Best Value Review of Personnel Services

1. The Best Value Review of the Council’s Personnel function forms part of the Council’s Best Value Performance Plan for 2001- 2002. The review is now complete and this report covers the background to the review and sets out the key findings.

Service aims and objectives

2. The Council’s strategic vision is set out in the Corporate Plan. Achieving the objectives which flow from that vision and delivering first class services requires first class people. A People Strategy is essentially how an organisation will achieve its objectives through the people it employs but to achieve those objectives requires a culture of continuous improvement. In order to constantly improve and achieve successful change, the Council needs to value, develop and maximise the contribution of all its employees.

3. The Steering Group considers the five key building blocks to a delivering a successful People Strategy are:

· Being an employer of choice – creating flexible employment, development and reward packages, creating a challenging and exciting working environment and being a good employer and looking after our people

· Being a developer of people – creating strong leaders, promoting professional and personal development and helping employees to take responsibility for their own development and lifelong learning

· Making connections – developing better access to new information and communication technologies, providing effective and timely management information on people related issues, creating greater opportunity to contribute ideas for service improvement

· Influencing organisational change – involving and empowering employees to contribute to innovation and change, creating a performance culture, modernising employment packages to fit in with new ways of working and developing more effective partnerships with our trade unions and employees

· Valuing diversity – using everybody’s contribution to improve service delivery, ensuring fair treatment for all employees and monitoring personnel practice and workforce profiles and taking positive action to help achieve this aim

4. At the strategic level the Personnel Service’s primary objective is to deliver the Council’s People Strategy and it’s aim to identify and take forward the broad measures that will essentially have the right people in place to deliver the Council’s programmes and, ultimately, the Corporate Plan. These will include learning and development frameworks, pay policies and flexible working patterns and in so doing demonstrating that the service is adding true value.

5. In practice, much of the Council’s current personnel activity is reactive and at an operational level. Whilst that element of the service is valued by customers and stakeholders, it does not necessarily provide real ‘added’ value and play an important role in signalling and planning cultural and other changes required by the Council ie at a strategic level. As in many organisations, the Personnel Service’s strategic contribution, eg through organisation development activity, is typically perceived as adding greater value than the provision of administrative services. However in the case of the Isle of Wight Council, organisation development activity, as indicated through benchmark surveys, accounts for a low 5.9% of direct personnel activity cost, the lowest in the unitary and metropolitan authority sub-sample.

Background to the Review

Scope and objectives

6. The review of this key support service came at a time of major organisational change aimed at streamlining management structures and improving accountability through enhanced performance management arrangements. The implementation of the new organisational strategy presents an ideal opportunity to identify the personnel needs of the Council and the demands of the business environment in which the personnel service operates. In turn, these determine the objectives for the personnel service and help to identify the areas for service improvement.

7. The purpose of the review was set out in the scoping document attached at appendix 1 and approved by the Resources Select Committee on19 February 2001. The main aim was to consider the way in which the Council’s personnel function is organised and delivered throughout the Isle of Wight Council with a view to bringing about improvements in service provision consistent with the aims of the Best Value regime. At the completion of the review recommendations would be made with regard to:

· What services the Council’s personnel function should be providing to achieve Best Value

· Who should be providing these services and in which locations

· The appropriate organisational structures for personnel to ensure that services are effectively delivered and continuously improved

· Objectives and improvement targets for the personnel service for the next three to five years

· How the performance of the service will be assessed through continued benchmarking and performance indicators

· Roles for Elected Members and officers in delivering effective personnel services

8. Ideally, a fundamental review of the entire personnel service would have been undertaken but, in light of the experience of services reviewed during the first year of the regime and advice from the Audit Commission, such an approach was considered unrealistic given the resources which the Council was able to dedicate to the review. The Steering Group wished to focus on key areas where measurable outcomes could be identified. A functional approach, targeting those areas where sustainable improvement and thus long term benefits for the Council could be delivered, would be the more realistic approach and this was agreed by the Resources Select Committee.

9. Although the consultation and benchmarking exercise would subsequently confirm which service areas would offer the best potential for improvement, the Resources Select Committee considered that the prime focus for the review would be on the functional areas of health and safety, occupational health services, absence management and recruitment and selection. The consultation exercise revealed that the Personnel Information and Payroll System (PIPS) was also an area where customers had concerns and where there was potential for improvement and this was subsequently included within the scope of the review.

Review team

10. A small Steering Group was formed after the June 2001 local elections comprising Avril Holland, Ian Scovell, Annette Culshaw, Penny Law, John Gardner, Alistair Drain, Don Roe and Max Burton, Councillors Margaret Lloyd, Reg Barry, Garry Price, Ian Stephens, Andy Sutton and Roger Mazillius and Mark Chiverton and Bernie Hawkins who represented UNISON. A ‘division of labour’ was agreed with Elected Members working closely with lead officers for each of the themed review areas.

Stakeholders

11. A significant degree of consultation took place in order to seek the views of stakeholders, primarily Elected Members and management although views on the recruitment and selection process were, however, sought from a random selection of recently appointed employees. A structured questionnaire to internal service users was administered and analysed by external consultants EP-Saratoga with the intention of ascertaining the views of Councillors, managers and employees as to the importance and perceived performance of the various personnel activities. It must be said, however, that the response rate was disappointing and the customer survey results may not be statistically viable. Views arising out of a ‘challenge’ workshop comprising some 50 Service Managers and trade union representatives were taken into account together with the views of focus groups, analysis of service questionnaires and the views of the Young Employees’ Forum were actively encouraged. Throughout the whole process, the Steering Group maintained a scrutinising and steering overview.

Outcomes

Findings

12. The key findings are set out in paragraph 16 of this report. The broad conclusion from stakeholders is that there is near agreement between personnel staff and their customers on the relative importance of personnel functions undertaken. This was supported by the EP-Saratoga survey which concluded that all activities were considered to add ‘some measurable value’. Of particular importance is pay and benefits management, recruitment and selection, employee relations and safety management.

13. The perception of levels of performance is, however, mixed with a number of areas in need of development and some strengths emerging. No personnel process was considered to be better than ‘generally meeting requirements, but not on a consistent basis’, and although no process was rated lower than this, organisational development, ie the introduction and management of change within the organisation, and management information systems ie the computerised personnel system received low ratings indicating the need for urgent attention. The best performed personnel functions were pay and benefits management and training and development.

14. In relation to activity costs, the overall cost of personnel services per employee, compared to similar local authorities, is at the 22^nd percentile ie in the lower quartile. This must be viewed positively from a competitive perspective but is also an indication that the service is potentially under resourced.

