Agenda item

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive (People)

The Cabinet Member for Strategic Finance and Resources considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive (People) which provided performance information on the use of agency workers procured for the Quarter 4 period, 1 January to 31 March 2018 and Interim Manager and other agency worker spends for the same period.

Further to Minute 72/17, the Cabinet Member had asked for further information to be provided this Quarter and in future on the number of agency staff engaged and the reasons for that engagement. Where the information was available, it had been provided within the report. Where the information was not available, commentary was provided in the report on the feasibility and timescales to implement this change to information reporting.

Coventry City Council has a Master Vendor Contract with Pertemps for the supply of agency workers and they supply all suitable agency workers through their own agency or via a 2^nd tier arrangement with other agencies on behalf of the Council. The information supplied by Pertemps gives detailed information on agency worker usage and expenditure. However, Pertemps was not always able to supply the required agency workers and where this is the case, service areas will use other suppliers. The report indicated that this contract has now been re-tendered and a new provider Reed, will be supplying agency workers from 25 June, 2018.

A table in the report show comparative expenditure in Q4 2017/18 and Q3 2017/18 and indicated an overall increase in total spend. A further table in the report provided the percentage of staffing requirement met by agency workers from Pertemps. The full-time equivalent of agency staff had been calculated for each service area and gives the percentage of staffing requirement met by agency workers from Pertemps for each Service Area.

The report provided detailed information on the following service areas:-

  • Children’s Services

  • Adults Services

  • StreetScene:-  Waste Services

  StreetPride

  Planning and Regulation

The report also provided a comparison of expenditure outside of the Pertemps contacts Q4 2017/18 with Q3 2017/18 and highlighted the following areas:-

  • Children’s Services

  • Education:-  Coventry Music Services (formerly the Performing

 Arts Service)

Centrally employed teachers/teaching assistants

Educational Psychology

Quality Assurance Monitoring Officers

  • Customer Services – Homelessness Officers

  • Place – Professional Services Contract

The report highlighted work undertaken to find alternative solutions to agency staff, including the establishment of a bank of casual workers within Waste and specialist recruitment in Highways, Traffic and Transport.

In response to concerns raised by the Cabinet Member at a previous meeting regarding the need for managers to ensure that the process of filling vacancies was undertaken at the earliest opportunity, this had been communicated to senior management teams and had been reflected in the process to be used for the new contract.

The Cabinet Member requested that for future reports, a comparison of the figures from the same Quarter the previous year be provided.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet Member for Strategic Finance and Corporate Services:-

1)  Notes the agency/interim spend for Q4 and the corresponding numbers of agency workers

2)  Notes the work done on providing in-house solutions as an alternative to agency and interim workers

3)  Notes the inclusion in the report of the level of corporate staffing requirements met by agency workers from Pertemps.