Cabinet Member: Councillor
Peredur Jenkins
To consider the report of the Cabinet Member Resources (attached).
11.40am – 12.40pm
Minutes:
Everyone introduced themselves.
The Cabinet
Member set the context and the Head of the Corporate Support Department added
that the Council took its duty of care seriously at all times and did
everything to promote the support that was available among the workforce.
Submitted – the report of the Cabinet Member
for Resources, detailing the provision for supporting and assisting staff in a
period of cuts to services and major changes to the way that services were
provided by responding to the Preparatory Meeting's questions in relation to:-
·
The
Council's best current assessment of the number of staff that could be affected
by the cuts and the efficiency savings.
·
The
Council's strategy for preparing the workforce for the cuts and supporting them
during the process, together with arrangements in terms of moving staff within
the Council and finding other opportunities within the Council.
·
Emotional
support for staff who were facing job losses.
·
Arrangements
with other agencies for identifying staff's skills and redeploying staff with
other agencies.
·
Any
ongoing work, or projects in the pipeline, to support current staff to
establish their own businesses in order to meet the requirements for new /
different provision.
·
Any
assessment conducted regarding stress on remaining staff, and its conclusions.
·
Any
steps taken for starting to prepare to support staff for the next
reorganisation.
The Cabinet Member and officers expanded on
the written responses in the report, and also responded to further questions /
observations from the members in relation to:-
·
Concern
that jobs could disappear before other opportunities arose.
·
The need to predict longer term opportunities and
opportunities to retrain.
·
The
fact that the situation was not going to improve and that it was always local services
that were hit.
·
That
the Council took the work of supporting and assisting seriously and that it had
already helped individuals to remain in employment.
·
The
need to support the remaining staff in the face of the increased pressure that
they would be under and the fact that it could be difficult for those staff to
have the time to attend training sessions.
·
The
importance of links with the Economy and Community Department in terms of
advising people who were leaving the Council's services and were keen to
establish their own business, etc.
·
The
precursory dialogue before considering any redundancies.
·
Difficulty
relocating staff in some cases due to the rural nature of the county.
·
The
continuation of the appeals procedure and the number of likely cases.
In his closing comments, the Head of the
Corporate Support Department noted that the Council's provision in the field of
promoting the health and well-being of its staff had been recognised on a
national level. The Council had been judged as a gold level organisation in
terms of its corporate health and in April of last year, the Council had been
invited to give a presentation on its work in the field at a national
conference in London.
The Chairman
summarised the main messages of the discussion as follows:-
·
Accept
the report and give thanks for the support that was being offered.
·
Monitor
the situation as the effects of cuts become apparent during the next few
months.
The Cabinet Member and the officers were
thanked for all their work and for the discussion.
At the end of the meeting, the Chairman asked the officers to
investigate the possibility of moving the preparatory meeting on 6 January from
the afternoon to the morning in order to facilitate holding a meeting of the
Holidays Homes and Taxes Scrutiny Investigation in the afternoon, and also
moving the 4 February and 14 March meetings of this committee to the afternoon,
if possible.
Supporting documents: