North Yorkshire Council

 

Corporate and Partnerships Overview and Scrutiny Committee

 

10th June 2024

 

Workforce Report

 

Report of the Assistant Chief Executive (Business Support)

 

 

1.0       PURPOSE OF REPORT

 

1.1       To update the Corporate & Partnerships Overview and Scrutiny Committee on NYC Workforce data and a snapshot view of the restructures in NYC since 1 April 2023 and associated redundancies.

 

2.0       BACKGROUND        

 

2.1       This first full year workforce report for North Yorkshire Council (NYC) provides an update to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the Council’s changing workforce, presents a range of workforce data, outlines the immediate issues and challenges, and sets out key priorities for the year ahead. In addition, an overview of restructures to date and redundancies is provided for committee.

 

3.0       PEOPLE STRATEGY

 

3.1       The People Strategy published provides our strategic workforce priorities. The People Strategy has four priority areas for all directorates and strategic workforce matters. The content was shaped through engagement with staff and wider stakeholders.

 

3.2       Retain staff

We retain staff because we have the right people with the right skills, and we will:

·      Provide the opportunities for you to support each other.

·      Recognise and reward the contribution and hard work you do.

·      Have an inclusive workplace culture in which everyone can thrive and reach their full potential.

 

3.3       Attraction for all

            We attract and retain talent by investing in them, and we will:

·      Enable you to do your best work every day with the right resources, tools and technology

·      Celebrate what we do well and share that learning

·      Provide career pathways, progression and a great variety of jobs

·      Offer ways of working throughout our council

 

3.4       Engage and listen to staff

            Enabling a culture of engaging and listening throughout the organisation, and we will:

·      Listen to each other, partners and communities and act on what we say

·      Provide the opportunities for you to get involved, keep informed, make suggestions and share your ideas

·      Be transparent, inclusive and open in communications.

 

3.5       Establish one Council

            In establishing a ‘one council culture’ we will:

·      Establish our values and behaviours in everything we do

·      Have visible, respectful and accountable leaders

·      Support strong performance and innovation

·      Provide a welcoming environment

 

4.0       Data Sets

4.1       This section sets out the end of 2023/2024 data for NYC with in-year changes reported in the narrative.

Table 1. Headcount and FTE

 

4.2       The whole workforce headcount* has reduced by 280 and FTE has reduced by 290 largely due to ongoing reductions in the schools’ workforce, as locally maintained schools continue to transfer to academies. The non-schools’ headcount has reduced by just 34, and FTE is down by 96.

* whole workforce is less than the sum of schools and non-schools as duplicates who work in both sectors are removed.

 

Table 2. Directorate headcount

 

4.3       During the year the most significant changes are that Environment has increased by

159 employees (1.3%) due to TUPE transfers in (outside of LGR) and recruitment to

prove staffing levels. Schools have reduced by 1% (260 employees) due to ongoing academisation, and Community Development has reduced by 108 employees (0.5%), in part due to economic partnership and development teams transferring to the new Mayoral Combined Authority.

                       

Table 3. Terms and Conditions            

 

4.4       0.2% increase in contracts for those covered by the National Joint Council for local government (Green Book) and 0.3% decrease in teaching contracts.

 

Table 4. NYC v. TUPE terms and conditions

 

4.5       1123 employees moved from non-NYC terms and conditions to NYC contracts in 2023-24, reducing the numbers on different terms and conditions from 26% to less than 15% (1605). This movement has been the more favourable terms and conditions on offer from NYC and staff from previous districts and boroughs moving over via mapping exercise or via the significant restructures that have occurred. This figure continues to reduce in the early part of 2024/25 as ongoing restructures are implemented.

 

Table 5. Contract type

 

4.6       The proportion on both full and part time established contracts has risen by 1%, increasing workforce stability. Term time only contracts reduced by 4% and fixed term contracts increased by 1%.

 

4.7       76% of the workforce is established. 7% are on temporary (guaranteed hours) contracts and 17% are wholly casual. It is important to be able to supplement the core established workforce with additional resource to respond to increases in service demand, seasonal needs or short term projects. Once the Council settles to a steady state, after restructures, this flexible workforce should be in the region of 20%, with 80% core workforce.

 

Table 6. Full time / part time

 

4.8       No change from April 23. The council offers part time and part year working to assist employees to manage their work life balance and caring responsibilities. It can be a benefit for employees at different stages of their working lives, e.g. caring for children and parents, and in preparation for retirement.  It can also assist women to remain on their career path and thus reducing the gender pay gap.