15. Feedback from the first focus group meeting of stakeholders proved extremely valuable. It not only confirmed the results of the independent EP-Saratoga survey in respect of relative importance and performance of the various personnel activities, particularly in the ‘themed’ aspects of the review, but also eliciting the problem areas. Whilst users of the personnel service are generally content with the services provided and recognised the strengths of the service, they did highlight some weaknesses. In particular, there is a general lack of clarity and often confusion with regard to people management responsibilities between personnel services at the centre and line management. Such clarity and understanding is fundamental for a business which is highly dependent on the effectiveness and contribution of people for the delivery of its services.

16. The Steering Group considered that the key findings of the review are:

· The need for a corporate people strategy

· Develop a clear and simple framework that specifies the responsibilities of managers in relation to people management together with clear performance standards and implement it through a programme of communication and training

· The need to improve the review process and modernisation of the Council’s personnel policies and procedures

· Clarify and place on a sound contractual basis, the provision of occupational health services, establishing service standards and targets

· Simplifying pre-employment screening process to achieve cost savings

· Raising the profile of health and safety, clarifying the role of the Safety Advisory Service

· Re-tendering the health and safety contract to include an ‘in-house’ bid

· Centralise recruitment administrative process

· Develop a structured approach to career development and succession planning

· Improve attendance management procedures through clear management guidelines and employee health awareness – The Healthy Workforce Strategy

· Improve computerised personnel management information and maximise ‘e-hr’ opportunities

The Steering Group recognised the importance of continuous Member development as part of the Modernising Agenda. To this end Elected Members should strive to achieve IIP status for themselves.

Recommendations

17. Implementing all the findings will have resource implications, but if the personnel service is to provide better value then it is nonetheless recommended that all of the above findings are implemented in accordance with the Service Improvement Plan set out below and monitored through the Resources Select Committee future scrutiny work programme.

18. Service improvement plan

	Action:	Link to People Strategy:	Targets:	By when:	By whom:	Success measures:	Priority:	Resource Implications:	BVPI
1.	Develop, approve and adopt an Isle of Wight Council People Strategy	It creates it!	· To devise strategy, consult on detail and seek approval	December 2002	Max Burton	· Strategy adopted and communicated to all employees	High	None
2.	Develop a clear and simple framework that specifies the responsibilities of managers in relation to people management together with clear performance standards and implement it through a programme of communication and training	Making connections; Influencing organisational change	· To produce personnel management ‘tool-kit’ to support line managers incorporating performance standards · To devise training programme for line managers in aspect of people management	June 2003	Max Burton	· Improved employee morale and performance · Reduced turnover · Fewer grievances and disciplinary action · Empowerment of line management and less reliance on central personnel	High	Need for Organisational Development Manager role to be established – c £30,000 pa plus on-costs	BVPI 13 BVPI 14
3.	The need to improve the review process and modernisation of the Council’s personnel policies and procedures	Being a developer of people; Making connections	· To establish a programme to review all personnel policies and procedures on a regular basis · To ensure all policies and procedures reflect current best practice and business needs of the Council for endorsement by Resources Select Committee	Rolling triennial programme to commence September 2002	Max Burton	· Improved employee and industrial relations and people management practice	High	Need for Organisational Development Manager role to be established - c£30,000 pa plus on-costs	BVPI 11A BVPI 11B BVPI 13
4.	Clarify and place on a sound contractual basis, the provision of the occupational health service, establishing service standards and targets	Being an employer of choice; Influencing organisational change	· To determine and communicate IWC requirements of Occupational Health Unit · To produce clear service standards and outcome targets	October 2002	Avril Holland Ian Scovell	· Service more responsive to Council’s needs particularly in relation to Healthy Workforce Strategy · Speedier resolution of cases referred · Improved employee welfare	High	None	BVPI 12 BVPI 15
5.	Simplifying pre-employment screening process to achieve cost savings	Being an employer of choice	· To revise procedure for pre-employment screening to ensure that only those prospective employees with identified health problems are referred to Occupational Health Unit for clearance	October 2002	Avril Holland	· Fewer conditional employment offers · Less time between job offer and take up of employment · Budget savings	Medium	None, bar cost of printing of new forms but will be off-set by potential savings
6.	Raising the profile of health and safety, clarifying the role of the Safety Advisory Service	Being an employer of choice	· To develop and implement a proactive health and safety strategy · To clarify respective roles and responsibilities of Safety Advisory Service, managers and employees · To produce and distribute revised management guidance notes · To issue Safety Manual in electronic format · To develop safety management training programme for managers and supervisors	December 2002	Max Burton Ian Scovell	· Improved awareness of respective roles and responsibilities · Reduction in accident rates · No HSE improvement/prohibition notices	High	Resourced within existing budgets	BVPI 12
7.	Re-tendering the health and safety contract to include an ‘in-house’ bid	Being an employer of choice; Influencing organisational change	· To consult customers and service users with regard to service specification · To produce tender documentation, advertise contract and submit in-house bid	January 2003	Max Burton	· Tender awarded within estimated contract price	High	Additional funding may be required if higher specification required by customers
8.	Centralise recruitment administrative processes	Being an employer of choice; Making connections; Valuing diversity	· To establish central recruitment bureau operating to consistent procedures and high standards · To recruit all non-school based permanent and temporary employees through recruitment bureau making it easier to and more cost effective to source staff · To make it easier and fairer to apply for jobs at IWC · To develop a compelling employer brand · To develop an interactive recruitment web-site · To improve performance in redeploying staff	October 2003	Avril Holland Ian Scovell	· Reduced overall recruitment costs · Reduced time to fill vacancies · Improved attraction and fill rates · Improved redeployment levels · Evidence of a more diverse workforce	Medium	Additional staffing resource may be required	BVPI 14
9.	Develop a structured approach to career development and succession planning	Being an employer of choice; Being a developer of people; Valuing diversity	· To develop trainee scheme with clear career paths linked where possible to career pay grades · To ensure all employees have regular performance and development reviews · To use management information to identify succession planning issues and implement development programmes	March 2003	Claire Shand	· Fewer employees leave to achieve career development · Increase in number of young members of the workforce · More trainee schemes · Reduction in future skill shortages and recruitment/ retention problems · Increase in internal promotions	High	Approximately £150,000 per annum depending on number of trainee roles linkage into skills shortage, also payback for qualification training if leave within 2 years, established but funded from savings of recent organisation restructure exercise	BVPI 11A BVPI 11B BVPI 16A
10.	Improve attendance management procedures through clear management guidelines and employee health awareness	Being an employer of choice; Influencing organisational change	· To revise current procedures in accordance with best practice · To develop a range of preventative health initiatives aimed at encouraging employees to adopt healthier lifestyles · To identify and address worklife balance issues across the Council · To further develop the range of flexible working options	March 2003	Max Burton	· Reduction in sickness absence rates · An improvement in rehabilitation of employees back to work following injury or ill health absence · Improved employee commitment and morale · Reduced turnover	Medium	None – funded from existing budget provision	BVPI 12 BVPI 14
11.	Improve computerised personnel management information and maximise ‘e-hr’ opportunities	Being an employer of choice; Making connections	· To develop the PIPS system to ensure it is process driven and self-service · To develop an interactive intranet/internet portal through which customers can access a wide range of personnel services including recruitment	September 2005	Penny Law	· Managers will have easy access to a wide range of personnel data and information which will help drive business objectives · Customers find it easier to access personnel information and services · More personnel transactions will be capable of taking place electronically · Personnel intranet will be the main means of access to personnel information by both managers and employees · Improved communication with staff · Employees will be able to update their personal files electronically	High	Best value pump priming bid of £60,000 to cover employee secondment to lead project over two year period

