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Report to: |
Governance Committee
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Date of meeting: |
29 June 2021
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By: |
Chief Operating Officer
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Title: |
Amendment to the Recruitment Incentives Policy
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Purpose: |
RECOMMENDATIONS:
The Governance Committee is recommended to adopt the revised Recruitment and Retention Incentives Policy contained within Appendix 1 of this report.
1. Background Information
1.1 The County Council has in place two key policies to support managers when facing recruitment and retention difficulties: the Market Supplements policy and the Recruitment Incentives Policy. Whilst these policies have served the Council well over the last 10+ years, recent government initiatives have resulted in the need to update some of the provisions of the existing Recruitment Incentives Policy.
1.2 In particular, from 1 April 2021, as part of the government’s initiative to increase the number of apprenticeships being offered, the government is paying an incentive to employers of £3,000 per apprentice hired. This payment is not part of the apprenticeship levy arrangements and does not need to be paid back to the government. The apprenticeship incentive payment can be used towards the apprentice’s salary costs, training costs or can be paid directly to the apprentice as an incentive payment.
1.3 This is a time limited incentive scheme where only new apprentices hired between 1 April 2021 to September 2021 qualify. Existing staff will not qualify as they already have an employment contract with the Council which exempts them from the scheme.
1.4 The current Recruitment Incentives Policy has a range of restrictions on payments that can be made, including a cap on the value being 10% of salary. As such, apprentices would need to be on grade Single Status 10 or above and be in full time employment to be eligible to receive the full £3,000 payment under the current policy provisions.
1.5 These restrictions therefore prevent managers from using the policy as a mechanism to pass the apprenticeship payment directly to the apprentice as an incentive payment for the majority of roles.
2 Supporting Information
Joint Community Reablement (JCR)
2.1 In considering current recruitment and retention pressures across the Council, there is a particular issue in relation to Support Workers within the Joint Community Reablement (JCR) service. There is increasing demand for homecare reablement and the ability to meet this demand is hindered due to the current recruitment and retention difficulties. There was a 10% turnover rate between January 2019 and December 2020 and of the leavers during this period, 35% of those left within the first 2 years of service.
2.2 Currently, JCR requires approximately 19 support workers. 13 of these vacancies are in the High Weald, Lewes and Havens area which has historically remained the most challenging area to recruit to.
2.3 The hourly rate for a Support Worker in JCR starts at £10.62 (2020 rate on Single Status Grade 5), including weekend working enhancements. The national minimum wage has risen to £8.91; a gap of £1.71 less an hour. This gap has been narrowing in recent years and as a result, the salary has become a less competitive mechanism to attract new recruits. In addition, a recent benchmarking exercise of similar roles in other Councils highlighted the ESCC salary as being less competitive.
2.4 In the last two years no new support workers have undertaken an apprenticeship. It has been identified that the apprenticeship incentive payment could be utilised to pass on the payment directly to apprentices as an incentive to join JCR and then remain with the service for a minimum set period of time.
2.5 As well as improving recruitment, in order to support retention, it is proposed to structure the incentive payment over a period of 2 years, paid in stages:
Øfirst payment of £1,000 to be paid after 3 months service as by then, the worker will have completed the mandatory training to enable them to lone work;
Øsecond payment of £1,000 after successfully completing the probation period (ie 12 months from the date of appointment); and
Øfinal reward payment of £1,000 once the employee completes their apprenticeship – usually at 18 months to 2 years.
2.6 In addition, the standard clause requiring repayment of the financial assistance received if an individual leaves employment within two years of appointment will be included, thereby further incentivising the individual to stay in employment for a minimum period of two years.
2.7 In support of the above, it is proposed to combine the current two policies into a single Recruitment and Retention Incentives Policy: i) increasing the cap on incentive payments from 10% of salary to 20% in order to support externally funded schemes such as the government’s current apprenticeship incentive payment and ii) allowing for greater flexibility over the frequency of the payments as appropriate to the specific circumstances being addressed.
2.8 To ensure consistency of approach across the Council and that such payments are only made where a clear business case exists, the approval process will remain as being the Chief Executive and relevant Chief Officer.
2.9 A copy of the proposed updated policy is attached at Appendix 1.
3. Conclusion and Reason for Recommendations
3.1 The changes proposed to the current recruitment and retention policies will both ensure that the Council can take advantage of the government’s current apprenticeship incentive payment scheme (and any future similar schemes) as well as supporting a strategy to increase the number of apprentices in JCR whilst addressing the existing significant recruitment and retention issues in the service.
3.2 In addition, in making these changes, all departments will be able to use the updated Policy and flexibilities provided to support recruitment and retention needs.
Phil Hall
Chief Operating Officer
Contact Officers:
Sarah Mainwaring Rachelle Woolman-Clarke
Head of HR&OD Practice Manager (Joint Community Rehabilitation)
Sarah.mainwaring@eastsussex.gov.uk Rachelle.woolman-clarke@eastsussex.gov.uk