if the Council wanted to maintain an adequate level of safe cover and with the shortage of social workers in London, it would be difficult to do this if the Council had a policy of not engaging LTD social workers

·         In response to a question it was stated that in Environment and Regeneration efforts were being made to  put in place more permanently employed staff and that the preferred political optimum business model was 70%-80% in place

·         Councillor Hull indicated that whilst the agency staff figure was still too high the direction of travel was downward

·         The Chair stated that with the constraints on the budget there was a need to further reduce agency costs. The Chair congratulated Environment and Regeneration Department for the efforts made in reducing agency staff in the department and hoped other Directorates could achieve reductions in future

·         The Chair stated that specific details of progress in relation to all other Directorates in reducing agency staff, excluding Environment and Regeneration, should be submitted to the November meeting, This should include a breakdown of agency staff by Directorate/department, and how the planned reduction to 10% in agency staff is to be achieved and explanatory notes on the types of posts per department where agency staff are currently employed

RESOLVED:

(a)  That a report be submitted to the Audit and PPS Committees, at a future date, in relation to reviewing the policy on recruiting agency/temporary staff and a copy of the current policy be sent to Councillor Doolan

(b)  That it be noted that Councillor Doolan had now been sent the updated figures on the transfer of former Enterprise staff taken on permanently by the Council

(c)  That a report be submitted to a future meeting of the Committee, detailing the progress made, following the Equalities Scrutiny Review, on increasing the numbers of BME and other disadvantaged staff that had been employed, particularly in higher graded posts, and that these figures in future be provided yearly to the Committee

(d)  That Councillor Ismail be sent details of the % of BME staff by grade in the Council

(e)  That all Directorates, excluding Environment and Regeneration,  be requested to submit specific details of progress in relation to reducing agency staff, to the December  meeting, and this should include a breakdown of agency staff by Directorate/Department, and how the planned reduction to 10% in agency staff is to be achieved and explanatory notes on the types of posts per department where agency staff are currently employed