Agenda item

The Committee is provided with a copy of a Cabinet report which gives and update on the delivery of the People & Cultural Transformation Strategy, including the accompanying action plan. The Committee is asked to: -

1.  Review the information provided in the report on the People & Cultural Transformation Strategy, and

2.  Decide whether there are any comments or recommendations on the scheme to bring to the attention of the Mayor during his consideration of the report.

The Committee considered a report set out on pages 83 to 120 of the agenda setting out the action plan which underpinned the People & Cultural Transformation Strategy agreed by the Executive Mayor at Cabinet on 25 January 2023. The Strategy had been reviewed by the Scrutiny & Overview Committee on 30 January 2023, at which time the Committee agreed that it wanted to review the accompanying action plan once it had been completed.

The Chief Executive, Katherine Kerswell, Assistant Chief Executive, Elaine Jackson, Corporate Director of Resources, Jane West and Chief People Officer, Dean Shoesmith attended the meeting for this item.

During the introduction to the report by the Chief People Officer the following points were noted: -

·         The People & Cultural Transformation Strategy had been developed through co-creation and this approach had continued for the development of the action plan.

·         This co-creation approach included a range of sessions being held with staff on the seven pillars within the Strategy.

·         This approach would continue throughout the life of the Strategy with regular engagement with staff and unions to test the Strategy to ensure it was having its intended impact.

Before asking questions on the report, the Chair highlighted that the Committee had met with staff and union representatives prior to the meeting to hear their feedback on the action plan, with the general consensus being that it reflected the feedback given during the co-creation sessions. Having reviewed the action plan, the Committee was unsure how many of the actions would be measured to determine delivery and welcomed confirmation from the Chief People Officer that the action plan would be refined to ensure the actions were as SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) as possible.

It was questioned whether the issues with the Oracle system would have an impact on the delivery of the strategy.  It was acknowledged that there was a lot of work needed to improve the system and processes for Oracle. However, the strategy was focussed on culture and behaviour rather than systems, which was why a co-creation approach had been used. A key improvement that would be looked for as part of the Oracle project was to improve the recording of management information such as staff establishment. There would also be work needed to build dashboards of data within Oracle as currently a significant amount of time was spent compiling this information outside the system.

Regarding apprenticeships, it was confirmed that there was an aim for the Council to have seven apprenticeships per directorate each year. ‘Growing your own’ was a key workstream in the strategy and included apprenticeships, the national graduate programme and supporting new social workers. The Committee welcomed the commitment to increasing the number of apprenticeships at the Council.

As a follow-up it was questioned how the Council would ensure that it had an inclusive approach to growing its own talent. It was advised that during the co-creation process, there was a strong message from staff that there needed to be a much more systematic approach to skills pathways and providing development opportunities across the Council. As such this was the focus of Pillar 4 in the strategy.

Regarding staff wellbeing, it was confirmed that mental health was the most significant reason for staff absence, with 5,500 days lost per year. As part of the work to address this, a bid had been made for covid funds to use for tackling wellbeing and mental health issues, including funding research on the reasons for mental health absence. Although there had been a recent audit on the mental health support available, which was positive, the funding would be used to look at the root causes and the support needed for these issues.

Further information was requested on non-pay related incentives available for staff. It was advised that there had been a recent campaign to highlight what was available for staff, with incentives such as discounted gym membership, discounted shopping, and cinema tickets available. The recruitment landing pages on the Council’s website had also been revamped. Long service awards had been put in place and would begin in November, with 116 staff with 20 years or more service. There would also be staff awards starting from April 2024.

An update was requested on number of days staff worked from home each week. It was advised that prior to the pandemic staff worked in the office 3.8 days per week and now it was 1.7 days per week. The Council had a Hybrid Working Policy which set attendance at 2 days per week and a recent pulse survey indicated that approximately a third of staff were in the officer two or more days a week. A report was due to be considered by CMT on the issue, as a balance needed to be found between ensure services were being provided for residents and the expectations of prospective job candidates looking for greater flexibility post-pandemic.

The final question for this item asked how the Council was ensuring middle managers were equipped to deal with performance management. It was advised that workload management was a key issue, with a recent programme ‘Stop, Pause, Reprioritise’ aimed at managing workloads. There was also an ongoing series of ‘tea-talks’ with the most recent being focussed on accessibility.

At the conclusion of this item, the Chair thanked the officers for their attendance at the meeting and their engagement with the questions of the Committee.

Conclusions

Having reviewed the report and the information provided at the meeting, the Scrutiny & Overview Committee reached the following conclusions on the People & Cultural Transformation Strategy: Action Plan report: -

1. The Committee had concern about whether the action plan contained enough SMART objectives to enable its delivery to be effectively monitored. Whilst the Committee welcomed confirmation that the action plan would be further refined to this effect, it was noted that Scrutiny and Overview had raised this concern before when it looked at the People Strategy earlier in the year.
2. The Committee commended the ongoing cocreation approach used for the People & Cultural Transformation Strategy and its accompanying action plan.

Recommendation

The Scrutiny & Overview Committee agreed to submit the following recommendation for the consideration of the Mayor: -

1.    The Committee recommends that each of the “measures of success” in the People & Cultural Transformation Strategy - Action Plan are re-evaluated to ensure that they all contain a SMART target that is easy to monitor.