Appendix 7(g)

BLACKPOOL COUNCIL

EXECUTIVE MEMBER REPORT TO THE COUNCIL

Report of: /

Cabinet Member for Equality and Diversity – Councillor Riding

at the Council meeting held on: / 14th September 2011
This report updates the Council on actions within my portfolio.
Equality and Diversity
Current priority areas of activity are:
  • Public sector duties from the Equalities Act come into force this year.The new Equality Analysis tool has now been developed to assist managers in this. Work has now commenced on gathering the service Information and workforce data publication requirements of the new duty. This information and data will need to be published by the end of January 2012. Further work is ongoing to decide an approach to refresh the Single Equalities Scheme and agree Corporate Equality Objectives and publication to meet the statutory deadline of April 2012.
  • Raising awareness of the importance of community cohesion across the Authority through training has begun. In addition,continued partnership arrangements are in place to respond to heightened community tensions and to ensure hate crime is reported and acted on in a timely and appropriate manner.
  • We have begun a major corporate exercise to raise our employees’ awareness on equality and diversity issues and a compulsory e-learning module has been introduced for all employees.In addition we have begun preparing for a refresh of our workforce equality monitoring information which is now outdated.As well as Blackpool Council employees, this exercise will also include our partners in Fylde Council and Schools who use the Human Resources service.This project will help inform our work towards a more diverse workforce through work experience projects and better community engagement/ advertising within the limited pool of future employment opportunities.
Health and Safety
  • 2 New arrangements for issues identified as health and safety prioritieshave been developed, consulted on and distributed – Controlling Vehicle and Pedestrian Movement in Work Premises and Infection Control.
  • The introduction to the Health and Safety (H&S) Manual has also been updated and distributed and a full review of the contents of the H&S Manual was conducted and a number of Arrangements were identified as requiring updates. This work will now be scheduled into the overall workload.
  • The Team has recently been advising and assisting colleagues involved in a number of high profile incidents and the DSE e-learning course is now undergoing rigorous testing by the H&S team, prior to final amendments before its launch.
Human Resources and Payroll
  • The work of the Employee Relations team and Council managers has led to reduced sickness absence rates from 10.46 in September 2010 to 9.35 days per full time equivalent employee in April 2011.Work is ongoing to ensure that attendance levels are maintained and reduced further. The lead Employee Relations Adviser is exploring the Pilot of a 24 hour a day / 7 day a week helpline whereby employees are required to contact a nurse led phone number to report their absence and receive initial medical advice and support so as to reduce the extent of their absence from work.It is hoped to be able to launch the pilot on 1st October 2011.
  • The suite of Management Training to handle employee relations issues continues to be delivered on a monthly basis.Since 1st January 2011,Attendance Management and Discipline and Grievance training has been delivered to over 140 managers.Further training on Restructures and Redundancy Management has been developed with the first course taking place on 13th July with 16 delegates and further dates to follow in September onwards.A training package has also been developed to provide to Councillors regarding how managers deal with disciplinary, grievance and redundancy at work.
  • In order to complement the training which is being provided to managers we are further enhancing their professional development via the provision of modules on the e-learning system ‘iPool’.The packages on ‘iPool’ provide managers with a step-by-step advice and guidance tool to work through the stages of the key HR policies and apply them in practice.
  • The development of HR Policies continues with a focus being on the Maternity Handbook, Capability Procedure and Grievance Procedure.In relation to the development of the Maternity Handbook, to ensure pregnant employees feel supported during their pregnancy at work, regular lunchtime briefing sessions will be arranged to outline to staff the support available during their pregnancy and to answer any questions which employees and their managers may have about maternity entitlement, leave and pay.
  • We also continue to develop an excellent working relationship with external customers through the Service Level Agreement (SLA) and look to explore other opportunities for securing further external contract work to generate revenue and secure HR jobs in Blackpool.
  • The major priority for the payroll team is the implementation of the payroll upgrade which should be completed by February 2012.
Employee Development and Training
Safeguarding Training for Schools
The Organisation and Workforce Development team (OWD) now deliver Level 1 Safeguarding
training schools. The teamoffer a flexible approach and can provide aselection of options for safeguarding training. The school can choose any method of accessing training or mix and
match different options to suit their needs and circumstances.
OWD can offer the following options:
1)Online training – ‘Awareness of Child Abuse and Neglect’(equivalent to Level 1)
2)Face to face – ‘Safeguarding Level One’ (available monthly)
3)Face to face refresher – ‘Safeguarding Level One Refesher’
(refresh must take place every 3 years)
4)Whole school inset days (On request - book via Jeff Leahy)