BVPIs are detailed in full at Appendix 4.

Part 2 – The Review Process

The Personnel Service

Why have a personnel function?

19. Personnel management is not a statutory function and so there is no legal requirement for a local authority to provide a personnel department. It is, however, a necessary function; not only are personnel activities governed by a wide range of statute (see appendix 2) but also the nature of local government and the Council’s emphasis on good practice means that the personnel function, like many other professional support services, should be carried out by specialists.

20. Employing and managing staff is a key responsibility of many of the Council’s officers. For the most senior officers, it is probably the single most important task. Aside from property, employees are far and away the most single costly resource, yet they can easily be under utilised. The majority of the Council’s services are labour intensive in that they rely, above all else, on people to provide or operate them. The effective use of people at work can be difficult as range of issues the processes involved in managing employees are often complex and delicate. To manage staff well requires knowledge of industrial relations, the design and operation of pay and performance systems, selection and training techniques, health and safety measures and workforce planning. Moreover, the constraints and expectations placed on large employers by employment law have increased significantly over recent years and the cost, both in financial and reputation terms, of getting it wrong can be fairly substantial.

21. The Council directly employs over 5000 people, costing over £90 million this year. Employment on this scale requires extensive administration and whilst much of this work has the potential to be done ‘locally’ by supervisors and line managers and, indeed, the management of people in a general sense is something that every manager does, the complexity of employment law and the importance of ensuring that managers act consistently and reasonably across the whole organisation mean that specialist personnel staff are needed to help the Council achieve the best from the people it employs.

22. Managers are expertly knowledgeable about technical or professional aspects of their particular services but they are, of course, also responsible for managing their staff. In recent years there has been a trend towards much more responsibility and discretion for personnel management being devolved away from the centre. Indeed, there is no reason why this should not continue as, through a ‘can-do’ performance management based culture, the Council entrusts to individual managers the task of service delivery. In the education service we have seen the local management of schools entrusted to governing bodies and in particular areas of employment law, such as health and safety and data protection, there is an emphasis on the personal responsibilities of line managers.

23. The need for a professional personnel function remains. Devolvement of responsibility to line management has to be within an overall corporate framework of policies and standards. The discretion which managers have, to make decisions about their staff needs to be exercised within clearly defined guidelines, laid down to preserve a corporate approach. One reason for this is that within law the Council is a single employer and the consistency with which it treats its staff in different directorates is an important factor in deciding if it is acting fairly in a particular case. More widely, the development of good practice in all aspects of employment – and its effective dissemination – is recognised as a specialist task in its own right. The development of employment policies and approaches in the broadest sense which fit the Council’s character and needs, are usually referred to as issues of human resource strategy and demand a well-informed and corporate treatment, which line managers are generally not in a position to undertake. For all of these reasons there needs to be a partnership between the personnel function and line managers.

24. There are three additional factors at work in a local authority which help to make a professional personnel function even more necessary. Firstly, there is the existence of wide-ranging national agreements on pay and conditions which need to be observed, interpreted and, in keeping with a growing trend in recent years, may be subject to modification through local negotiation and collective bargaining. Secondly, European legislation affects local authorities and other public sector organisations, as emanations of the State, earlier and more directly than it does private sector employers. Thirdly, there is a healthy tradition of staff representation and consultation within local government and a culture of openness in employment matters, which has implications for the way in which employment issues are managed. Supporting an employee relations structure that enables unionised and non-unionised staff to be consulted, informed and have their collective voices heard is perhaps one of the more important functions.

25. All of this is the work of the personnel professionals, leaving line managers free to handle the direction and management of staff within the policy guidelines that have been established. Plainly there is always a balance to be struck in this between what falls within the remit of the personnel function and what is for directorates to decide. This is something that all large organisations like the Council debate from time to time and it is healthy that such debate goes on.

26. It is also worth pointing out that the Council’s personnel service should not only be concerned with the needs of the organisation and its employees but should also look outwards to respond to the needs of the local community in general. The Council is the largest employer on the Island and can support good employment practice by cultivating an image as a model employer through its terms and conditions, policies on equalities and diversity and also training and development practice. For example, in training its own workforce, the vast majority of whom live on the Island, it can increase the skills base and employability of a large number of its population.

Future influences

27. The PEST analysis below shows influences which are likely to impact on the future delivery of the Council’s personnel service:

Political

· legislation changes – amendments to TUPE regulations, age discrimination, ‘family friendly’ policies, reduction in qualifying period for tribunal claims bringing more employees within scope, data protection

· government initiatives – eg CPA and other inspection regimes, Best Value, increase in partnership arrangements, regionalisation, sustainabilty

Economic

· improvement in local economy with increased competition for staff

· relatively high house prices affecting ability to attract new recruits

· maintaining competitive pay and benefits position to recruit and retain staff

Social

· skill shortages

· demand for greater work/life balance, childcare

· flexible working

· ageing workforce

· greater employee involvement/partnership

· social exclusion – access to employment

· recognising diversity

Technological

· e-government

· e-HR and e-learning

28. Predicting the future is a fallible undertaking, but some factors which will have a bearing on the work of Personnel Services in the future can be seen with reasonable certainty.