 

Table 7. Men and women

        

4.9       There has been minimal change with the proportion of women within non-schools increasing by 0.2%.

 

Table 8. Men and women by Directorate

 

4.10     The one male appointee to the Community Development Director post has led to an 8% increase in men at Management Board. The small number of staff on Management Board makes any change in gender a larger impact. It should be noted that there has been an increase of women on the board with the appointment of two female Assistant Chief Executives. The proportion of women in Community Development has increased by 3%. 

 

4.11     The Environment Directorate includes a number of services which have traditionally had a higher concentration of men than women i.e. Waste and Streetscene, Gardeners and Grounds people, Highways Engineers. Conversely, traditionally the Care sector and work with children have attracted more women than men which is why HAS and CYPS have a higher proportion of women. Colleagues from across the inclusion and employee networks have supported recruitment and help develop specific attraction campaigns.  Individual campaigns are supported with equalities promotion material: Working for us North Yorkshire Council and videoproduced by the equalities networks.

 

4.12     Women in Engineering & Planning, Women in Tech and Men Care Too are targeted recruitment campaigns to attract underrepresented genders in key careers. Other notable campaigns are the inclusion of women in road maintenance and waste collection campaigns.

 

Table 9. Average age (years)

 

Table 10. Age distribution (%)

4.13     There has been a 1% decrease in the proportion of under 25s and over 45s, and 1% increase in those between 25 and 45.

 

4.14     The age profile data illustrates the multi-generational element of our workforce, with a large proportion of the current workforce within older age profile groups and a much smaller proportion within the younger age profile groups. It is recognised that particular focus needs to be given to attracting and retaining employees in the younger age profile groups, whilst we further consider reaching and engaging with groups across our multi-generational workforce, to share learning, knowledge, and expectations in support of our workforce priorities.  The current age profile across the workforce presents the council with a longer-term challenge for succession planning.

 

Table 11. Declared disability

 

4.15     Slight 0.1% decrease in those declaring a disability.  Disability continues to be under reported due to technical complications within the HR system and the timing of collecting data.  Further work is underway within the People Strategy priorities for 2024/25 to improve and increase equality data reporting. 

 

Table 12. Declared ethnicity

 

4.16     A 0.5% increase in those declaring their ethnicity as other than white.

 

Table 13. Employees by NYC equivalent grade (%)

 

4.17     A 4% reduction in those at Grade CD and 3% increase at Grade E reflects a regrade of the Care and Support role with 560 new Grade E care roles in HAS and corresponding 580 less Grade CD posts. The proportion in Grades G and H reduced by 1%, while the proportion in Grade M and SM equivalent increased by 1%. The main increase in SM equivalent posts was the successful recruitment of 8 new Soulbury posts (Educational Psychologists), in place of agency workers.

 

4.18     Some examples of high-volume roles in the different grades include Cleaners at Grade AB, Waste Loaders, Business Support, Drivers and Leisure Attendants at Grade CD and Care and Support Workers and Cooks at Grade E. Grades F to I have senior care and support roles, team leaders and technical roles such as Customer Service Advisors, Planning and Homeless Prevention Support Officers, and Swimming Teachers. JK grade includes Social Workers, Occupational Therapists and Planners. Grades L to N cover the senior professional grades Accountants, HR Business Partners, Lawyers and Engineers. Senior Managers and Assistant Director grades cover Heads of Service managers and above.

 

Table 14. Turnover NYCC 2021 and 2022/NYC 2023

 

4.19     NYC turnover is lower than the 2 previous years at NYCC and is within the ‘normal’ 10-13% range to allow for new talent. It is below the latest 15.1% turnover for all English authorities. In the context of concerns about the impact of LGR leading to high numbers of leavers and significant transformation across most service areas within the past year, this relatively low and healthy turnover figure is a significant achievement.

 

            Table 15. Non-school reasons for leaving (NYC) - Top 3 reasons for leaving

 

Other top reasons for leaving (more than 10 leavers)

 

4.20     The 320 extra voluntary leavers represents a 40% increase, but this is comparing the leavers from the smaller NYCC rather than the larger NYC. Retirement amongst over 60s is up 66% (85 retirees) with 62 temporary contracts ceasing and 26 compulsory redundancies.

 

Table 16. NYCC and NYC sick days / FTE     

 

4.21     Days per FTE sickness absence has increased (compared to NYCC) by 2.3 days (whole workforce), 3.2 days (non-schools) but decreased by 0.1 days in schools. However, the equivalent figure for days absence per employee rather than per FTE is 10.0 days, lower than recent CIPD comparison data for public sector (10.6 days) and organisations over 5,000 employees (13.3 days). 

 

4.22     Recently published Office for National Statistics (ONS) data illustrates the national context with a continued rise in the number of people classed as economically inactive, both amongst the over 50s and at the younger end between 16 and 34 years old. This is explained as an increase in those suffering from long term sickness, including long covid, and due to record NHS waiting lists. 

 

            Table 17. Sick days / FTE by Directorate 2023-2024 NYC

 

2022-2023 NYCC

 

4.23     The top graph shows the sickness absence by Directorate for NYC 2023-24, with a comparison of NYCC sickness absence in 2022-23. A direct comparison can be made with some largely unchanged directorates (schools, traded, CYPS and HAS) while Resources/Central and Environment have significantly expanded, and Community Development is a new Directorate. The Environment Directorate, with nearly 18 days sickness absence per FTE, is being supported to analyse and tackle this very high absence.

 

Table 18. Reasons for Sick Absence  

4.24     Highest increases in the proportion of absence compared to 2022-23 (NYCC) are Musculo-skeletal problems (+8%), Stress, depression, anxiety and related (+ 6%) and Other (non-specified) (+4%). Stomach, Liver, Kidney and Digestion has decreased by 6%, and Covid absence halved to 3%.

 

4.25     There are several interventions already in place to support the reductions in sickness absence. The HR Shared Service Team make monthly calls to managers to proactively offer support with managing long term absences, and managers receive automated email alert confirming when an employee triggers on long term absence, including support and guidance. Hotspot areas are provided with more intense HR support. There are face to face and online options for manager skills training. 

 

4.26     There are further planned interventions which include more support for managers who have an employee or employees that have triggered on short term absences, and focus at Directorate JCNCs.

 

Table 19. Apprenticeships as at April 2024

 

 

 

Table 20. Monthly Contribution to Apprenticeship Levy (£K)

 

21.       Graduates

NYC currently have 18 graduates on programme at the council. 10 have started since April 2023. A further 3 starts are planned for early 24/25 once they have graduated.

 

 

Table 22. Labour Market Employment % 2022 - 2024

*Note these are the stats for % of individuals claiming out of work benefits (Universal Credit OR former Job Seekers Allowance)

 

4.27     The labour market remains challenging across all sectors and job types with low unemployment and high pressure on agency use, but most vacancies are filled and the ability to recruit and retain in the most challenging professions is improving.

 

Table 23. Recruitment activity

 

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

full year

Adverts

823

856

862

690

3231

Applications

5,218

5,049

3,594

3,644

17,505

New starters

488

714

625

470

2,297

Applications/advert

6.3

5.9

4.1

5.2

5.4

Attraction

1,186,282

1,329,868

1,841,626

1,291,265

5,649,041

Advertising spend

£10,770

£11,351

£11,630

£10,563

£44,314

Cost per hire

£22

£16

£18

£22

Days to hire

31

33

28

29

30

Agency spend

£1,725,903

£1,791,745

£1,392,128

£1,425,309

£6,335,540

Agency FTE

78.4

77.1

59.1

53.4

72.2

International starters

8

7

3

2

20

Care leavers starters

7

9

8

8

32

Supported Internships

3

1

4

4

 

Volunteers

4,478

4456

4348

no data

Volunteer hours

38,170

38,983

42,255

no data

Work experience

9

27

4

1

41

Redeployees

2

9

21

14

 

            Table 24. Agency spend comparable councils 2022 data

Council

Population

2022 Spend

Spend / population

Notes

Staffordshire

846k

£8,629,985

£10.20

Excludes consultants

Somerset

570k

£7,368,336

£12.92

 

Essex

1300k

£12,804,151

£9.80

 

Central Beds

294k

£10,818,438

£36.80

Excluding schools

Shropshire

323k

£12,021,568

£37.21

 

Cumbria

492k

£7,928,681

£16.11

Includes consultants

North Yorkshire

618k

£5,238,605

£8.47

 

Kent

1500k

£26,760,000

£17.84

 

Salford City

270k

£3,702,305

£13.71

Excluding schools

Gloucestershire

290k

£14,135,957

£48.74

 

 

4.28     In 23/24 agency use is high for Care Workers, Educational Psychologists, Social Workers, Planners, Environmental Health, Legal Professionals and Mental Health Assessor* and Best Interest Assessors. Agency spend at £6.3m is £3.7m less than the predicted £10m spend at the being of the year, displaying a significant in year improvement, and continued reduction is expected into 24/25.

*MHAs cannot be directly employed so limited ability to reduce agency spend.

 

Table 25. Hard to fill posts

Job Type

Key Points

Movement

Care Workers

International recruitment and improvement in labour market has improved workforce availability on the sector. Health and Adult Services fully staffed (3% vacancy rate). Reablement more challenging Significant attraction by the Make Care Matter recruitment hub reaching 20,000+ people weekly and working with partners e.g. Health.

Improved

 

 

Social Workers

International recruitment and pipeline of newly qualified SWs will improve staff availability, fully staffed teams within normal vacancy factors. An ongoing need to assess future pipeline and to secure resilient staffing levels. National consultation for children social worker will impact the ability to use agency workers for children services.

