Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed all present to the meeting and asked everyone to introduce themselves.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Salim Sidat and Tasleem Fazal.

No delcarations of interest were received.

Meeting held on 16^th September 2024

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting held on 16^th September 2024 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The Committee received a report and presentation from the Head of Organisational Development and Workforce Strategy on recruitment and retention which the Council had been struggling with coming out of Covid.  As a result, in 2021 a Recruitment Team was established followed by a Workforce Strategy which was approved in 2023.  Several positive interventions had been put in place which had resulted in a marked improvement with recruitment and retention within the Council.

The report provided information around recruitment, apprentice and graduate roles, use of agency workers, diversity and inclusion, development along with engagement and wellbeing.

It was explained that bespoke recruitment events were held to assist manager with hard to fill posts; there had been an increase in the number of followers on LinkedIn; videos, photography and interviews were available when advertising roles; and the Council’s jobs bulletin was currently emailed to approximately 1150 subscribers and continued to gain momentum.

During the presentation the Committee were advised that 62 posts had been advertised in October 2023 which had attracted 438 applications.  In October 2024 66 posts had been advertised which had attracted 649 applicants.

Recruitment had been targeted which helped supported intern offers, young people leaving care, SEND, lived experience and EDI considerations.

Overall, candidate feedback was very positive with 4.75% of feedback showing that as an organisation the Council was currently scoring between 4.5 and 5 for the candidate’s overall monthly experience.

With regards to entry level roles, officers felt this was the second biggest area of success. The Council currently had 112 apprentices; 60 different programmes with 24 different training providers; was continuing to target hard to fill roles and was developing its own programmes for its own graduates.

Currently the Council employed 25 agency workers, with 23 in social work roles.  The use of agency workers was closely monitored as officers were conscious of how this affected permanent staff along with costs.  It was explained that the Government were to introduce legislation to support agency workers and when they could and couldn’t be used.  Discussions were ongoing regarding the use of agency workers with managers to consider proactive strategies to reduce and ongoing and future reliance.  The numbers continued to reduce through a targeted approach and support from HR.

It was reported that one of the Council’s ambitions of the Workforce Strategy was to increase the diversity of its workforce at all levels in the organisation.  Since the introduction of the Strategy there had been an increased focus on achieving this ambition.  A number of actions had been taken to support this which included, amongst other things, the establishment of a workforce forum and workplan; accreditation as an Age Friendly Employer and a review of the recruitment process and improved MI to ensure there were no unconscious bias and any trends around EDI appointments were highlighted early, so that they could be acted upon.

There continued to be investment in training and development, with all employees being offered an annual personal plan.  This provided an opportunity  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.