Agenda, decisions and minutes

Apologies for non-attendance were received from Councillors Anup Pandey and Russell Roberts.

The Chair invited those who wished to do so to declare any interests in respect of items on the agenda.

No declarations of interest were made.

There were no requests to address the meeting.

The minutes of the meeting held on 11 June 2024 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The Executive Director of Place and Economy provided an update on the issue raised on self-repairing roads.  He advised that the issue had been raised with the Council’s contractor, Kier, who would be liaising with their wider organisation at looking at possible trials within the wider group.  Kier would keep us informed on the outcome of familiarisation tests.

RESOLVED:

(i)               The Corporate Scrutiny Committee scrutinises the draft Workforce Strategy in around six months.

(ii)              That the Council examine ways of investing in our people to fill “hard to fill” posts to enable us to become an employer of choice and by pursuing Investor in People status.

(iii)             To receive an update in 12 months to examine how our use of agency staff has progressed.

The Chair welcomed Brad Sinclair and Selena Ayling from OPUS People Solutions to the meeting.  A presentation was given on who OPUS were and how they worked with the Council.  The key points of the presentation were:

•      OPUS was a joint venture partnership of which North Northamptonshire Council, West Northamptonshire Council and the Children’s Trust were partners in.

•      OPUS was a wholly owned Local Authority Trading Company, owned by Suffolk County Council and established in 2014.

•      They had grown significantly since 2014 and operated across a number of regions, offering temporary and permanent recruitment, supply teaching and people solutions.

•      They had generated income of c£3m for their public sector shareholders and partners.

•      There had been reduced council agency spend, realising savings of more than £40m and reduced active temporary workers by 18.6% in the last three years.

•      The local government recruitment market was currently difficult with 94% of council leaders surveyed saying that they were experience recruitment and retention difficulties, with 905 of councils experiencing at least one capability skills gap.

•      It was better to work in strategic partnership and create a workforce strategy to reduce reliance on agency workers.

•      The Council’s highest spend on agency staff during 2023/24 had been within Children’s Services, Adults Services and Place and Economy.

During discussion on the presentation, the following key points were made:

i.        Members asked of the Assistant Director of Human Resources whether the Council had an agreed Workforce Strategy in place.  The Assistant Director advised that a Strategy was being developed.  The Council was looking to develop links with schools and colleges to encourage young people to consider working in the public sector.  It was important to get our “branding” out there and highlight what we could offer.  The Assistant Director was happy to share the Strategy at a future meeting.

ii.       It was accepted that roles within services such as planning were difficult to recruit to nationally and members asked what was being done to train and develop our own staff to fill “hard to fill” posts from within existing resources.  The Assistant Director advised that the Council was keen to assist staff who wanted to upskill and develop their careers.  Internal apprenticeships were also offered to staff who wanted to change their career.

iii.      The Executive Director of Place and Economy advised that within the Council’s planning service there had been 31 agency staff employed.  Three had been self-funded, where a developer paid for the staff.  The number of agency staff had now reduced and further permanent recruitment was ongoing.  The Local Government Association had established Pathways to Planning, a graduate scheme to fast-track talented individuals as planners in local government and three graduates would be joining the Council.  Different approaches to recruitment were being looked at and there was a lot of activity going on.

iv.      It was stated that often local authorities could be very rigid on job descriptions and person specifications and did not look at  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

RESOLVED:

(i)         To note the progress that has been made in the Pay and Grading project to date.

(ii)        To receive a further update on the Pay and Grading project at the conclusion of implementation of Phase 2b in August 2025.

The Assistant Director of Human Resources presented the report which provided an update on the Council’s Pay and Grading Project following the implementation of the new North Northamptonshire Council pay structure and terms and conditions in February 2024.  It also provided further information on the proposed ‘roadmap’ to offer the same terms and conditions to those employees who were currently employed on TUPE protected pay arrangements, notably those who transferred to the Council from a predecessor council.