Improved

 

 

 

Educational Psychologists

National shortage of Education Psychologists with 83% of Councils reporting significant recruitment challenges, and migration to highly paid agency work. Recruitment and retention has redesigned job profiles, improve attraction of direct NYC employment (direct workforce increased by 70%), appointed 5 international recruits arriving summer to autumn 2024, and future talent through investment in trainees whilst improving professional interest through trading services.

Improved but cautious

 

 

 

Planning:

Newly combined service has redesigned jobs to improve attraction through career diversity and advancement. Successful recruitment in summer 2023 reduced agency workers from 22 to 9. Post restructure in summer 2024 remaining agency workers scheduled to leave and large recruitment exercised planned A focussed recruitment campaign will secure new staff and trainees. The wider reach of the whole county to attract beyond our borders and hybrid working will aid recruitment.

Improved

 

 

26.       International recruitment

Owing to the shortage of social workers locally and nationally a programme to recruit social workers internationally commenced. All 33 recruited have now arrived (22 in adult and 11 in children’s services). Due to the national scarcity of social workers, the successful international recruitment has contributed to achieving a position of having fully staffed social work teams. Owing to the national shortage of care workers, mass international recruitment is widespread in the care sector and has resulted in a significant sector change in 23/24. Availability of staff has significantly improved but has also provided the conditions for labour exploitation. Internally the Council has sponsored 6 care workers (workers already in the UK and transferred from a different visa route), and this is likely to increase. For the first time in over 5 years care and support provider teams are fully staffed.  Reablement teams have higher levels of vacancies but the opportunity to sponsor care workers should meet this need.

 

Table 27. Delivered learning events

 

Table 28. Gender pay gap (NYCC)

 

2022

2023

Mean gender pay gap

9.8%

7.7%

Median gender pay gap

11.7%

8.8%

 

NYCC mean and median gender pay gap reduced between 2022 and 2023. The NYC gender pay gap will be reported for the first time on March 2024 pay data.

 

5.0       Narrative Against People Strategy - Retain Staff

 

5.1       Turnover and reasons for leaving

            Bringing 10,000 employees together from 8 previous councils involved challenge and change for a largely settled and stable workforce. A key measure of success in the last 12 months is a 3% reduction in turnover (from the previous NYCC figure) to a healthy rate of 12% (table 14). While there has been an increase in voluntary leavers, compulsory redundancies and retirements amongst the over 60s (table 15) the small reduction in headcount and FTE (table 1) reflects planned efficiencies in the senior structure, and some normal TUPE movement of teams and services in and out, including into the new Combined Authority.

 

5.2       Contract types

More employees have taken up established full time and part time contracts, offering greater workforce stability (table 5) with slightly more employees benefitting from full time employment rather than part time (table 6). 17% of the workforce is casual enabling employment costs to be managed and a flexible response to seasonal peaks and troughs.

 

5.3       NYC Contracts

At the start of the year 26% of the workforce or 3,141 workers (established employees and casuals) were on terms and conditions that were different to the agreed NYC contracts. This figure has reduced to just 15% or 1605 employees as employees have chosen to move to NYC contracts or been moved as part of a restructure (table 4). The new terms and conditions have been successful in attracting and retaining the established experienced workforce.

 

5.4       Sickness absence

An area of focus for the year ahead is the increased sickness absence rates (tables 16 to 18). Days lost per FTE to sickness absence have increased from 9.3 to 12.5 for the non-schools’ workforce with stress, anxiety, depression and related the highest cause at 28%. This does reflect national trends for increased sickness absence post-Covid and presents both a human and financial cost. The Environment Directorate, with nearly 18 days sickness absence per FTE, is being supported to analyse and tackle this very high absence. There are many interventions in place to support managers to address this.

 

5.5       The HR Shared Service Team make monthly calls to managers to proactively offer support with managing long term absences. Managers are now sent an automated email alert confirming when an employee triggers on long term absence which includes signposted support and guidance. Hotspot areas have been identified with more intense HR support being provided. There are both face to face and online options for manager skills training specifically relating to attendance management.   There are also a number of planned interventions which include the HR Shared Service Team making regular calls to managers who have an employee or employees that have triggered on short term absences. Automated email alerts go to managers confirming when an employee triggers on short term absence which includes signposted support and guidance. The promotion of health and wellbeing discussions at DJCC’s which will include where appropriate, an action plan for the Directorate or specific services. A full review and planned launch of a modernised Attendance Management Policy.

