Agenda item

Report by the Chief Operating Officer.

36.1     The Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development introduced the report which reviews the use of and expenditure on agency workers. Agency workers are an important part of the Council’s staffing arrangements and ensure ongoing delivery of key services. The report contains details of expenditure and forecasted spend on agency workers across all departments. It also includes details of sickness absence levels, which are linked to the use of agency workers, and provides details of strategies in place to reduce absence levels.

36.2     One significant change since the last report has been the introduction of IR35 regulations regarding the tax treatment of off-payroll workers, who are registered as a limited company. This has resulted in a large amount of work to review existing arrangements and put in place processes to ensure the correct treatment of tax for these workers. An internal audit of the contract management arrangements for the Adecco contract was undertaken in May 2017 and an opinion of ‘partial assurance’ given. The Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development confirmed that the two high level recommendations have been resolved and significant progress has been made on all the other recommended actions.

36.3     The Committee commented that it was pleased to see sickness absence rates coming down, and noted the work being done on mental health issues. The Committee asked the Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development if she is happy with the amount of work that is being done on mental health and stress issues.  The Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development acknowledged that mental health is one of key issues and there may be more work to be done on this issue. However, a number of actions are being undertaken to support staff with mental health issues, including consideration of introducing mental health first aiders. In addition, there are a number of training opportunities and workshops for managers, the intention being to enable managers to spot issues early and therefore provide the right levels of support to staff experiencing mental health and stress issues.

36.4     The Committee asked to what extent flexible working practices are in place across the organisation and how this impacts on the demand for agency workers. The Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development replied that the Agile programme has introduced a significant amount of flexible working, but there is no evidence of a link to an increased use of agency workers. Most agency workers are used where there is a need to maintain staffing levels, such as for residential services.  It is not expected that flexible working will create gaps in staffing provision.

36.5     The Committee requested further information on the size of the contract payments to Adecco and asked whether the contract has a fixed fee. The Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development explained that the contract was awarded after a procurement exercise with Surrey County Council to maximise economies of scale and purchasing power. The Council does not pay a fixed amount, rather, Adecco is a managed service provider for temporary agency workers who provides workers from their own branch and from their network of specialist agencies. They support hiring managers in sourcing candidates from other agencies by managing the relationship on East Sussex County Council’s (ESCC) behalf. The Chief Operating Officer added that the contract is a volume based mutual vendor contract, which does not have a fixed fee.

36.6     The Committee asked what proportion of ICT staff are permanent and how many agency staff are employed. The Chief Operating Officer responded that there are around 160 ICT staff and the number of agency staff employed is below 10% of the workforce.

36.7     The Committee RESOLVED to:

1) Note the findings and conclusions presented in this report; and

2) Continue to receive an annual update report on the use of agency workers.