Issue - items at meetings - West Suffolk Workforce Strategy 2018-2020 (verbal)

Issue - meetings

West Suffolk Workforce Strategy 2018-2020 (verbal)

Meeting: 29/03/2021 - Staff Consultative Panel (Item 32)

West Suffolk Workforce Strategy Update (verbal)

Minutes:

The Service Manager (Human Resources and Organisational Development) reported on the following actions within the strategic priorities of the West Suffolk Workforce Strategy:

 

-      Learning and Development

The corporate training programme continued to be provided by virtual learning, with a greater number of on-line courses and training being made available to staff, for example, via ‘Watch and Go’ videos and free HM Government digital courses on a range of topics.  With the current challenges around providing learning and development, staff had taken the opportunity to upskill and take responsibility for their own learning and development and had engaged in the different offers now available.

 

-      Equality and Diversity

The local authorities across Suffolk had also been working together to deliver Equality and Diversity programmes/training.  Work was in progress to finalise a video, which had been collectively developed, which highlighted some of the thinking and understanding around unconscious bias and stereotypical issues.  Once available, the link to this video would be shared with the Panel.

 

-      Recruitment

The recruitment process continued to be supported, with virtual recruitment being rolled out at all levels.  A virtual Assessment Centre would be held on 31 March 2021 for recruitment to the forthcoming intern programme. 

    

-      Redeployment and Secondments

The approach to the utilisation of using the Council’s own staff in redeployment and secondment had continued.  This had mainly been in the provision of the response to Government initiatives and had also been used for other areas of service demand.  The Council was also part of a Suffolk-wide resourcing cell, which met regularly to discuss and share resource demand for all parts of the sector, where able to do so.

 

-      Networking

The level of networking across the Suffolk councils had enabled a strong focus on collective responses to some of the issues being experienced and had been invaluable during the current challenges.

 

In addition, the focus on health and wellbeing of the staff continued to be embraced and the Panel were also provided with an update on some of the health and wellbeing initiatives within the Council, which had centred around:

 

-      Group support sessions

-      Parent and carer support group

-      Home and working alone support group

-      Anglia Revenues Partnership support group (for those dealing with vulnerable and distressed clients)

-      E-module training on suicide prevention

-      Mental health support

-      Domestic abuse awareness training/champions

-      Joint pain advisors, including desk physio

 

The Panel also acknowledged the amount of work which had been undertaken with regards to the health and wellbeing support for staff. 

 

With there being no decision required, the Panel noted the update.


 

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