 

5.6       Wellbeing

Due to the creation of the new organisation we needed to raise awareness of health and wellbeing tools available and equip managers to encourage a positive mindset and support resilience. In response, courses in resilience, managing change and mental health were increased to support both staff and managers.   In addition, a new ‘Top tips Tuesday’ library has been developed to raise awareness of manager resources on Viva engage, linked to key activities such as IPM, developing stronger teams as well as values. Service days have provided the opportunity to share a range of manager resources including, wellbeing materials.

 

5.7       Training and Learning

A range of training and learning to help managers and staff in the first year of becoming NYC has been developed including:

·      Senior leader training and development – in support of newly appointed Heads of Service and Assistant Directors, training has been rolled out on a number of practical issues for year one of the new council.  This has covered key corporate functions as well as leading restructures.

·      NYC Leadership Academy - introduced in September 2023. This has given access to leadership training to a wider cohort of employees from those aspiring to a management role, to those who are considered our leaders of the future. Networks, guest speakers, coaching, mentoring and targeted development opportunities are key parts of the new offer.

·      Equality, Diversity and Inclusion – a wide ranging programme of training, targeted at all staff (eLearning package), and in-person training for managers and frontline staff. The programme utilises lived experiences, challenges misconceptions and allows the sharing of ideas and concepts.

·      Team Building – following on from restructures, Training and Learning (T&L) have been involved in working with service areas to develop team building and development days which includes the new vision and values, embedding these into practice. All training interventions have been mapped to NYC new values and behaviours which are threaded throughout content and discussions.

·      Domestic Abuse Training – in support for the Domestic Abuse and Housing Alliance (DAHA) accreditation work, T&L have employed a Senior Training and Learning Officer to deliver Domestic Abuse training to identified staffing groups. This also increases our Safeguarding offer to the workforce.

·      Mental health and resilience training – this has seen an increase in uptake April 2023, and T&L are working with Health Assured and HR colleagues to ensure that staff are signposted to all support available to them.

 

5.8       Work is well underway developing the training matrices for all staffing groups in services, identifying the core training offer for all employees in their role within the council. In addition to that, wider offers of learning and personal development have been made available such as coaching and mentoring.  Through the ‘Multiply’ initiative specifically we have engaged over 140 staff with ‘learn at lunch’ aiming to overcome maths, fears and anxieties through basic bite-sized maths principles. Participants completing the full course looked at fractions, decimals, and percentages.  

 

5.9       2024/25 will see delivery of a targeted course for frontline care workers as a pilot in the Selby area that will combine maths and digital skills, using both Multiply and adult community learning funding that we hope to roll out if successful across the county. This again incentivises participation in the programme by issuing a digital device on completion.

 

5.10     Additional work includes a learn at lunch digital and English offer to commence shortly and ongoing work across service with Adult Learning, T&L, Business Support and Personalised Learning College colleagues that utilises adult learning funding to digitally upskill, (including the use of VR), to understand software packages such as Excel, to offer information advice and guidance and to improve spelling, punctuation and grammar.

 

5.11     Apprenticeships

Work continues to fully explore all apprenticeship opportunities available for both existing and new members of staff and includes the development of an approved provider list to allow easier access to high quality provision delivered across the whole county. More detailed work is also underway to look at how apprenticeships can support career graded/career lattice opportunities and a degree apprenticeship offer for young people who would prefer an alternative route to traditional university education. The number of apprenticeship starts in 23/24 has been excellent and the programme is now fully embedded across all directorate areas with extra support now available to all apprentices with the development of an apprenticeship network including a dedicated communications and networking channel, master classes for further CPD and drop in sessions.

 

6.0       Narrative Against People Strategy - Attraction for all

 

 

6.1       Labour market

The labour market remains challenging across all sectors and job types with low unemployment (table 22) and high pressure on agency use (table 23). The most challenging professions are explained in table 25: Care Workers, Social Workers, Educational Psychologists and Planners. Whilst challenging, most vacancies are filled (table 23) and we have experienced significant improvements in the ability to recruit and retain staff including in these most challenging professions.

 

6.2       Agency workers

2023/24 agency use has been high for Care Workers, Educational Psychologists, Social Workers, Planners, Environmental Health, Legal Professionals and Mental Health Assessor* and Best Interest Assessors. Whilst agency spend is £6.3m, this is £3.7m less than the predicted £10m spend at the being of the year displaying a significant in year improvement, and continued reduction is expected into 24/25. The Council is below local and comparable councils on agency spend (table 24) and the lowest spend per population.

 

*MHAs cannot be directly employed as they are required to be independent, therefore there is limited ability to reduce agency spend.

 

6.3       Age profile

An area of challenge for the current year is to attract younger workers to maintain a healthy age profile. The proportion of the workforce under 25 has dropped (table 10) and the rising numbers of economically inactive young people is a national problem. Graduates are being viewed as a key part of the talent mix for the workforce in an effort to grow our own and encourage young people into NYC. The council have been successful in retaining 8 Graduate Trainees into permanent employment within the council during 23/24.

