Issue - meetings

Report number:     CAB/WS/22/029

Portfolio holder: Councillor Carol Bull

Lead officer: Jennifer Eves

Resolved:

That the West Suffolk Workforce Strategy 2022 to 2028, as set out in Appendix A to Report number CAB/WS/22/029 be endorsed and its implementation be supported across the organisation.

(Report number CAB/WS/22/029)

The Cabinet received this report which explained that the Workforce Strategy outlined the Council’s commitment to work together to deliver its vision and to develop a future focused workforce plan to help to deliver against its Strategic Framework, whilst building a diverse and inclusive workforce that reflected and understood the communities that it served.

The Council recognised that the greatest asset that it had to deliver services to the communities of West Suffolk, was its workforce.  The delivery of the Council’s vision and priorities could only be achieved if it was able to retain and recruit the right people, with the right skills and the right attitude, those who would innovate and collaborate to deliver transformation of services and maximise the Council’s organisational potential.

Councillor Carol Bull, Portfolio Holder for Governance, also drew relevant issues to the attention of the Cabinet and explained that the Strategy (as set out in Appendix A to Report number CAB/WS/22/029) outlined how the Council would continue to deliver services in a changing and challenging environment focusing on how to attract, reward, nurture and develop its staff, through five key workstreams:

-      Skills and behaviours

-      Recruitment and retention

-      Reward and recognition

-      Health and well-being

-      Future planning

The success of the Strategy would be measured through the Council’s annual reporting processes, as well as through regular dialogue in Leadership/Senior Management Team, workforce planning, future employee surveys/pulse surveys and the Joint Negotiating Committee.  The Portfolio Holder for Governance and the Staff Consultative Panel also received regular updates on progress against the workstreams.

In response to a request raised by Councillor Susan Glossop, the Cabinet supported the organisation of a corporate event to provide Councillors with the opportunity to be able to meet with all staff.  Officers suggested that this could be incorporated within the Annual Staff Awards Event, which was scheduled for December 2022.

Resolved:

That the West Suffolk Workforce Strategy 2022 to 2028, as set out in Appendix A to Report number CAB/WS/22/029 be endorsed and its implementation be supported across the organisation.