Agenda item

The Chair invited Heather Wills (HW), Principal Adviser, to introduce the report.

HW explained that the report had been taken to all the policy boards for specific input related to their remit, and would then be taken to the Executive Advisory Board on 9 March for final decisions on how to take it forward. For the IIB, it was a question of whether the right support was in place in order to help councils address the specific workforce challenges highlighted and whether anything additional was required over and above what was already in the improvement programme. Members comments today would also be fed into the report to Executive Advisory Board for their consideration.

Members’ comments and questions:

·       Further information was sought on the process for matching available resources to identified priority areas. HW said that quite a lot of the work outlined in the report was already resourced but if members, through the Executive Advisory Board, identified other areas of work, then prioritisation may need to take place

·       It was suggested that the creation of OFLOG would put additional demands on councils in terms of data provision which could in turn lead to workforce pressures. HW explained that there was an official process to be followed around possible new burdens funding from Government and it wasn’t clear at this stage whether OFLOG requirements would fall under this

·       Working with the trade unions, particularly around social care shortages and career development, was suggested as a positive way forward.

·       Did the LGA have any capacity to lobby Government to make ‘onboarding’ processes simpler and to investigate and circulate best practice?

·       Had the use of staff perks and rewards been examined as a way of making a local government career more attractive? This was common practice in the private sector

·       The scope and range of things that particular local government roles were now being asked to do was increasing, e.g. in environmental health. This was impacting their ability to set aside enough time to train employees ‘on the job’ and so there wasn’t therefore a stream of newly qualified staff coming through

·       In certain areas of work – e.g. planning, significant numbers of staff were moving out of local government into the Planning Inspectorate. There was a danger that OFLOG could have a similar effect.

·       The negative public discourse around particular roles – e.g. children’s social workers, traffic engineers – was proving to be a real barrier to promoting them as a rewarding career. The LGA’s Debate Not Hate campaign was praised in this regard and initiatives such as #ourday were welcomed in relation to setting out the benefits of a career in local government. HW highlighted a new local government careers guide that had recently been launched by the Workforce team in collaboration with Youth Employment UK for use in schools and colleges. This would be an area of work to expand upon in future, subject to funding

·       Fair and transparent processes around councils bidding for funding were considered to be important, and funding often only covered capital expenditure, not staffing costs

·       Although there were recruitment and retention issues right across the board in local government, different roles would need specific interventions in order to address shortages

·       When Government policy changed – e.g. around family hubs – there was often a lag period whilst workforce and training needs caught up

·       Working with younger children in schools and other settings was considered important in terms of raising awareness of the broad range of careers available in local government.

·       Competition between local authorities for staff was raised as a factor causing workforce shortages in certain areas, particularly now with remote working and better transport links

·       The issue of workers in their mid to late 50s taking early retirement post-covid was raised and the impact that this has had on the local government workforce. Could they be enticed back into work?

Decision:

Improvement & Innovation Board endorsed the proposed approach and recommended that the additional points raised during the debate be incorporated in the final report to be taken to the Executive Advisory Board on 9 March.