5)Twilight sessions at the CityLearningCenter
6)Safer Recruitment Training
7)Online training – Safer working practices
The Safeguarding Training that OWD provides will be logged against the employees’ record and OWD will be able to provide information to schools upon request regarding which staff have completed training.Level 2 Safeguarding Training is provided by Blackpool Safeguarding Children Board (BSCB).
Any school that provides their own safeguarding training must have the training approved by Jeff Leahy from OWD who is authorised by the Blackpool Children Safeguarding Board (BSCB) to quality checkthe content of the training, to ensure we have a consistent approach to safeguarding children across Blackpool.
Fostering Panel
Further to the new Equality Act which came into effect in October 2010, a briefing session was recently delivered to the Foster Carers Panel on the "Equality Act 2010: What you need to know" The focus of the session was to inform the group of the key changes in the law and how this may impact on the service that they provide.The session covered; protected characteristics, direct and indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation, the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), Perception and Association and the Justification Test and also the implications of harmonising previous legislation such as the Race Relations Act 1976 and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
Advanced Practitioner Posts
As part of the Social Work and Safeguarding restructure five posts were reassigned and called Advanced Practitioner (APs). Part of the role of these members of staff will be to assist in supporting those members of staff on the Newly Qualified Social Worker (NQSW) and Early Professional Development (EPD) programmes. The purpose of the programmes is to gradually build up the skills, confidence and competence of newly qualified social workers through to their third year of employment. The Advanced Practitioner role will play a key role in developing skills within these staff such as reflective practice, research and analysis. With eight staff on NQSW and 12 staff on EPD, the APs will work with them on a one-to-one and group basis to work through tailored Development Plan’s for each staff member and to encourage and nurture their development.
Skills For Life
In line with the Council's commitment to the National Skills Pledgea letter was sent out to all a and b graded staff within theCouncil offering them the opportunity of having;
  • A log-in for the Council Intranet
  • Access to the HUB; A-Z Policies and Staff Benefits and staff notice board, including news of forthcoming events and for sale items
  • Redundancy support
  • Learning and development opportunities including E-learning
  • Access to qualifications in English, Mathematics and ICT
  • Access to some Microsoft Programs
Following an expression of interest by77 people, lunchtimeand twilight information sessions have taken placeand qualificationcourses in English, Mathematics and ITQ (Information Technology Qualification) have been organised and are due to commence in September 2011.All employees who responded will be invited to attend 'drop in' sessions run by the Organisation and Workforce Development Section to show them how to log in to the above systems and tooffer furthercourses in basic ICT ifrequired.
Employee Health and Well-Being (Occupational Health)
  • Occupational Health moved to Progress House in July, this now provides improved facilities for the team and employees, with its own separate entrance.
  • The Fast Track Referral Pilot for all employee absences within leisure is continuing and it is likely that this pilot will be extended to an additional service area in September.
  • The Well Being at Work Group held another successful employee health event on 28th July. Employees were invited to “drop in” to Progress House for health checks and health information, 135 employees attended the 3hour session.
  • The Occupational Health Team is commencing its annual campaign for the Seasonal Flu Vaccination Programme which will be delivered in October as part of the National Public Health campaign.
  • A new Attendance Strategy Group has been launched in order to explore absence figures and reasons for absence, to utilise “attendance champions” in each directorate and to put strategies in place in order to assist managers with attendance management issues.
u
Schools Human Resources
  • The schools team is working with Head teachers to review the Service Level Agreements for next year and continue to develop the service offer so that it remains excellent value for money.
  • The team is working with Headteachers and the relevant Trade Unions to implement a Pay Review Scheme for non teaching staff within schools. The implementation date for the review is the 1st April 2012
  • The team is also supporting schools in restructuring their staffing establishment to support the schools need to implement budget savings.
  • The team is also continuing to provide Safeguarding training for Headteachers and Governors of schools which is an integral part of schools meeting their Safeguarding responsibilities.
  • Our excellent working relationships with Headteachers has not only led to 38 out of the 40 schools purchasing our HR service but ex Headteachers moving to schools within Lancashire are enquiring as to whether the team can provide best practice advise and guidance to them in their new school. Therefore the team isevaluating these opportunities for securing external contract work to generate revenue and secure jobs for staff in Blackpool.

Thank you Mr Mayor, I will be pleased to invite any questions or comments from Councillors in relation to the Equality and Diversity portfolio.