Agenda item

     a) Workforce capacity in local government

a)   Workforce capacity in local government

Heather Wills, Principal Adviser (Improvement), presented on behalf of Naomi Cooke, Head of Workforce, who was unable to attend the meeting, a report which summarises the LGA’s policy and improvement activity to address workforce capacity challenges in local government.

Her presentation included the following points:

·       Workforce capacity challenges are a widespread and impacting across all government services.

·       Factors such as pay are common to all services, but there are also other issues which are specific to individual services.

·       The report is being brought to all the Boards for consideration. It highlights the skills and capacity challenges that are faced by economic development teams.

·       She asked Members about actions to address the challenges, including prioritisation.

·       She referred to a slight error in the paragraph numbers in the financial implication section, which should have referred to paragraphs 38 and 39.

Members made the following points:

·       There is an ongoing trend of people with marketable skills being lost to the private sector, which affects ability for local authorities to shape the places we represent.

·       Pay and persistent low growth were also cited as key factors as well as variance in rates between authorities and the impact of the pandemic on working arrangements. The impact on staffing levels in the aftermath of the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union was also mentioned.

·       There is a generational difference in attitudes and motivation, particularly around pay and work packages. 

·       A Member mentioned that for hybrid working, the home environment of younger workers should be considered (sharing rooms with siblings, inadequate space, etc.).

·       A Member believed the problem was partly due to local government being talked down over a long period of time has not helped with the recruitment.

Decision:

That Board members fed back their views of the priority issues for future policy and improvement activity to address workforce capacity challenges and how the LGA delivers those priorities in preparation for consideration of this paper by the Executive Advisory Board.