29. The trend towards line managers having more personal responsibility and discretion to manage their staff within broad policy guidelines will continue. As part of this managers will need greater direct access to staff records and other factual information and to clear and sound guidance and advice.

30. There will be more – and more complex- employment law. The last decade has seen an increase in the amount of legislative change originating in Europe and this is likely to continue. There has been a steady increase in the number of cases taken to employment tribunals and there is no reason to think that this will change. All of this has implications for the personnel function, which will itself need to ensure a supply of professionally qualified and skilled staff.

31. As a support function, the costs of personnel services are recharged to the organisation. There is a need for the support service recharging generally to be more accurate, so that costs are allocated more accurately and consistently.

32. Within the Council there may be broader structural issues that will impact on the function. The issues may be to do with the changing system of political leadership which may in turn bring about yet further changes to the shape of the current management structure. Quite apart from this, the continuing Best Value process will impact on every part of the Council, and where there is significant reorganisation or resources that will inevitably need to be supported by personnel staff. Any reorganisation, particularly if it involves outsourcing of services, may have implications for both the work and the future look of Council’s personnel services.

33. Outside of the Council there will be many important changes too. In particular, the continuing shortage of young professional and skilled workers will make the recruitment and retention of staff increasingly difficult.

What the Personnel Service currently does – a brief summary

34. Personnel is a professional support function with a wide range of ‘customers’ and ‘stakeholders’. Chiefly, the users are supervisors and line managers who require assistance with operational personnel work and the Head of Paid Service and Councillors who need expert advice and information on strategic, authority wide personnel issues but every employee at some point during their ‘journey through the organisation’ has dealings with the personnel section. Whilst the personnel function’s prime customers may be seen as internal ones for whom the service must be seen as providing an effective and added-value service, its relations with the community at large, especially through the recruitment process is often seen as portraying the Council’s image as a whole. Each year a large number of people express an interest in working for the Council and the impression that external applicants receive of the Council through the recruitment process is therefore crucial.

35. In terms of current service provision the resources of the personnel function are largely dedicated to providing personnel specialist advice and support to line managers for the front-line delivery of Council services. Such service is provided across a broad range of activities which can be grouped into the following categories:

Recruitment and Selection	Providing the right number of people with the right skills at the right rime in order to meet the Council’s aims and objectives
Pay, Benefits and Conditions of Service	Ensuring fair, equitable and appropriate pay and benefits
Employee Relations	Providing expertise and guidance to Elected Members, line managers and employees. Conducting effective negotiations and communications with employees and their representatives
Organisation Development & Performance Management	Supporting reorganisation and change. Advising on managing performance reviews
Training and Development	Maximising the Council’s delivery of services through effective training and management development
Occupational Health and Attendance Management	Provision of occupational health and counselling services. Promoting good health. Development of absence control policies
Safety Management	Advice and guidance on health and safety at work
Equality and Diversity	Development and promotion of equal opportunity
Workforce/Management Information Systems	Maintenance of personal data and provision of workforce information and statistics

How the service is organised and how much it costs

36. The professional functions of the service are, with a few exceptions, largely centralised. For recruitment and employee relations, under support arrangements for the local management of schools, the Directorate of Education and Community Development employs its own personnel and administrative support staff.

37. The majority of the personnel function is currently provided in-house. This in part arises from the high emphasis, which the Council places, on its staff, their motivation and training. When seeking advice and guidance, line managers also prefer to know whom they are dealing with and to have easy access to them.

38. Current arrangements are that personnel services are provided through the Central Personnel section with the exception of the Directorate of Education and Community Development which provides personnel support to schools and teachers. Certain personnel administration tasks, for example, those associated with recruitment and selection are undertaken within Directorates. Central Personnel is responsible for determining strategic and corporate personnel policies. Some personnel activities are, however, provided externally – health and safety advice, recruitment advertising, occupational health services. Outsourced activities account for £315,500 of personnel expenditure.

39. The Learning Centre provides a central training support service to all Directorates, its main customer being social services. The Directorate of Education and Community Development provides a training and development resource service to teachers through its Education Centre and the Fire and Rescue Service has its own dedicated training centre. The Education Centre and the Fire and Rescue Training Centre have been, or will be, part of other functional areas subject to best value review and were not included in this particular review.

40. A total of 21 full time and 8 part time people are directly employed by the Council in the provision of personnel services of whom 9 are professionally qualified. Total whole time equivalents (WTE’s) amount to 20.4 centrally and 6.0 within the Education and Community Development staffing unit. The cost of providing the service is £510,000 for the central personnel service and £133,000 for Education and Community Development.

41. A structure chart for the Council’s Personnel Service is attached at appendix 3.

The four ‘C’s’

Challenge

42. Challenging why and how the personnel service is provided requires a fundamental rethink of ‘how things are done around here’.

43. The most fundamental question to be asked as part of this review, ‘why do we need a personnel function?’, was so important that it needed to be answered at the beginning of Part 2 of this report and in doing so to put the remainder of the report into context. The reasons for having a personnel service are set out in those paragraphs and need little further comment. The service should be carried out for a number of reasons:

· To ensure the Council recruits, develops and effectively deploys its human resources/assets

· To ensure equality of opportunity and fairness

· To ensure the Council complies with the requirements of employment and other related legislation and,

· To support management and staff in enabling the Council to adapt to its changing environment and to meet new challenges and opportunities

44. The service was challenged by 50 service managers and trade union representatives across the authority who attended the Personnel Challenge Workshop in July 2001 where they were asked to share their views and criticisms about the current level of services they receive form the Personnel and Training Section. The service managers were not only asked to give their general views about the service provided but were also asked to give their specific views on the four themed areas of this Best Value review.

45. Two general issues about service provision were highlighted. Firstly, that there ought to be more departmental discretion to determine how much central support service managers wished to purchase or contract to use. Respective roles and responsibilities of the personnel function and line managers for people management needed to be clarified and expected standards of performance, wherever and whoever delivered the service, established to ensure that there are no inconsistencies. Secondly, there must be easier and improved access to all personnel policies and standards, procedures and workforce information.

Consult

46. Customer and stakeholder needs and demands are key to the future design and delivery of personnel services. To ensure a comprehensive picture of customers’ views the following consultation mechanisms were used:

· The Personnel Challenge Workshop

· EP-Saratoga customer survey of Councillors, managers, personnel staff and trade union representatives

· Sample survey of recently recruited employees

· Discussions with Young Employees’ Forum

47. The feedback from the Personnel Challenge Workshop and input from the Young Employees’ Forum has proved invaluable to the Review Team particularly in challenging the service provided in the four ‘themed’ areas and these groups will be used again as part of the process for examining the success of the Service Improvement Plan. The Young Employees’ Forum is a successful initiative by the younger members of the Council’s workforce and the consultation process should, however, be widened to include other special interest groups – current and aspiring women managers, employees with a disability and those from ethnic minorities.