As a new employer in 2021, the Council did not have its own pay and grading structure or terms and conditions of employment and the workforce was made up of employees on a mix of inherited pay, terms, and conditions, protected by TUPE legislation. New employees or internal movers were subsequently appointed to ‘interim’ pay, terms and conditions, which originated from one of the predecessor councils.  A negotiated outcome for a new pay structure and associated terms and conditions was reached with the recognised Trade Unions in May 2023. The Council adopted a job family approach where roles with similar characteristics and work were grouped. Just over 450 unique jobs were matched during the first phase of pay and grading, covering approximately 1300 employees.  Employees were then assimilated (moved) onto the new pay bands. Phase 1 resulted in the majority of employees (c86%) seeing an increase or no change in their pay; with the remainder seeing a decrease.  All employees were given the right to appeal their job matching outcome and 88 job matching outcomes were appealed with 38% of appeals upheld.

This has now led to the TUPE protected workforce asking why the new terms did not apply to them also, especially those who found themselves working alongside colleagues who were now being paid more for doing the same or similar roles. This was particularly the case for staff in lower paid roles who transferred to the Council from the former County Council and Olympus Care Services.

External legal advice regarding harmonisation of its pay and grading arrangements had been sought and from the outset, the legal advice was that a blanket harmonisation approach that included TUPE protected terms and conditions could be deemed unlawful; particularly if TUPE protected terms were more favourable than the new Council terms. The percentage of the workforce whose terms were protected at this time was almost 80%. However, as transformations and restructures had happened across the Council, and new appointments have been made, many employees had now moved into new and changed roles. The percentage of staff who were on the new terms and conditions, following Phase 1 implementation, was now nearer to 50%. Whilst the Council could still not lawfully ‘harmonise’ our pay arrangements unilaterally, we were able to offer employees the option to ‘voluntarily’ move to the new arrangements, where it was favourable for them to do so.  In early March 2024, and following feedback from TUPE protected employees, the Leader and Chief Executive announced that all employees would be given the opportunity to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

RESOLVED:

(i)         To note the performance of the Council and its services for Quarter 1 2024/25.

(ii)        That when the Executive Director of Children’s Services attends a future meeting that they provide an explanation as to how they forecast the number of SEND children in future years.

(iii)      That when known, officers provide the Committee with a briefing paper on new government housing initiatives and the impact of them on the Council and its Housing Strategy.

(iv)      That officers provide a briefing paper with an update on the COVID cohort of early years and school age children and the impact on their learning and wellbeing.

The Head of Performance, Intelligence and Partnerships presented the report which provided an update on the Council’s performance across a wide range of services.  The report provided a detailed assessment of the Council’s performance in relation to Key Performance Indicators for 2024/25 for Quarter 1. 

At Quarter 1, for those KPIs with a target set and where data was available, 31% were on or exceeding target (23 indicators), 18% were within tolerance of target (13 indicators and 51% were performing below target (38 indicators).

During discussion on the report, the following key points were made:

i.        In response to a question as to how the Council was managing the announcement of changes by the new government, the Executive Director of Place and Economy advised that officers would be looking at opportunities in the legislative framework due in the Autumn.  A report had already been taken to the last Full Council meeting on opportunities around devolution.  EAPs had also looked at implications around housing and the National Planning Policy Framework.  The Committee requested a future briefing paper on the government’s housing initiatives and the impact of them on the Council and its Housing Strategy.

ii.       Following the election of the new government in July, had there been any indications that the approach to performance management would change significantly to what is already in place, for example, the role of OFLOG?  In response, the Head of Performance, Intelligence and Partnerships advised that there had been no clear steer yet on whether there would be any change with OFLOG.

iii.      A question was asked as to why were we assessed on KPIs which were outside of our control, e.g. schools?  In response, the Head of Performance, Intelligence and Partnerships accepted it was a challenge around measures which were out of our control.  The Interim Executive Director of Children’s Services advised that the Council still had responsibilities around education, which whilst we did not have control over, we still retained the statutory responsibility for.

