Agenda item

Roger Parkin, Director of Customer and Community Services, introduced a report on temporary Agency Staffing, the key points of which were:

Historically, the Council had difficulty in managing agency staff. Matrix had been introduced to improve governance and visibility over agency staff and agency spend, and was continuing to drive down costs on agency staffing. However, as the contract was due for renewal in the next 12 months, a review would be conducted to determine whether it has been successful, and whether it should be renewed.

Figures for the first two quarters of the 2015 financial year (April–September), showed the total invoiced spend on agency staff was £5,592,192. This was approximately £500,000 above the spend for the same period in 2014. The increase was due to additional agency staffing requirements within Children and Families, with agency staff required to provide service continuity whilst the move to the Children’s Services Trust was completed. With the Trust now in place, it was expected that they would recruit their own staff to permanent positions, thereby reducing their spend on agency staff.

The tenure of agency staff was set out via the tables in Figures 1 and 3. The tenure of staff in driving positions was highlighted, and Members were informed that these particular staff were highly trained, specialist drivers for children with complex needs. Their retention was important, and so the length of their tenure as agency staff was not a concern.

Members asked a number of questions, including:

When was it expected that the agency spend would start to consistently reduce?

The majority of the increased spending had been seen in the Children and Families department. With the move to the Trust, a recruitment drive was underway to convert temporary staff to permanent staff. However, until this was concluded, spend would need to be maintained at the current level to ensure service continuity. It was expected that the recruitment drive would be concluded circa February/March 2016, and the reduction in spend would by extension be seen at that time.

Was the Trust’s budget now separate from the Council’s budget?

Yes. The Children’s Services Trust’s budget was set at £21m, with a budgeted overspend of £2.2m over the last 18 months.  As the Trust became more established, it was expected that their spend would reduce to the baseline budget of £21m. In addition, the Trust was tasked with making the same 35% savings as the rest of the Council, as set out in the Financial Strategy within the 5 Year Plan. Future reports to the Committee would separate the budgets.

What was the Council’s view on zero-hour contracts?

The Council did not employ staff on zero-hour contracts. The Council did, however, have some ‘casual workers’, in effect ‘as and when’ workers with no formal contract of employment but letters of engagement.

What progress had been made to recruit new social workers?

The Council was faced with the same national shortage of skilled social workers as other Authorities. A campaign to recruit more social workers was underway, together with the Council’s ‘Grow Your Own’ scheme whereby social workers would be trained and hopefully retained for the long-term, this being through the ASYE scheme. The importance of retaining skilled social workers to provide stable continuity of service to clients was recognised.

Had the Council explored offering affordable/social housing to social workers to encourage them to settle within Slough?

The relocation policy of the Council currently was to offer relocation to staff at Senior Management level. However, as part of attracting Social Workers in the Children Services it was agreed to extend this scheme to this group of staff as part of the recruitment offer.  Unfortunately, the scheme has had limited impact and to date, 4 social workers have expressed an interest.

Councillor Sharif confirmed that the Cabinet had recently approved a new home buying scheme for first time buyers. Although the scheme was open to all, the possibility of adding greater incentives for key workers could be explored. Social workers would be informed of the scheme as part of the general advertising campaign.

Resolved -   (a) That the report be noted.

(b) That a further report be brought to the next meeting of the Employment & Appeals Committee.