48. Whilst the attendance at the Personnel Challenge Workshop was good and the response helpful, the response to the customer survey conducted by EP-Saratoga was disappointing with fewer than 20% of the 150 questionnaires distributed being completed and returned for analysis. The results may therefore not be statistically valid.

49. The EP-Saratoga findings are nonetheless consistent with current thinking in the field of personnel management, which is that there is a very wide spectrum of activity commonly undertaken by personnel departments, ranging from welfare and clerical support through to strategic advice and policy formulation. The effectiveness of the personnel service to the organisation as a whole reflects the extent to which it is able to work with senior line management to anticipate, define and solve strategic personnel problems. This is the contribution to the organisation that is specialised and valuable.

50. From the customers’ perspective, all personnel activities were considered to add some measurable value. Pay and benefits management, resourcing, employee relations and safety management were considered to be the most important processes. Organisation development and occupational health were the least highly rated processes. No process was considered to be essential to achieving Best Value performance.

51. With regard to performance, the perception of the personnel’s performance is mixed, with a number of development areas and some strengths emerging. No personnel process was rated higher than ‘generally meeting requirements, but not on a consistent basis’. The best performed personnel activities were pay and benefits management, resourcing and training and development. Lowest ratings, indicating the need for action, were received by organisation development and computerised personnel and training systems

52. The EP-Saratoga customer survey results present the function with a real challenge to deliver effective services that will be valued by our customers. Organisation development is a prime strategic process for the function. It is only regarded as adding ‘some measurable value’ by customers, with 48% of respondents rating the process as ‘essential’. Consequently, the low score for performance is an indication that the Personnel Service needs to improve its effectiveness significantly in this key strategic area. Developing a People Strategy is the starting point.

53. Pay and benefits, resourcing and employee relations are also key areas for further development, with customers identifying them as the most important processes but none of them gaining a totally satisfactory performance rating. Clarifying respective roles, setting standards for people management activities whoever performs them and providing adequate training will ensure the removal of inconsistencies in practice and performance.

Compare

54. In order to judge the quality of a service it is important to compare the performance of that service against others supplying similar services, ideally, across a range of sectors. The aim is not to make an exact comparison but to identify any significant differences and to seek out best practice so that improvements can be made.

55. A number of Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPIs) are intended to show how the Council has performed on some aspects of personnel management. A table showing the corporate health indicators, taken from the Council’s latest Best Value Performance Plan is given at appendix 4. The main areas for concern and in need of improvement are the low percentage of women in the top 5% of earners and the slippage in working days lost due to sickness absence where previously the Council had been below the median for similar authorities but in the last year have slipped above that median number of days lost per employee ie heading in the wrong direction!

56. These BVPIs are designed to measure the performance of the organisation with regard to equality of opportunity, absence management, staff turnover, early retirements and retirements due to ill-health. It should be noted however, that the BVPIs are not a direct measure of the performance of the personnel service. Whilst the personnel function will determine policies and give advice and guidance on how to interpret and apply those policies, the responsibility for managing people and hence the absolute measure of performance, lies with line management. The indicators do help, however, to show where policies may not be working in practice.

57. As part of the preparation for this review, EP-Saratoga, in addition to the customer survey, were commissioned to conduct a benchmark survey of key metrics in order to compare the cost effectiveness of the Council’s personnel function with other unitary authorities in the South East. The results are set out in appendix 5 and against ten key benchmarks, we meet five of the ‘stretch’ targets ie scoring in the upper or lower quartiles and, reassuringly, we score well against the number and costs of personnel staff per employee (FTE). Scope for improvement is indicated in managing sickness absence and the cost of absence and reducing the number of reportable injuries.

Compete

58. It is difficult to argue against the need for a personnel service but that is not to say that none of the current activities of the personnel service could not be outsourced. The service is already delivered using a mix of in-house and external resources. Training activities, in particular are carried out by external service providers. Recruitment advertising is also carried out by an external service provider as is provision of occupational health services and counselling. The health and safety advisory service was externalised six years ago and has since been subject to competitive tender. Outplacement consultants have been used during the recent senior management restructuring exercise. Where these services are considered to be performing to an acceptable standard there is no reason to ‘municipalise’ these services although they should be market tested from time to time.

59. Research so far shows that there is no firmly established market for the supply of an entire range of personnel services to local authorities. Some authorities have been successful in outsourcing personnel services as part of a package of support services, namely Lincolnshire County Council, Bedfordshire County Council and more recently West Berkshire Council. There is little interest in taking on a single service and whether the providers are able to develop the market for support services and remain competitive remains to be seen. The growth in the commercial market for suppliers of personnel services may be such that things will look quite different in three or five years time.

60. A number of companies and consultancies offer support, primarily in pay and benefits administration. The chart at appendix 6 shows examples of the areas where external providers currently exist although these are targeted mainly towards the private sector.

61. There are, however, two distinct niche areas with well-developed markets; training and development and recruitment. The latter is one of the themed areas of this review and is considered in more detail below.

62. The majority of training is currently undertaken in-house but delivered by external service providers eg the management development programme. The exception to this is ICT training and induction courses for new employees.

63. The benefits of facilitating training in-house but using external service providers are:

· The best training providers and most experienced are identified

· Courses complement the Council’s culture and include/incorporate examples relevant to the Council, ensuring that learning is highly relevant and immediately applicable to the workplace.

· Council training facilities provide a safe and confidential forum where colleagues can share experiences and talk through real and sometimes sensitive issues

· Training is usually on-site and more accessible to employees

· The delivery of training is more cost effective (see cost benefit analysis at appendix 7)

64. When considering the question of providing services in-house or through an external supplier, the question of ‘added value’ is paramount. Typically, in many organisations the personnel service’s strategic contribution is perceived as adding greater value than the provision of administrative services. The strategic contribution provides 60% added value to a business for 10% of the cost of the service. Conversely, administrative services make up 60% of the cost yet add only 10% in value. There is an even 30%:30% split for delivering personnel products and services eg employee relations advice.