 

6.4       As a larger percentage of our workforce is considered to be “older”, we need to explore opportunities to ensure this group of employees are provided with relevant resources, information and education to allow them to age well at work. This corresponds with recognition that our workforce is multi-generational, with at least four generations working together sharing their views and expectations.  The largest proportion of the workforce being in the ‘baby boomers’ generation and generation ‘x’ whilst the smallest proportion of the workforce being generations ‘y’ and ‘z’. This is a longer-term priority for the council, supporting our colleagues at different life stages and understanding generational differences, whilst recognising the importance of succession planning, knowledge transfer and our future workforce requirements.

 

6.5       Graduates and apprentices form part of the solution for growing our own talent and addressing workforce pressures. Services are being supported to identify where apprentices and graduates can play a key role for both individual and service gain. Having multiple entry level points and career progression pathways as a key feature of all service restructures will enable our future workforce resilience and enable our grow your own approach. Likewise, we are keen to explore opportunities for our existing internal staff and their mobility across the workforce enabling re-skilling across professions through apprenticeships and learning and development.   

 

6.6       International recruitment

Due to the national scarcity of social workers, tables 23 and 26 set out the successful international recruitment that has contributed to achieving a position of having fully staffed social work teams. Owing to the national shortage of care workers, mass international recruitment is widespread in the care sector and has resulted in a significant sector change in 23/24. Whilst availability of staff has significantly improved, it has also provided the conditions for labour exploitation which is a growing concern and there is a growing number of employers who are having their sponsorship licence and ability to recruit international workers revoked as they are not meeting their legal responsibilities. The Council’s Make Care Matter Recruitment Hub is providing support to workers that are displaced to help them find new sponsors locally to support a sustainable labour market.

 

6.7       Internally the Council has sponsored 6 care workers (these workers were already in the UK and transferred from a different visa route). This is likely to increase owing to the labour market changes.  The Council for the first time in over 5 years have fully staffed care and support provider teams (vacancy factor at normal 3% levels) and whilst reablement teams have higher levels of vacancies the opportunity to sponsor care workers is predicted to meet this need.

 

6.8       The Yorkshire Humber region was awarded £1.38m of the £15m national fund for international recruitment to the Care Sector. The region used the funding to support care providers with navigating the complexity of international recruitment and ethically recruit, providing £3k match funded bursaries whilst the final processes are to be concluded it is likely that c390 bursaries will have been allocated. Year 2 funding is to be announced and is likely to change focus to supporting workers who have been displaced as a result of their employers having their sponsorship licence revoked and who require a new sponsor to remain in the UK.

 

6.9       Hybrid working

Hybrid working has become an essential attraction tool. The hybrid working policy is now established and supported by additional resources: team checklist, hybrid working toolkit, and FAQS for managers and employees, supported by the launch of hybrid working webinars for managers. As teams come together and the new structure is embedded, managers are regularly encouraged to review their team checklists and keep conversations going, ensuring appropriate fit with service delivery to customers.  Managers are also encouraged to discuss individual arrangements in 121 and appraisal (IPM) conversations. Due to North Yorkshire’s age demographics, continuing to offer hybrid working arrangements plays an important role in attracting all talent from outside of the North Yorkshire region and including those under 25.

 

6.10     Staff recognition

Recognising our first year as a new council, preparations have commenced for staff celebration awards which will be based on our values and behaviours “IACT”. This event will take place at the end of the calendar year (2024).

 

7.0       Narrative Against People Strategy - Engage and listen

 

7.1       People Strategy

To embed the People Strategy at a directorate level, People Strategy groups have been set up in each of the Directorates. The groups are identifying service specific people strategy actions, to be owned and delivered at a local level by directorates, with regular updates to leadership teams.

 

7.2       Engagement

In collaboration with the communications team, a programme of council wide engagements provided a co-ordinated approach to sharing information, seeking feedback, and hosting face to face sessions bringing people together for discussion across the new council.  This includes supporting and planning for CEX roadshows for managers, connecting colleagues at senior manager events, responding to webinar feedback and questions, and preparing for future middle manager events. Quarter 3 saw several corporate engagement events led by CEX such as senior managers seminar and manager events. As part of regular engagement with staff, all colleagues’ webinars continued, and in addition “coffee and chat” style focus groups with the Chief Executive took place in Harrogate, Scarborough and Northallerton, there will be further sessions arranged for other locations. Directorate and service engagement events have also taken place across the organisation.

 

7.3       Manager support

Support resources continued to be developed and promoted throughout the year including the change toolkit and managers pocketbook. The ‘managers information’ intranet page has been further developed in response to managers feedback, supporting middle managers by drawing together key resources for their role and the ‘employee lifecycle’.

