Agenda item

Report of the Chief Executive attached.

The Council considered a report of the Chief Executive that provided an update on progress made against the recommendations from the LGA Peer review from 2017 and revisit in March 2018. The report also addressed the recommendations recently made by the Council’s External Auditors, Grant Thornton PLC, that was concluded with the Annual Audit of the Statement of Accounts for 2017/18.

The External Auditors had issued a statutory recommendation for the Council to set out how it progressed with its implementation of the LGA findings and Council were asked to note the actions contained within the report and Action Plan.

It was moved by Councillor Mary Green, seconded by Councillor Caroline Moon and

RESOLVED: (Yes 43, Absteined 1)

That:

1.    The recommendation made by the External Auditor be accepted.

2.    That the completed actions implemented following the recommendations made following the LGA Corporate Peer Review be noted; and

3.    A formal response be provided to the External Auditors advising that all actions recommended within the original Peer Review, and Peer Review revisit have been actioned, are either complete, or are currently in implementation.

Councillor Paul Foster commented that this was a significant moment for the Council and argued that the Leader was struggling to defend the progress made since the Peer Review of the organisation had taken place, stating that in his opinion the current situation of the Council was not good.

Councillor Paul Foster stated that in 2007, the Authority had been rated fourth best in the country. Since 2015 the Council had witnessed three Chief Executives, four Council Leaders and 7, soon to be 8, Chief Finance Officers, with the Council just having received an unprecedented qualified value for money conclusion for the third year running. Above all, staff morale was at an all-time low, with no confidence in senior management, there were reports of over 65 staff having left the authority over a 14 month period, high sickness levels and an avalanche of complaints to union officials with growing momentum over the past few months. The Leader of the Opposition, strongly supported by his Group, asked the administration to look into the situation as a matter of urgency.

Dion Baugh, Regional Officer (Unison) stated that she fully supported the comments made by Councillor Foster around staff morale and requested an urgent meeting with the Leader to discuss the issues.

The Leader agreed to the meeting but reported that it had been her understanding that relations with staff was improving and that she had been informed of an officer group that had been set-up to deal specifically with staff concerns. The Council was currently in the process of undertaking a considerable transformation programme and there had been many changes in working practices that would need time to embed and for staff to adjust to.

She went on to thank staff for the work that they did for the Council and appreciated that they were doing their best in difficult circumstances. Gateway had just achieved an award and a recent customer satisfaction survey had revealed that 84% of customers had reported high customer satisfaction. Admittedly, calls had been taking longer to get through due to the increase in demand for certain services, but the implementation of a new Digital Strategy would commence shortly that would help to alleviate some of the problems.

Mark Hodges – Branch Secretary (Unison) spoke in support of staff at the Authority. Explaining that many of the staff were unhappy with current conditions at the Council and were leaving in droves. People didn’t want to leave, they just felt that they had no choice, ultimately they wanted something to be done to improve the situation.

Alison Hardman - Communications Officer (Unison) told the Council that many Managers had left, taking with them a wealth of experience and knowledge that had left massive gaps for junior members of staff to fill. As a consequence many officers were taking on additional roles and responsibility and were feeling overwhelmed and overworked.

RESOLVED:

That the Leader would meet with UNISON officials to progress staff concerns.