65. The EP-Saratoga customer survey indicates that in our case, strategic organisation development activity – ie that personnel activity which contributes to structural reorganisation and cultural change accounts for a low 5.9% of direct personnel costs, the lowest in the unitary and metropolitan sub-sample and that, consequently, the bulk of personnel costs are concentrated on the low added value, though nonetheless important, activities ie some parts of the recruitment and payroll processes as well as establishment and record keeping. For such tasks there is no underlying reason why they must be done within a personnel section and value for money is almost entirely to do with cost ie economies of scale. The low added value tasks are the kind of activities for which an external market may eventually develop.

The ‘themed’ reviews

Absence management

66. Sickness absence detrimentally affects the ability of the Council to deliver high quality services. Along with all other local authorities, the sickness absence of the Council’s employees is audited and published as one of the Best Value corporate health indicators. The government has set a target of a 30% reduction in absence due to sickness for all local authorities by 2003.

67. When absence management was chosen as one of the themes for this best value review, at 7.8 the number of days lost per full time equivalent was below the average for local authorities and other parts of the public sector eg NHS and Civil Service. The target is to reduce the figure so that the Council’s sickness absence was within the lower quartile. Since then, the figure has, unfortunately, moved in the wrong direction and for 2001/2002 the figure has risen to 9.47 days per fte. Of particular concern is the increase in ‘stress-related’ absence from 23% to 25% of all absences. The cost to the Council in terms of lost productivity is in the order of £2.9 million.

68. Clearly, if the goal to reduce sickness absence by 30% within the next two years is to be achieved there is a need to improve absence management performance ie to reduce the extent and costs of absence. Absence management policies and practices needed to be challenged and new ones devised and consulted on. This was done through two groups – the ‘Attendance Champions’ comprising of some 20 senior managers, Councillors and trade union representatives whose task was, primarily, to review and then formulate revised policies and procedures and the smaller ‘ Healthy Workforce’ group whose purpose was to examine and recommend initiatives and opportunities available for employees to develop healthy lifestyles and an improved worklife balance, the premise being that a healthier and better motivated employee is less likely to suffer sickness absence – prevention being better than cure! Colleagues from the health service participated in the Healthy Workforce group. The respective groups consulted with directorate management teams, employee representatives and Elected Member colleagues.

69. In addition, the groups had the benefit of the views of managers at the Challenge Workshop who felt that criticisms relating to absence management result from the lack of understanding of the Personnel Information and Payroll System. They felt that there was no consistent approach to dealing with sickness absence especially the production of sickness reports and that consistent advice on welfare, counselling and confidentiality was urgently required. Managers identified the need for a customer-friendly management information system to assist monitoring and identifying absence trends before situations deteriorated. Training in applying procedures was necessary and a proactive approach to absence management usually resulted in a positive outcome. Managers felt that, if these services could be properly delivered, this would be an essential and invaluable tool to help managers manage staff in the future.

70. A perceived weakness of the current absence management process was the lack of a responsive and pro-active occupational health service (see below) and an improved occupational health service is key to the success of an absence management programme. Achieving success will also depend on sickness absence reduction being a key performance objective for Heads of Service and line managers. Members, too, have a key role to play with the Resources Select Committee monitoring overall performance and maintaining an overview of the application of absence management policies and procedures.

71. The Attendance Champions working group were extremely diligent and developed an ‘attendance’ management policy and procedures establishing clear ‘triggers’ for action. The document is attached at appendix 8 but in view of it’s importance it has already been recommended by the Resources Select Committee and approved by the Executive as Council policy. Training for managers has been undertaken and sickness absence data is now available electronically.

72. The healthy workforce strategy is, of course, not only about dealing with absenteeism through sickness. The ‘preventative’ work continues particularly in the area of improving the worklife balance of employees.

Recruitment and selection

73. Although this themed review covered the recruitment and selection process, the review concentrated on the recruitment aspects ie the processes leading up to the interview stage. The selection of the successful candidate is always the responsibility of line management, the personnel function is an advisory one and cannot dictate the final choice. The recruitment process was devolved from the centre to line management some five years ago. This was a recommendation of PA Consultants and followed good practice guidance of the time set out in the recommendations of District Audit review of recruitment and training in 1996. A comprehensive recruitment and selection guidance manual was produced and training given to those involved with the process. Since devolving the activity, some recruitment has returned to the centre as some Directorates/Sections were not able to cope or felt that a better service had been provided centrally.

74. The general consensus of those attending the Challenge Workshop is that recruitment and selection ought to be an essential service and that it should be centralised rather than persist with the current inconsistent, part delegated arrangements and managers value the knowledge and expertise of personnel staff, especially when there are unexpected difficulties to overcome. Furthermore, if the service was not provided in-house, it should be co-ordinated and managed centrally. It was felt that a centralised co-ordinated approach would eradicate the current inconsistencies in advertising, administration and confidential checking ie references, criminal record checks.

75. Other related issues which were raised at the Challenge Workshop included guidance for Elected Member involvement in the selection process and the relevance, consistency and equity of job evaluation. Many stakeholders felt the current job evaluation system was too administratively based and could not reflect the range and diversity of the tasks it was designed to evaluate. Although job evaluation is not considered to be part of the process of recruitment and selection, the points made by stakeholders is noted and a review of the job evaluation scheme will be included in a future personnel work/service plan.

76. Recruitment is the second niche area where external service providers are reasonably well established, with high street recruitment agencies eg Manpower, Anchor and recruitment administrators such as CapitaRAS and Veredus. The former normally supply temporary employees at an agreed hourly rate whilst the latter will run a recruitment campaign, usually with some form of ‘headhunting’, for a fee – usually a fixed percentage of the salary of the post being advertised. Neither type of external service provider is able to provide in totality the value added and strategic elements of the recruitment process ie design and delivery of recruitment campaigns, professional advice, provision of selection and psychometric testing and contract of employment administration. Service/cost comparisons are shown at appendix 9.

