Agenda item

(Cabinet Member with Special Responsibility Councillor Roger Mace)

 

Report of the Chief Executive.

(Cabinet Member with Special Responsibility Councillor Mace)

 

The Chief Executive submitted a report asking Cabinet to consider the funding of the employee establishment.

 

The options, options analysis, including risk assessment, were set out in the report as follows:

 

Option 1 - That the status quo is maintained (as set out in paragraph 1.2 above)

 

Option 2 - That Cabinet identifies which Service areas are considered to be a lower priority for the filling of vacancies.  In doing so, Cabinet should consider the Council’s statutory responsibilities, Corporate Plan and Service Business Plan priorities and to what extent particular posts are externally funded. Having identified which Service areas are considered to be a lower priority, there is an expectation that only Cabinet could approve the funding required to fill any vacancies which occur within these Service areas during the remainder of this financial year.  Cabinet would need to determine whether this is a decision to be taken at a Cabinet meeting or delegated to Portfolio Holders.

 

Option 3 - That all vacancies which occur in those Service areas which are discretionary rather than statutory are referred to Cabinet to consider whether the funding should be provided for those posts to be filled within these Service areas during the remainder of the financial year.  A high level summary of statutory and non-statutory service activities for each Service is attached at Appendix A.  As above, Cabinet would need to determine whether this would be a decision of full Cabinet or delegated to Portfolio Holders.

 

Option 4 - Combined with options 4.2 or 4.3 above, Cabinet could decide that all vacancies go through an internal only recruitment exercise prior to a decision on external recruitment.

 

Option 5 - Combined with any of the options above, Cabinet could require any consideration of funding agency, contractor or consultants as an alternative to direct employment to be formally considered either by individual Cabinet portfolio holders or full Cabinet.

 

Officer Preferred Option (and comments)

 

The preferred Officer option is Option 2.

 

Councillor Mace tabled his recommendations, including the comments of the Head of the Paid Service and Section 151 Officer Comments, as follows:

 

That Cabinet

 

(1)                           Notes the recent agreement of the Leaders of the Conservative, Green, Independent, Labour and Liberal Democrat Groups that in present circumstances of the credit crunch and impending recession the City Council should be giving reassurances to local people that:-

 

·          Everything possible will be done to maintain essential services

·          There is a recognition that local taxpayers are unlikely to be in a  position to fund extra services from additions to Council Tax

 

                  …and resolves to introduce a presumption that staffing vacancies are not filled, in place of the current presumption that vacancies are filled.

 

(2)                           Notes the responsibility of Cabinet for the funding of the employee establishment and until further notice, determines to withdraw funding in respect of all posts becoming vacant below the level of Service Head, subject to the outcome of 3 below.

 

(3)                           Requests that the Chief Executive, upon any post becoming vacant, submits an appropriate form to Cabinet for its consideration, to determine if the funding of the post is considered essential for delivering the Council corporate priorities/statutory responsibilities.

 

(4)                           Requests the Chief Executive to develop the appropriate internal procedures to manage this process.

 

(5)                           Resolves that this process be reviewed following the next annual Council meeting in May 2009.

 

(6)                           Requests officers to review the effectiveness of existing Human Resources policies relevant to managing the Council’s establishment and workforce planning issues.

 

(7)                           Authorises the Head of Financial Services to update the Revenue Budgets for any post reductions as a result of 2 and 3 above.

 

Comments of the Head of the Paid Service:

 

If it is intended to review HR policies during the current financial year it will be necessary to either put the Fairpay process on hold for a further 3 months or to provide additional resources to undertake such a review. I could not recommend putting the Fairpay process on hold for a further 3 months.

 

Section 151 Officer comments:

 

The Financial Regulations require “that an appropriate staffing strategy and policy exists, in which staffing requirements and budget allocations are matched”. This control is in context of there being an annual planning and budget setting process.

 

Very broadly, the above is in line with that control, but as an interim measure whilst the Council updates its priorities and budget targets for 2009/10 onwards.

 

It was then moved by Councillor Mace and seconded by Councillor Charles:-

 

“That Cabinet

 

(1)               Notes the recent agreement of the Leaders of the Conservative, Green, Independent, Labour and Liberal Democrat Groups that in present circumstances of the credit crunch and impending recession the City Council should be giving reassurances to local people that:-

 

·                      Everything possible will be done to maintain essential services

·                      There is a recognition that local taxpayers are unlikely to be in a  position to fund extra services from additions to Council Tax

 

…and resolves to introduce a presumption that staffing vacancies are not filled, in place of the current presumption that vacancies are filled.