 

7.4       NY1000

As part of continued employee engagement, NY1000 volunteers have been given the opportunity to be involved and share ideas on several projects, including the Change toolkit, internet and intranet testing, development of the managers intranet page and the values and behaviours toolkit. Their engagement has allowed improvements to be made where appropriate, capturing views from a range of perspectives.

 

7.5       Leavers: knowledge transfer

Following a successful pilot scheme, the knowledge transfer toolkit for people leaving the organisation has now been rolled out to all, with the purpose of ensuring that information is seen as an organisational asset and is retained within the council to safeguard smooth and efficient business continuity.

 

7.6       Equality, Diversity, Inclusion

Developments for equality, diversity and inclusion saw the introduction of an Inclusion forum, to bring people together in a collaborative effort to promote and embed our Council values, share experiences, and drive positive change across the Council.  Engagement continues to take place with employee networks (Value in Racial Diversity, Disabled Employee Network, Pride network) alongside the Gender Equality Forum. Regular communications about employee networks and support groups resulted in a growth in membership across the year.  Specific events such as the Community Iftar shared meal that took place during Ramadan, hosted by the Value in Racial Diversity network, allowed for our staff community to come together to build understanding across different cultures, backgrounds and identities. Data from equality declarations remains low and a campaign to increase completion and gain better understanding of the workforce is a priority for the council going forward.

 

7.7       Wellbeing

Workforce Wellbeing resources continue to be available and accessed on the intranet, with increased views over the year.  There has also been an increase in participation in employee wellbeing support groups via viva engage and MS Teams. There are currently 13 employee wellbeing support groups in place across a range of topics. The highest levels of interactions were seen in menopause, working carers and long covid groups during Q3 whilst ‘The World Mental Health Day’ was the second most viewed communication.

 

7.8       Staff Survey

Preparation for the full staff survey continues and is planned to take place during Q1 2024/25.  Engagement has been undertaken with stakeholders, including NY1000, and the approach and questions were approved by management board during Q4. The survey will help understand employees experience, satisfaction levels, whilst identifying positive and/or challenging activities across the organisation as well as areas for improvement.

 

7.9       Terms and Conditions

            An area of focus for the year ahead is to review the terms and conditions agreed for NYC to ensure they are fit for purpose and affordable for all services. A series of working groups, comprising HR, Managers and Finance, are working in conjunction with the recognised trade union Unison, to review those terms and conditions that have been identified by services as needing further consideration.  The employee benefits platform is due to be reprocured during the coming year to ensure the best range of non-pay benefits for employees, whilst also generating traded income and allowing employees and the employer to benefit from tax and NI savings.

 

8.0       Narrative Against People Strategy - Establish One Council

 

8.1       Council Culture

Our People Strategy (PS) was officially launched in September 2023 supported by ‘Our Shared Commitment’ which is our ‘plan on a page’ approach. The IACT design for our values was developed with the Council’s branding presenting a single visual image that anchors the development of one council culture, with opportunity to triangulate delivery via the intranet as our core communication route, the external website for recruiting and new colleagues joining the organisation, as well as hard copy format in staff workplaces.

 

8.2       As far as practicable all employees are working to a single set of policies and systems, with some exceptions for TUPE protected terms and conditions. The Individual Performance Management (IPM) policy (appraisal) has been updated and guidance and support for managers rolled out.  In support, managers IPM webinars on objective setting were held in the first quarter with a high level of attendance, followed by interactive webinars in the third quarter to prepare and guide managers through the end of year appraisal process and pay progression. All roles across all former councils were reviewed in the first quarter of the year, to ensure equal pay for work of equal value. Around 50% of the jobs in former districts and boroughs were reviewed and evaluated to enable employees to choose to move to the NYC pay grades should they wish. The remaining roles are being evaluated as part of planned service restructures.

 

8.3       Resources

            To support embedding our values, behaviours and leadership principles a toolkit was developed and launched, containing resources and activities for both employees and managers. Resources for employees and managers include the ‘Bringing our values and behaviours to life’ document with examples of positive behaviours, a one-to-one template and a values and behaviours video. Working with NY1000, employee led focus groups supported the creation of these resources. These resources were developed to help bring our values to life, lay out expectations and support managers with embedding them with their teams as teams come together, especially following restructures.

 

8.4       All Leadership and Management development training has been mapped to our values, behaviours, and leadership principles to help embed them and start to establish the new council culture. This supports several actions within the People Strategy.

 

8.5       Chief Executive events

            A series of in-person manager events run by the Chief Executive were held. These events set out expectations, covered key issues and areas of responsibility, as well as looked at the challenges the council face and the critical role managers’ play in contributing to the council’s success. In addition, this was an opportunity for networking between managers across the organisation. These events provided an excellent opportunity to induct managers into the new council, and 609 managers attended these sessions.