77. There are a number of benefits of in-house recruitment through the personnel service:

· Commitment to ensuring the right people are in place to meet the Council’s aims and objectives

· Recruitment activities carried out in a fair and consistent way and in accordance with legislative requirements

· Provision of full administrative support

· Campaign planning, design, delivery and ongoing support

· More cost-effective

78. Recruitment practice was benchmarked against several other local authorities where, it was known, different arrangements had been adopted for the recruitment of staff. At Portsmouth City Council, personnel services are a decentralised activity and recruitment, along with all administrative tasks, is devolved to the department personnel teams where there are professional staff and sufficient resources available to deal with the recruitment process. Hertfordshire County Council had previously devolved the recruitment process to departments but it has experienced considerable recruitment and retention problems in recent years. An increasing number of casual and temporary employees were employed and apart from the cost implications, this created additional pressure, as permanent staff felt undervalued and demotivated and left the organisation. This spiral of problems lead to a review and it was decided to offer an opportunity for partnership working with a recruitment agency, whereby the agency would advertise, maintain a database of both casual and permanent employees and handle all recruitment procedures to the production of a ‘long list’. The scheme is still is only just into its second year of operation so it is too early to say if such a partnership has proved successful. In Southampton City Council recruitment is dealt with by one of the four groups of professional personnel staff supporting the individual directorates, the groups being seconded but line managed by the central personnel unit. Each group works slightly differently although they adhere to the corporate procedures and standards. In Buckinghamshire County Council, all recruitment , including schools, has been brought to the centre as a cost saving measure with all administration handled at the centre and extensive use being made of new technology. Line managers still determine shortlists and undertake interviews.

79. The recentralisation of recruitment other than school-based staff or uniformed firefighters would accord with the wishes of the majority of line managers. It would be a cost-effective option, providing central costs can be contained within existing resources, would free-up administrative resources within directorates and would ensure that recruitment activities are carried out to consistent high standards.

Health and safety

80. The Council’s Head of Paid Service has overall responsibility for the health, safety and welfare at work of all employees. The Head of Personnel and Training Services is responsible for ensuring that appropriate advice and guidance is available to the Council on health and safety issues and Safety Matters (IW) are retained by the Council for this service. The current contract for this service commenced in April 1998, for an initial period of three years but was extended for a period of one year pending the outcome of this Best Value review.

81. Day to day responsibilities for health, safety and welfare rest with line managers. Directorate safety liaison officers provide support to managers, keeping them up to date with health and safety legislation and information.

82. At the Challenge Workshop stakeholders displayed a degree over dissatisfaction over aspects of the present service. Interestingly, they considered that there was more emphasis on safety and not enough on health and that the current service updated and distributed health and safety policies and manuals without training for managers on any regular basis. Most disturbingly, stakeholders felt they did not know what level of support they were entitled to. Some stakeholders called for a review of the existing contract so that Safety Matters provided more ‘hands on’ assistance in future. Generally, there was confusion as to how and who managed the contract with Safety Matters.

83. It was suggested that the role of the Safety Liaison Group be examined to see if it provided an effective means of disseminating and supervising health and safety information within all Directorates.

84. As a result of the Challenge Workshop a focus group was established to explore these issues further. The focus group concluded that it was unclear what service was being provided under the current contract – does the provider give advice, guidance, instructions and/or provide practical assistance and should health and safety training courses be facilitated through the Learning Centre? The recommendations of the focus group were that the health and safety service, whoever supplied it should:

· Undertake regular visits, checks, workplace risk assessments and co-ordinate follow-up work

· Provide brief updates and guidance/advice on changes in regulations

· Provide up to date sources of information on the intranet

· Provide feedback on analysis of accident reports

· Check on contracts let to outside providers

· Adopt a proactive approach to potential problems

85. The focus group recognised that the ‘health’ and ‘safety’ functions could not easily be split but nonetheless considered that there was a need for greater emphasis to be placed on health promotion within the Council. This issue was addressed as part of the Council’s healthy workforce strategy.

86. How and who provided health and safety advice to the Council was also explored. Discussions took place with the Environmental Health Manager to assess the feasibility of the function being incorporated within the Environmental Health function as it has a statutory role to monitor the health and safety activities of certain private sector businesses on the Island. This is clearly an option which may provide for economies of scale and will need to be considered before the current extended contract is retendered.

87. The EP-Saratoga metrics survey did not, unfortunately, provide any useful comparisons. The general New Unitaries Benchmark group confirmed that the Council is the only authority to have outsourced its health and safety service. The output indicator ‘provision of a healthy working environment’ showed the Council as having one of the lowest figures for number of work related occupational health referrals per 100 employees. The Health and Safety executive were approached for possible comparison and benchmarking information but they were unable to help.

88. There is clearly a lack of any solid comparison data which means that comparison has added little to the challenge process. However, the Council’s health and safety management arrangements were subject to a Health and Safety Executive inspection between December 1998 and January 1999. The HSE’s overall impression of health and safety management within the Council was ‘positive – particularly noted was the high level of communication on health and safety within the Council and the importance of the role of the safety liaison officers in the departments’.

89. With regard to health and safety the key findings are:

· Service managers be reminded of their responsibilities for health and safety

· Service managers be provided with a summary of the contract with Safety Matters

· Arrangements for monitoring the delivery of the contract be reviewed to ensure that the service is being delivered to managers satisfaction. The possibility of safety liaison officers playing an increased role in monitoring the contract should be explored

· The contract for providing safety advice should be subject to tender and an in-house bid be encouraged. The tender specification should reflect the issues raised at the Challenge Workshop and the focus group

· All requests for health and safety training be facilitated, but not delivered, through the Learning Centre.

Occupational health service

90. Organisations need an occupational health service for a number of reasons:

· To systematically monitor for early signs of work-related ill health in employees exposed to certain hazards or risks

· To provide a range of health-related programmes and information aimed at improving employee lifestyle, habits and general well being, and

· Facilitating or providing such services to hasten the rehabilitation of employees who have suffered the affects of ill health attributable to work or work-related situations

91. In practice the Council procures the services of the Occupational Health Unit at St Mary’s Hospital to provide the following support:

· Pre-employment screening

· Medical referrals to the Occupational Health Physician in respect of employment capability, and to a lesser extent

· General advice on occupational health issues

92. In the main medical referrals are the most important aspect of the service provided. Where ill-health is concerned managers must make employment decisions based on the available medical advice and in the past such advice has often been difficult to obtain either speedily or of sufficient quality in order to make an informed management decision. In the past two years, the Council has used an alternative Occupational Health Consultant to provide medical advice, particularly in those cases which are most likely to involve termination of employment. This was necessitated when the Occupational Health Unit were unable to engage a suitably qualified physician ie someone who met the requirements of the local government pension scheme regulations and whilst the cost of engaging the consultant were greater than using the Occupational Health Unit, the advice provided proved to more useful and involved fewer consultations. The total cost of providing occupational health services in 2001/2002 amounted to £21,300.

93. The need for sound occupational health advice has never been greater especially since the Audit Commission highlighted the high number of early retirements in local government through ill-health and the increasing in work-related stress claims. Yet all local authorities experience great difficulties in sourcing occupational health services. There is a lack of suitably qualified practitioners within the health service and those in private practice are able to command high fees.

