Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

(a)  To agree the minutes of the meeting held on 18 January 2016.

(b)  Matters arising

The minutes of the Cabinet Member for Strategic Finance and Resources meeting held on 18 January 2016 were signed as a true record. There were no matters arising.  

Report of the Executive Director of Resources

The Cabinet Member considered a report of the Executive Director of Resources which provided information on the 9 month (April to December 2015) cumulative sickness absence levels. The report enabled the Cabinet Member to monitor the levels of sickness absence for that period and the actions being taken to manage absence and promote health at work across the City Council. The report provided cumulative sickness absence figures for the Council and individual Directorates.

The annual and quarterly information is based on full time equivalent (FTE) average days lost per person against the FTE average days per person available for work. This was the method that was previously required by the Audit Commission for annual Best Value Performance Indicator reporting. The City Council would continue to use this method to ensure consistency with previously published data.

The report indicated that a comparison of Quarter 3 (2015/2016) out turn with last years in the same period (2014/2015) revealed a downward trend in that there was a reduction in the occurrences of absence, total days lost, working hours lost and cost of absence. Furthermore, stress had decreased as had the number of days lost due to muscolo-skeletal, cold, flu, chest, respiratory and chest infections. And the occurrence of stomach, liver and gastroenteritis has also reduced in the same period.

In July 2015, the Cabinet Member had requested that an audit be undertaken to ensure that sickness absence procedures were being followed across the Council (excluding schools). The audit was completed in December 2015 and key findings indicated that in over 90% of absences, the sickness absence procedures were followed. A breakdown of the key findings of the audit were detailed in the report.

The Cabinet Member requested that figures on sickness absence reporting be collected on annual basis to allow for a baseline to be set for future comparisons and monitoring purposes. 

RESOLVED that the Cabinet Member for Strategic Finance and Resources notes the report providing sickness absence data for the 9 month period of April to December 2015 and endorses the actions taken to monitor and manage sickness. 

Report of the Executive Director of Resources

The Cabinet Member considered a report of the Executive Director of Resources which provided performance information on the use of agency workers procured through the Master Vendor Contract for the Q3 period 1 October to 31 December 2015; to compare Q3 2015/2016 with Q2 2015/2016 expenditure. The report also provided information on interim manager spends for the same periods which were now procured through National Framework Agreement RM692 along with any additional off contract spends across the authority.

The Master Vendor contract required all agency workers to be ordered through the Master Vendor, Pertempts and came into force on 2 December 2013. The information supplied by the Master Vendor on the agency spends gives detailed information on agency worker usage and spends. The Master Vendor Contract covered all agency workers with the exception of interim managers for HAY Graded posts and agency workers in schools.

The data indicated an increase in agency spend in each of the three main directorates, People, Place and Resources. The report provided further information on the extra spends. There were no unauthorised contract spends identified in Q3.

The Cabinet Member requested a breakdown of data in relation to the spend on Pertempts Agency Contract within the People Directorate. Officers undertook to forward the information to him.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet Member for Strategic Finance and Resources:

1.  Approves monitoring processes to continue for both Agency workers and Interim Managers.

2.  Endorses compliance with the corporate policy on the recruitment of Temporary Agency Workers through the Master Vendor, Pertempts.

3.  Instructs officers to continue to work towards reducing expenditure on the use of agency workers.

Report of the Executive Director of Resources

The Cabinet Member noted a report of the Executive Director of Resources that identified those issues on which further reports had been requested and were outstanding, so that progress could be monitored.

There were no urgent items of business.