 

8.6       A programme of organisational culture sessions has been planned and agreed at management board to further support development of our one council culture.  This is a priority for the year ahead and engagement has commenced with senior and middle managers followed by delivery of a series of masterclasses.

 

9.0       CONCLUSION

 

9.1       The first year of North Yorkshire Council has been challenging for the workforce and managers but a great deal of progress has been made on the path to a single modern council. Restructure of the senior team has been followed by service restructures which are continuing into the first half of 2024-25. There has been a great deal of learning in the year and there is much still to be done but the workforce has remained stable and engaged in a period of challenge and change.

 

10.0     NYC RESTRUCTURES AND REDUNDANCIES

 

10.1     On 1 April 2023 around 3000 people TUPE transferred to NYC from the previous 7 district and borough councils (NYCC was the continuing authority and therefore no requirement for TUPE transfer of staff). 

 

10.2     Prior to 1 April 2023, tiers 1-3 (CEX, Management Board and Assistant Directors) of the structure were appointed to commence 1 April 2023.  Previous updates have been provided to members on this, however to recap the table below shows the number of posts reduced as a result, totalling 28.

 

Description

Pre LGR Total

(all 8 councils)

NYC

Posts saved

CEX

8

1

7

Mgt Board

32

8

24

AD's

25

28

-3

TOTALS

65

37

28

 

10.3     The cost savings from those 28 posts (basic salary) is around £2.3m, at a cost (redundancy, pension and exits of £1.5m)

 

10.4     From April through to October, restructures took place at Head of Service Level (tier 4), and previous reports provided to members show a reduction in 32 posts, saving around £2.4m.

 

Tier

Description

Pre LGR Total

(all 8 councils)

NYC

Posts saved

Savings

Costs

4

HofS

159

127

32

c £ 2.4m

£0.25m

 

10.5     Since October service areas have compiled business cases to restructure the rest of their service.  This has been an extensive exercise and to date around 2000 have been engaged in consultation.  Unison have been engaged throughout and have had a positive contribution on the success of the restructures.  The majority of services have completed and gone live with their new structures but there are still some ongoing in 2024, these include Customer, Revenue and Benefits, Transformation, Human Resources and Business Support. 

 

10.6     Redundancies as a result of the restructures since April 2023 to end of May 2024 are currently at 18 (actually left the council).  This is a total cost of £1.25m (Redundancy £329k and Pension strain cost £933k) This is a relatively small number, and savings have been manged proactively through vacancy management as we went into LGR.

 

10.7     As at the date of publication of the report there are a further potential 10 redundancies, those staff affected are on redeployment during their notice period.  If these progress to redundancy this is a further costs of around £549k (Redundancy payments £143k and pension strain £388k)

 

10.8     The savings from deleting just the posts where staff have been made redundant to date totals £702k (excluding on costs). The overall savings from restructures will be mapped through service plans.

 

10.9     There were redundancies of the previous Chief Executive prior to 1 April 2023, across 6 of the councils.  Scarborough’s CEX was covered by acting up arrangements and NYCC CEX became CEX at NYC so no redundancy.  For reference these were paid from previous district and borough councils and NYC were not involved.

 

10.10   Costs of Redundancy and pension strain was £806k (Redundancy £390k and pension strain £416k).  The salaries of CEX’s at the previous 7 councils totalled £849k (before on costs) so an ongoing saving.

 

10.11   Other redundancies/exits were agreed at Hambleton prior to the new council.  Four senior staff, in addition to the CEX detailed above, left on 31 March 2023.  As reported in Hambleton Financial Accounts the compensation for loss of office for these four senior managers totalled £815,814.   

 

11.0     FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

 

11.1     There are no implications.

 

12.0     LEGAL IMPLICATIONS

 

12.1     There are no implications.

 

13.0     EQUALITIES IMPLICATIONS

           

13.1     There are no implications.

 

14.0     CLIMATE CHANGE IMPLICATIONS

           

14.1     There are no implications.

 

15.0     REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS

 

15.1     This is an exciting time as we build the new council through its workforce to be able to deliver the services set in the council plan.

 

 16.0

RECOMMENDATION  

 

 16.1

Members are asked to note and comment on the report.

 

 

APPENDICES: None

             

BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS: None

 

 

Trudy Forster

Assistant Chief Executive (Business Support)

County Hall

Northallerton

 

29 May 2024

 

Report Author – Emily Wren, Senior HR Advisor

Presenter of Report – Trudy Foster, Assistant Chief Executive       

 

Note: Members are invited to contact the author in advance of the meeting with any detailed queries or questions.