94. Several unitary authorities were consulted with regard to their occupational health service and enquiries revealed an interesting practice with regard to pre-employment screening. The Council’s current practice is for all employees to complete a pre-employment medical questionnaire. All forms are then reviewed by the Occupational Health Unit at a cost of £9.35 per form and with over 800 forms being reviewed per year the total cost amounts to £7500 per annum. The vast majority of prospective employees are cleared with no further necessary medical investigation by the Occupational Health Physician. In several local authorities, a simplified process involves management reviewing a basic questionnaire and, depending on the type of job, making a judgement about a prospective employee’s medical fitness if they have not had any current or recent health problems. A substantial part of the current pre-employment screening costs could be saved if the Council adopted a similar process.

95. Whilst there is no competitive market for occupational health services the current service with the Occupational Health Unit can and should be improved through establishing a clear contractual basis and understanding. The key findings are:

· Simplify the pre-employment screening process to achieve cost savings

· Clarify and place on a sound contractual basis, the provision of occupational health services, establishing service standards and targets

Personnel information systems

96. The drive towards e-government and continuing changes in office technology, especially internet technology, will have a significant impact on personnel work. The Council’s intranet has the potential to be the main source of advice information and documents and making these available on-line will become increasingly important over the next few years. Once the intranet starts to be used in an interactional way eg job applicants making on-line applications rather than seeing adverts displayed, personnel services must make the best use of this technology. This will speed up communications and reduce further the need for paper.

97. As a general trend, not by any means limited to personnel services, improving technology will enable more business processes to be automated. This together with the demand mentioned above for greater access by managers and staff to personnel systems and data, will over time, lead to shorter working deadlines and drive up accuracy standards.

98. If managers are to take more responsibility and discretion in the management of people they will need greater direct access to staff records and other workforce information and to guidance. Given the importance of providing such information and the feedback from the Challenge Workshop that the current integrated personnel and payroll system – PIPS – is a great conundrum in that those who have it don’t use it and those that do have it don’t, the key aims reviewing the personnel information system was to:

· Establish the good and bad points of our current method

· Find out what improvements our customers would like to see

· Consider how the services provided could be improved, and

· Examine what methods of delivery would be best

99. PIPS was set up in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s and has been developed significantly since then. It is a somewhat esoteric system; it is not a Windows based system and for the uninitiated it is not easy to use as other systems or as pleasing to the eye as it could be. A knowledge of SQL is necessary to access much of the database and in its current form PIPS may not be acceptable to managers needing more direct access to information and reports.

100. On the plus side it is an integrated system with personnel and payroll sharing a common database. This means that data is entered only once thus avoiding duplication. Personnel staff initiate the employment record and payroll add the payroll details. The system has enabled the Council to build up a great deal of personnel related information and consequently we are able to provide workforce data and reports to meet the ever growing internal and external demand for performance indicators, figures and statistics. Clearly, if the system did not exist the Council would have difficulty in being able to meet its obligations to provide such information, as manual data extraction of records would be required. More importantly people would not be paid!

101. Personnel staff are in regular contact with colleagues in other authorities in the South and South East and are in a position to see how well the Council is able to meet the changing requirements in the provision of information compared to others. In addition, active moves have been made to keep in touch with current trends and developments in system design to establish whether or not a proprietary system exists in the marketplace which would be capable of replacing the bespoke PIPS system. Representatives of personnel, payroll and ICT services attended the Software Exhibition at Excel, London to compare our current system with those on the market. It is clear that software producers are only now making moves towards integrating personnel and payroll systems – something the Council has had through PIPS for the past ten years! Many of the systems on the market are not able to cope with spinal point progression which is a requirement of local government. Out of over 75 leading personnel and payroll software and e-business specialists, only one offered something similar to the current PIPS provision with the additional features of web enabled on-line access. A demonstration of Chrys 5 which purported to provide all that PIPS currently provides but on a Windows based platform, proved to be a disappointment. There is scope for PIPS to be developed in conjunction with a private sector partner and marketed to other local authorities and this possibility will be actively pursued.

102. Following on from the Challenge Workshop, and in order to establish what our customers want from personnel services in respect of management and workforce information and how they would like to be able to access that information, a detailed questionnaire was drawn up and sent out to all users of the Outlook system. Using the results of the questionnaire (see appendix 10) a focus group was formed comprising various levels of management and those who would be requiring information for different purposes ie accountancy and audit staff. The focus group has been asked to draw up a detailed specification of need. The changes envisaged are considerable and the importance of getting the preparation and detailed planning right cannot be over emphasised. A PIPS project board and review team will therefore be established to examine how existing business systems and procedures may need to change in order to meet e-government expectations.

103. This project is a major task and is not likely to be completed before 2005. Where possible it has been agreed that every effort will be made to move forward with providing our customers with improved access to management information ahead of any major system changes in the future. To this end on-line recruitment is being developed, parts of the database are being made available via the intranet eg sickness absence data for managers.

Conclusion

104. The service improvement plan set out in the Executive Summary identifies specific areas for improved service provision. There are, however, some lessons and general conclusions that can be drawn from this review. The Council’s personnel service provision needs to:

For the personnel service as a whole

· Provide a unified, professional personnel service that enables the strategy, advice and guidance and day-to-day administration elements to function together effectively

· Recognise, understand and share a common purpose, and

· Enable the Isle of Wight Council to become an employer of choice for people who choose to work in the public sector

For strategy

· Provide leadership of sufficient calibre to enable the Council to solve the people issues it faces

· Have an understanding of and a capability in organisation development, change management and people development

· Formulate and deliver the right strategies to tackle the issues of recruitment, retention, reward and recognition

· Act in collaboration with partners on people issues, to share innovation and best practice and implement it, and

· Plan and develop the workforce to meet forecast needs of the services

For advice and guidance

· Provide an efficient, cost effective, customer focussed, ‘Better’ Value service that is highly valued by customers

· Co-ordinate resources effectively to meet demand from all services

· Self-evaluate, measure and monitor performance continuously improve the service

· Provide a consistency of policy and approach that is needed, and

· Where appropriate, differentiate the service to meet the needs of customers

For day-to-day administration

· Achieve and sustain a step-change improvement in efficiency and effectiveness of the service through the use of ‘e’ technology

· Provide an efficient, cost effective, customer focussed service that is highly valued by customers, and

· Achieve common standards of performance.

Part 1 - Executive Summary

Introduction