 

(2)               Notes the responsibility of Cabinet for the funding of the employee establishment and until further notice, determines to withdraw funding in respect of all posts becoming vacant, apart from Refuse Collection or where a service is facing severe disruption where temporary arrangements be put in place. It should be noted that health and safety is a priority and supersedes all other requirements. This is all subject to the outcome of (3) below.

 

(3)               Requests that the Chief Executive, upon any post becoming vacant, submits an appropriate form to Cabinet for its consideration to determine if the filling of the post is considered essential for delivering the Council priorities/statutory responsibilities.

 

(4)               Requests the Chief Executive to develop the appropriate internal procedures to manage this process.

 

(5)               Resolves that this process be reviewed following the next annual Council meeting in May 2009.

 

(6)               Requests officers to review the effectiveness of existing Human Resources policies relevant to managing the Council’s establishment and workforce planning issues.

 

(7)               Authorises the Head of Financial Services to update the Revenue Budgets for any post reductions as a result of 2 and 3 above.

 

(8)               Asks for a report identifying the costs of implementing Recommendation 6.”

 

By way of an amendment, Councillor Barry proposed, and Councillor Fletcher seconded, the following changes to recommendations 2 and 3:-

 

“(2)      Notes the responsibility of Cabinet for the funding of the employee establishment and until further notice, determines to withdraw funding in respect of all posts becoming vacant subject to the outcome of (3) below.

 

(3)               Requests that Directors determine if the filling of a post is considered essential for delivering the Council priorities/statutory responsibilities. If not, to put through to Cabinet for consideration.”

 

Members voted on the amendment:-

 

 

 

Resolved:

 

(4 Members (Councillors Barry, Burns, Fletcher and Gilbert) voted in favour, 5 Members (Councillors Blamire, Bryning, Charles, Kerr and Mace) voted against and 1 Member (Councillor Archer) abstained)

 

Members then voted as follows on the original proposition:-

 

Resolved:

 

(5 Members (Blamire, Bryning, Charles, Kerr and Mace) voted in favour, 4 Members (Councillors Barry, Burns, Fletcher and Gilbert) voted against and 1 Member (Councillor Archer) abstained)

 

That Cabinet

 

(1)               Notes the recent agreement of the Leaders of the Conservative, Green, Independent, Labour and Liberal Democrat Groups that in present circumstances of the credit crunch and impending recession the City Council should be giving reassurances to local people that:-

 

·                Everything possible will be done to maintain essential services

·                There is a recognition that local taxpayers are unlikely to be in a  position to fund extra services from additions to Council Tax

 

            …and resolves to introduce a presumption that staffing vacancies are not filled, in place of the current presumption that vacancies are filled.

 

(2)               Notes the responsibility of Cabinet for the funding of the employee establishment and until further notice, determines to withdraw funding in respect of all posts becoming vacant, apart from Refuse Collection or where a service is facing severe disruption where temporary arrangements be put in place. It should be noted that health and safety is a priority and supersedes all other requirements. This is all subject to the outcome of (3) below.

 

(3)               Requests that the Chief Executive, upon any post becoming vacant, submits an appropriate form to Cabinet for its consideration to determine if the filling of the post is considered essential for delivering the Council priorities/statutory responsibilities.

 

(4)               Requests the Chief Executive to develop the appropriate internal procedures to manage this process.

 

(5)               Resolves that this process be reviewed following the next annual Council meeting in May 2009.

 

(6)               Requests officers to review the effectiveness of existing Human Resources policies relevant to managing the Council’s establishment and workforce planning issues.

 

(7)               Authorises the Head of Financial Services to update the Revenue Budgets for any post reductions as a result of 2 and 3 above.

 

(8)               Asks for a report identifying the costs of implementing Recommendation 6.

 

Officers responsible for effecting the decision:

 

Chief Executive

Head of Legal and Human Resources

Head of Financial Services

 

Reasons for making the decision:

 

The decision is taken in light of the present circumstances of the “credit crunch” and impending recession and removes the delegated decision making to fill employee vacancies away from Service Heads to Cabinet.