Agenda and minutes

No declarations of interest were received.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Fordham and Catt.

5:00pm to 5:45pm

The Cabinet Member – Business Transformation and Customers, Service Director – Digital, HR and Customer Services and Head of HR attended to present a report about the Chesterfield Borough Council (CBC) People Plan.

CBC had approved it’s workforce strategy, People Plan 2019 – 2023, in December 2019 and the strategy was attached at Appendix A of the officer’s report.

The People Plan 2019 – 2023 focused on the development of five

Strategic priority areas, which, when achieved, would ensure that the Council had enabled creative, flexible, and productive ways of working and increased the capacity, resilience, and wellbeing of the workforce. The strategic priority areas were:

·      Developing great leaders,

·      Managing change well,

·      Developing capacity and skills,

·      Supporting employee wellbeing,

·      Recognition and reward.

Successful delivery of the strategy would be demonstrated by

achievement of the following success measures:

·      Employee survey response rates increase by 5% or more,

·      Improvement in rankings is achieved in six of the Investors in

People themes,

·      Sickness absence data averages at no more than 8 days per

employee,

·      Completion of annual action plans.

A high-level summary of the activities which had been undertaken to progress delivery of the strategy was attached at Appendix B of the officer’s report.

Each year an action plan was developed to ensure that the

Council would be able to successfully deliver against the five strategic priorities set out in the People Plan. The action plan which was being delivered in 2021/22 was attached at

Appendix C of the officer’s report.

Since 2020, the Coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact on the way the Council functioned. The activities in the People Plan had been updated to reflect the emerging needs of the workforce as a result. Whilst additional actions had taken place, the strategic priorities identified in the People Plan had remained relevant throughout the pandemic. The introduction of new ways of working had been accelerated to enable the continued provision of essential services from home. Many of the CBC staff volunteered to support those in local communities who were in the greatest need during the pandemic, by delivering medicines, food and supporting wider community response teams. As a result new skills had been developed, ensuring that there were effective business continuity and succession plans in place.

To ensure the council remained operational throughout the pandemic a working group, the resources task and finish group, was established to lead on the internal response to the Covid-19 pandemic. This group provided the Council’s leadership team with recommendations relating to wellbeing, change management, developing capacity and skills and reward and recognition.

The primary concern for CBC over the last 18 months had been the safety and wellbeing of our workforce. Early decisions were taken to ensure that the CBC workforce could work from home wherever possible from the start of the pandemic and this had been continued throughout the pandemic. The Council had taken a cautious approach during the pandemic which had ensured that the workforce had remained safe.

During the pandemic the senior  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

5:45pm to 6:15pm

The Cabinet Member – Business Transformation and Customers, Service Director – Digital, HR and Customer Services and Head of HR attended to present a monitoring report about the transition of Arvato and Kier staff.

The transfer of Arvato services was completed successfully and on 17 January 2021. The transition project ended formally in March 2021.

After the conclusion of the project, the Council had taken some time to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the transferring services and was now working closely with the staff who had transferred to make ongoing improvements.

A lessons learned report had been produced for the Arvato transition and was attached at Appendix A of the officer’s report.

Areas identified for improvement had been transferred to the responsibility of the Service Directors for Digital, HR and Customer Services and Economic Growth to deliver as part of their business as usual service delivery.

Appendix B of the officer’s report provided an overview of the discussions held with Customers, Revenues and Benefits employees at the start of the reshape of services. This highlighted areas for improvement which would ensure that employees would feel integrated into Chesterfield Borough Council and which, when addressed would ensure that structures were fit to deliver the Council’s future aspirations.

Members welcomed the savings which had been achieved.

Members congratulated the Service Director – Digital, HR and Customer Services for managing the TUPE process alongside her day-to-day responsibilities.

Members enquired if there had been staff turnover and the Service Director confirmed that there had been staff turnover, some of which had been progression of staff from customer services adviser in the Call Centre to working in other departments.

RESOLVED –

1.    That the Arvato and Kier Transition Monitoring update be noted.

2.    That the Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum monitoring of the Arvato and Kier Transition be concluded. 

The Senior Democratic and Scrutiny Officer submitted a report which included the details of the proposed Overview and Scrutiny Committees’ Work Programme for 2022/23.

RESOLVED –

That the Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme 2022/23 be approved and recommended to the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committees (OSCs).

Please follow the link below to view the latest Forward Plan.

Forward Plan

The Forum considered the Forward Plan.

RESOLVED –

That the Forward Plan be noted.

The Forum considered the Scrutiny recommendations implementation monitoring schedule.

RESOLVED –

That the Scrutiny monitoring schedule be noted.

The Work Programme for the Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum was considered.

RESOLVED –

That the Work Programme be approved.

There was no update.

The Minutes of the Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum held on 24 March, 2022 were presented.

RESOLVED –

That the Minutes be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.