iv.      Estimated total value of contracts (over the contract term) awarded to local suppliers (MPS02) – it was noted that six contracts had been awarded to non-local suppliers and members questioned whether we were focussing our big contracts on local suppliers.  In response, the Director of Law and Governance advised that the award of contracts was a matter for directorates.  Officers undertook to examine the data around contract with local suppliers and see if it was able to be provided.

v.       Number of households whose homelessness was relieved (AFL14) – in response to being asked to explain what was meant by homelessness being relieved and whether it was households who had found permanent accommodation or households removed from the housing list for a reason, officers undertook to provide a full definitive definition of the indicator and would report back outside of the meeting.

vi.      Number of households in temporary accommodation (AFL17) – the improvement in the number of households in temporary accommodation was welcomed, officers were asked to explain  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

RESOLVED:

To note the draft outturn report for 2024/25 as at Quarter 1.

The Executive Director of Finance and Performance presented the report which set out the draft outturn for 2024/25 as at Quarter 1.  The report set out the material financial issues which had been identified since the budget had been set in February 2024.

The forecast outturn position for the General Fund was an overspend of £8.461m and an overspend of £343k for the HRA.  The Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) was forecasting a £10.657m overspend.

The Children’s Trust were forecasting an overspend of £6.071m, of which the cost to the Council was £2.681m. 

During discussion on the report, the following key points were made:

i.        It was noted that the Children’s Trust were forecasting an overspend of £6.071m.  In response to a question as to whether officers were confident that this would remain steady throughout the year, the Executive Director confirmed that the Council was assured that activity and spend was stabilising.  The Transformation work was also working and giving the Trust stability.

ii.       Interest rates had started to fall, and this could have an impact on our borrowing and lending.  Officers were asked to provide details of the impact of different interest rates on the general fund, capital and HRA.

iii.      It was noted that there was a deficit forecast for the DSG.  Members asked whether schools would receive additional funding as part of any recovery plan or would they need to cut back on provision.  In response, the Executive Director advised that there was a statutory override in place until the end of 2025/26.  If this was removed, the cost of the deficit would fall to the Council and all options were being looked at.  The overspend was predominantly due to the high needs block and mitigating steps were being looked.

iv.      The report explained that there may be further emerging risks around the Adult Social Care budget including unexpected increases in demand during the winter period.  In response as to how the Council was mitigating any potential increases, the Executive Director of Adults, Health Partnerships and Housing advised that they were already looking at mitigations and savings programmes to feed into the budget setting process and would be happy to report back through a briefing paper.

v.       It was noted that there were some high-profile issues with Home to School transport at the start of this term.  In response, the Executive Director of Place and Economy advised that there had been an increase in demand before the start of the school year and a further increase in demand was expected during the school year, however this was a national issue.  There had been around 1100 applications in mainstream provision and 800 in SEN provision and these applications needed to be managed within budgets.  A high-level review would take place on some of the issues and he was happy to provide a briefing on the learning from these issues, particularly what happened at the start of term.

RESOLVED:

To note the draft outturn report for 2024/25 as at  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

RESOLVED:

To note the Capital Outturn report for 2024/25 as at Quarter 1.

The Executive Director of Finance and Performance presented the report which set out the capital outturn for 2024/25 as at Quarter 1.  The report set out the material financial issues which had been identified since the budget had been set in February 2024.

The forecast position following the review and reprofiling of budgets was a General Fund underspend of £14.1m and an underspend of £2.6m for the Housing Revenue Account (HRA).

RESOLVED:

To note the Capital Outturn report for 2024/25 as at Quarter 1.

RESOLVED:

To note the Scrutiny Work Plan as it related to the Corporate Scrutiny Committee.

The Corporate Scrutiny Committee received the Scrutiny Work Plan as it related to the Committee. 

RESOLVED:

To note the Scrutiny Work Plan as it related to the Corporate Scrutiny Committee.

The Chair thanked members and officers for their attendance and closed the meeting.

The meeting closed at 9.57pm.