Concerns raised at level of town hall staffing
CONCERNS about Rossendale council staffing levels, ongoing home-working and staff response levels to households and councillors have been raised at a scrutiny meeting.
The borough council’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee raised a series of questions about staffing arrangements at their latest meeting with some of the council’s top officers and managers.
A report to the committee said 46 people had left Rossendale council in a recent three-month period. Of those, 25 left on a voluntary basis, 11 had come to the end of temporary contracts and some others had been on the government-backed Kick-start work experience programme.
Conservative Coun Granville Morris asked a series of workforce questions. He began by asking how many people currently worked for the council.
Human resources manager Clare Law said: “There are between 160 and 180 full-time employees. It depends on various factors. We took on some temporary workers during Covid. It’s currently down to the 160-mark.”
Coun Morris then said: “The number of 46 (departures) is high for one quarter. It’s a bit worrying. The report has tried to reflect the reasons why. There has obviously been a massive impact with Covid, which was national. Some matters related to illness but the majority of people left for career progression. Is morale reasonably good at the moment? Could that be a reason why people are leaving? Also, we are told unemployment is at its lowest nationally for 40 or 50 years. Is that why we have difficulty recruiting?”
Mrs Law replied: “We do an exit poll when someone leaves and we do ask about staff morale. But morale has not been raised as a reason that I’m aware of. Various reasons have been given. We have got an aged workforce with retirements. Some people have moved for career progression. We also have some challenges in recruiting due to the salaries which councils can pay compared to the private sector.”
She added: “We have flexible working for staff.
“They can work from home if it’s more productive. Years ago, people wanted to work for councils because they offered flexible working and good pensions. Now, flexibility is being offered more widely. We still have good pensions but councils are struggling to recruit. It’s not just us. Ribble Valley, Pendle, Hyndburn and Preston councils are all experiencing it. We have to promote vacancies three times to get an applicant.”
Coun Morris then asked: “Is Rossendale council still encouraging working from home? The national picture seems to be that we want people to come back to the office.
“Do we still get the best from our staff? The government says people should be returning to their original place of work. We had reasons to work from home previously, but now we are all supposed to be safer.
“There are pro-rata arrangements for office working but is it professional and achievable to deliver what we need to the public? Should we be coming back to the office?”
Ms Law said: “A maximum of two days per week at home is allowed, depending on the job. If someone is working on a really big job where they would be more productive at home, they might be allowed more than two days of home-working a week. The boundaries between home and the office are blurring.”
Mandy Lewis, Rossendale council’s director of economic development, said: “If the council shifted to 100 per cent office working, we would be in a diminishing pool for recruitment. We are being flexible and creative. The human resources system here is trying to achieve that.
“I think our arrangement is a good position. If we became draconian with 100 per cent office-based working then it’d be more difficult to recruit. I had one person recently who turned down a job here because they’d been offered three days of home-working from another employer. There are different considerations for staff who work directly with customers, but there’s no evidence that where they work is diminishing the service given.”
However, Coun Morris said: “I hear about difficulties from residents about the time it takes to contact staff and officers.
“In the early days of the pandemic, we got quite good responses. But lately, people say they’re not getting through to the right people. I’ve had that experience too. When I leave a message, it’s 50-50 whether some people come back to me. I’m worried that we are losing information about people contacting us.”
Committee chairwoman Labour Coun Janice Johnson said: “We should action that subject as something to look at.”