Staffing Matters and Urgency Committee	2 October 2023
Report of the Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development

Workforce Profile as at Quarter 1 2023/2024

Summary

1. This report provides the Staffing Matters and Urgency Committee (SMUC) with the workforce profile, covering the period of 1 April 2023 to 30 June 2023 (Quarter 1).

Background

2. The data provided in this report is already available throughout the Council. The workforce data provided through the performance framework, is shared with Scrutiny committees, and discussed at both Corporate Management Team and Directorate Management Teams.

Analysis

3. Annexe 1 gives a full overview of key performance indicators directly linked to the Council’s workforce.

4. Headcount, FTE, and leavers rates are all relatively comparable with the position in Q1 last year, although there are notable figures in dismissals associated with contracts ending and sadly a number of employees have died in service within Q1. Resignation remains the highest reason for leaving followed by retirement. Resignations continue to remain in line with regional figures and despite financial challenges around the region and nationally there continues to be vacancies advertised providing new opportunities, promotions, and career changes for staff to apply. Turnover figures remain relatively static.

5. Work with York (WWY) assignments have continued to be used, but have significantly reduced, agency placements are falling month on month as the Council seeks to make permanent appointments or reduce agency spend. Notable reductions are in Children’s and Adult Social care who now have a much more stable and permanent workforce for the benefit of our service users.

6. There are a number of vacancies that remain unfilled and acting up arrangements are in place with existing members of staff and HR are working with relevant managers to ensure creative recruitment for hard to fill vacancies.

7. Sickness absence figures are starting to fall slowly. The Council does have several employees who are long term sickness cases with terminal illness, for these employees we explore ill health retirement options, but employee absence continues to be part of the absence figures, this may in some cases distort absence figures in some directorates. The Local Government Association (LGA) has published that they propose to set up a benchmarking survey on key workforce statistics for Councils and it is understood that this will include absence; this will not however, dictate how sickness is calculated so there will continue to be variances so direct comparisons will be difficult. We are currently preparing for the next employee survey which will include a focus on well being and this can be reported accordingly and compared with absence reasons.

8. COVID-19 and respiratory absences have reduced in Q1, stress is the highest absence reason. Managers are equipped with tools to support employees with stress and every effort is made to tailor support accordingly.

9.     In terms of equalities profiling, the workforce gender and age distribution remain largely comparable year on year. Similarly, the declaration of sexual orientation and disability remains steady as does those employees declaring BME. Noting that over 19% of staff have not provided information for Disability and Ethnicity and over 32% for sexual orientation.

10.     We continue to promote and request that employees update their sensitive information (for example disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation) status to allow us to have a closer comparison with our local community.

11.     In practical terms we are also working to ensure that our recruitment opportunities are sent to a wide range of community groups to attract and ensure that these are promoted to as many areas as possible of our community. We are also going to undertake a calculation similar to the gender pay gap on the data that we hold on ethnicity and disability with the caveat that this can only be based on the data that we hold but hopefully promotion and awareness can encourage future completion.

Consultation

12.    The contents of the report and Annex have not been consulted on as the data is factual and already available through different sources.

Council Plan

13. The content of the report and annex are not material to the Council Plan but are valuable information to contribute to relevant workforce data evidence and the profile of the workforce has been included in the Council Plan 2023-2027.

Implications and risks

14. There are no implications or risks associated with this report.

Risk Management

Recommendations

15. Staffing Matters and Urgency Committee is asked to:

i. Note the workforce profile provided.

Reason: In order to provide an overview of the workforce profile.

Contact Details

Authors:	Chief Officer Responsible for the report:
Helen Whiting, Head of HR and OD Ext 1622 Ian Cunningham Head of BI Ext 5749	Ian Floyd Chief Operating Officer
	Report Approved	b	Date     12/9/2023
Specialist Implications Officer(s):
Wards Affected: List wards or tick box to indicate all				All	b
For further information please contact the author of the report

Background Papers:

None

Annexes

Annexe 1 – Workforce Data 2023/2024 Quarter 1