Agenda item

To consider questions submitted to date under Procedure Rule 9.2.

The Leader responded to two questions submitted in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 9.2 from Councillors Juliet Brunner (which had been deferred from the Council meeting on 21st November 2016) and Paul Swansborough.  The question from Councillor Brunner had been included in with the agenda papers and the question from Councillor Swansborough was tabled at the meeting.

 

a)        Staff Survey Results

 

Councillor Juliet Brunner asked the following question:

 

I’m sure the Leader will agree with me that performance management and appraisals are an important part of supporting staff in continuing professional development.  Would he comment on the results from latest the Staff Survey and inform this Council why 43% of staff do not feel supported and haven’t had a status meeting?

 

The Leader replied as follows:

 

Thank you for your question. 

 

The question is a little confused or not quite accurate as the results from the Survey questions do not reflect those matters raised in your question as I will explain during the answer.

 

For background, 246 employees responded to the staff survey across both Councils (so it is actually 43% of the respondents, not all staff, and it was from across both Councils) which is 25% of all staff. We have approximately 800 staff across both Councils.

 

The question from the Survey on one-to-one/update and status meetings is Question 36, which says “I have regular one-to-one meetings/status updates with my line manager/supervisor”.  The results were:

 

             2016         2013

Yes      57.0%       54.3%

         No       43.0%       45.7%

 

So the “Yes” figure is up and the “No” figure is down.  There is no difference between one-to-one meetings and status meetings.

 

We want to do more and steps are being taken.  In fact a joint Redditch and Bromsgrove Staff Survey Members’ Task Group has been set up. Officers have attended discussions with the Group to explain the planned actions around the work streams detailed below.

 

The Actions are:

 

A Staff Survey Programme Board (chaired by Kevin Dicks, Chief Executive, and consisting of a Head of Service, HR Representatives and the Trade Unions) has been set up to progress areas of concern highlighted in the staff survey. Heads of Service have been tasked with developing action plans to look at the top three positives and top three negatives from the Survey for their service areas. Heads of Service were asked to present the action plans to the Board who will be monitoring progress on their delivery. Three key corporate areas have also been identified and are being headed up by senior Officers. The three key work streams are:

 

·         People Management – headed by Deb Poole, Head of Transformation & Organisational Development;

·         Meeting Our Customers’ Needs – headed by Amanda Singleton, Head of Customer Access & Financial Support; and

·         Organisational Culture – headed by Sue Hanley, Deputy Chief Executive.

 

The three Lead Officers have drawn up corporate action plans and presented them to the Board who will be monitoring the delivery of the actions.

 

A new System Performance Framework has also recently been developed and is currently being implemented across both Councils.  The Framework is designed to support constructive and supportive one-to-one discussions between employees and managers, as well as providing guidance on how to conduct the annual appraisal. 

 

The requirement is that all managers use the framework to ensure that a consistent approach is used across the organisation.

 

Details of the Staff Survey action plans and the System Performance Framework have also been to both Councils’ Executive and Cabinet meetings recently to ensure Members are kept briefed.

 

The Chief Executive and the Directors have also mentioned the Staff Survey at the recent staff briefings to ensure staff know that actions are being picked up.

 

As I suggested, the question isn’t necessarily accurate as the results from the questions below indicate that staff do feel supported by their managers, even though the instances of one-to-ones is low in some parts of the organisation. There are pockets across the organisations that need a little improvement but hopefully the actions above and the joint Members’ Task Group are a clear indication that the findings of the Survey are taken seriously by the organisation as a whole and by the senior Officers in particular.

                                                 

Question 40 (242 replies), which says “I get the support I need from my line manager”.  The results were:

 

            2016         2013

Yes      76.4%       74.9%

         No       23.6%       25.1%

 

So again the “Yes” support figure is up and the “No” figure is down.

 

And the other question on support is Question 41 (243 replies), which says “I get the support I need from my colleagues”.  The results were:

 

            2016         2013

Yes      91.8%       86.2%

         No       8.2%         13.8%                                                                       

 

And again the “yes” figure is up and the “No” figure is down.

 

A supplementary question was raised by Councillor Brunner asking if the Leader would explain to the Council why the Chief Executive Officer had not had a review or target set for the last three years.

 

The Leader replied that he disagreed with this and that this was in progress.

 

b)        Financial Impact – construction of new housing and business premises on land within neighbouring districts

 

Councillor Paul Swansborough asked the following question:

 

Considering the proposal from Her Majesty’s Government to significantly reduce our revenue support grant, could the leader clarify what the financial benefit is to this Council by strategically facilitating the construction of new housing and business premises on land within neighbouring districts resulting in the loss of crucial income that could be generated through Council Tax, Non-domestic Rates and the New Homes Bonus.

 

The Leader replied as follows:

 

          Thank you for your question.

 

Any possible financial benefit to a council from the location of new development is not a material planning matter. 

 

Good planning should not have regard to administrative boundaries.

 

The New Homes Bonus grant included in the Medium Term Financial Plan is based on averages from the previous 3 years.

 

As Members will be aware, the New Homes Bonus Scheme has been amended significantly to reduce the amount payable to councils to include a 0.4 baseline reduction together with a reduction of years payable from 6 years to 4 years, effective from 2017/18.

 

Therefore the current financial plan does not depend on any sites that may be developed outside of the Borough.

 

The Localisation of Business Rates proposals have not yet been confirmed by Central Government and therefore we are unable to predict the future impact of any changes to the current scheme.

 

A prudent estimation of the growth in business has been made and included in the finance plan.

 

A supplementary question was raised by Councillor Swansborough asking if the Council allowed the cross-boundary projects to go ahead, would the Leader ask the people of Redditch to increase their council tax by 18%; the estimated figure advised by Officers to plug the £3m shortfall, or would he explore an alternative corporate strategy that would bring tax receipts back to Redditch rather than benefitting Bromsgrove and Stratford-upon-Avon District Councils.

 

The Leader responded that consideration of the Budget would take place at the next meeting of the Council.