Agenda item

The Leader presented the report.  In February 2021, a discussion paper was presented to Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee titled ‘Responding to the New Normal’. This detailed how the Council had responded to the Pandemic and the benefits and challenges associated with the new ways of working which were implemented.

 

A follow up paper, in essence the report put to Cabinet, was presented to OSMC in June 2021 for comment.

 

Cabinet were asked to agree to a series of recommendations, which would set the direction of travel for the organisation. These took into account both the experience and evidence gathered over the last 15 months, organisational commitments, opportunities that had arisen, staff expectations and legislative requirements.

 

If Cabinet agreed with the recommendations, then the commencement of consultation with Trade Unions and staff would take place to discuss any potential changes to terms and conditions of employment and develop more detailed plans in association with the use of the Civic Centre, prior to a final report being presented to Cabinet in the Autumn.

 

Both Members and officers of the Council adapted to the way in which they worked in order to respond to the Covid 19 Pandemic. The Council’s focus was to ensure the safety of the public, our staff and Elected Members.

 

Whilst this had been incredibly challenging it created opportunities, like many other public and private sector organisations, have explored.

 

The report covered four main areas:

·        Our staff,

·        The use of our main building, the Civic Centre and how we worked with the public,

·        How we managed the democratic functions of the Council, and

·        How we utilised technology

 

The first key decision was whether to press forward with the cultural and operational changes implemented as a result of the pandemic, or return to the pre-Covid model.

 

Maintaining the flexibility that the Council’s Covid response created enabled us to meet our Corporate Plan commitment of freeing up 20% of the Civic Centre to save money and create space for commercial and social innovation.

 

Having more staff working from home or close to home supported the Climate Change agenda and helped work towards carbon net zero. 45% of all carbon emissions in Newport came from transport. The report showed that 75% of staff commuted to work by car before the Pandemic.

 

In relation to staff, the councilconsidered responses from employees during the pandemic. Many appreciated the opportunity to work flexibly and this had an impact on staff sickness. However, it was also worth noting that the reduction in stress related absence was not as positive and we needed to consider the well-being impacts on staff.  The Council was were currently consulting with Trade Unions on a new Wellness at Work Policy and this should result in an improvement in levels of support for staff.

 

The report highlighted the potential remuneration that would be to considered for staff if we designated their home as a place of work. It should be noted that the report was not advocating that staff should solely work from home – there were benefits from bringing staff together in their teams and the report detailed this.

The report stated that if Cabinet agreed to the recommendations within the report that we would have to consult with staff on:

 

·        The development of a Home Working Policy

·        Any changes to the Travel and Subsistence Policy

·        A review of the flexible working scheme

 

The Council would also need to re-look at how it supported staff with long term health conditions, particularly mental health conditions and would need to develop a different approach to engagement with a dispersed workforce.

 

Included within the report were the responses from Trade Union partners. These responses were generally supportive of the approach but highlighted the well-being impacts and also ask us to look at a whole organisation approach. It was important to note that the majority of our employees deliver services that would be described as front-line – they worked face to face with service users, they maintained the Council’s roads, clean our streets, work in our communities. Whilst we could continue to look at ways in which we could modernise their jobs, these were not roles that could be undertaken ‘remotely’.  If the Council proceeded to the next stage in the development of this approach then officers would need to detail exactly who any new arrangements would apply to – but broadly it would focus on staff who did not deliver front line services.

 

The Civic Centre was an iconic building within Newport and the home of local democracy. However, prior to the pandemic it had been under-utilised. Significant reductions in staff over the previous 10 years meant  that under 40% of the building was occupied before we went in to lockdown.

 

Changing the way that the council deployed staff reduced further the requirement for space within the Civic Centre. Officers were working with Norse colleagues to determine the most efficient configuration for our operations: this included work space for staff, the critical space required to run the democratic functions of the Council and essential space for public access and direct, face to face service delivery. In fact, this final point was within the recommendations from Scrutiny it was made clear with officers that any future changes to the Civic should have the requirement to provide services to our residents at its heart.

 

All this would enable us to bring back more services to the Civic Centre, potentially freeing up other assets but would also enable us to make provision for third parties to utilise the space created.

 

As mentioned earlier, there was a desire to create a Cultural Hub within the Civic Centre and a desire to engage with Welsh Government on remote Working Wales and create a Public Sector remote Working Hub at the Civic Centre.  There were also options for other third parties and officers would be required to develop the detail on these options.

 

Whilst the Council was looking to enable a proportion of its staff to work from multiple locations, we were also developing the options to ensure the Civic Centre was fully occupied.

 

The third part of the report considered the democratic function of the Council. The way in which we would be required to operate in the future was set out in the Local Government and Elections Act and the Democratic Services Team were working very closely with colleagues in Digital Services to ensure we had hybrid meeting facilities in place for Members to access these, either from our Council Chambers or Committee rooms, or from a work location, or home. This was all part of the widening diversity in Local Government agenda.

 

There were impacts on Members in relation to these changes and the report asked us to refer to the Democratic Services Committee on a number of points that would then need to be agreed by Council.

 

Finally within the report we were provided with details on the technology that supported all of this. We are not being asked for any decisions in respect of this because Cabinet previously made the necessary investments to IT and these investments came to fruition during the Pandemic. This was demonstrated by the fact that within four days of the National Lockdown beginning in March 2020, we had 1200 staff and Members working remotely. In October, Cabinet also agreed to the proposal to relocate our Data Centre and this would improve resilience of the network and systems going forward.

 

The options before were to either:

1.                 Once Covid restrictions come to an end and an appropriate risk assessment was in place the option to return to pre-Covid arrangements would be available to the Council. Or,

2.                 Accept a new operating model, in principle and pending consultation with Trade Unions and staff that build on our experiences of operating during Covid.

 

If we choose Option 2, the report recommended that we would need to:

a.                 Consult on a homeworking policy and associated allowance for staff required to work from home for at least one day per week.

b.                 Review the flexible working scheme and the appropriateness of this going forward.

c.                 Develop proposals to investment in new approaches to support staff with long term health conditions, with the emphasis on supporting mental health in a post-pandemic environment.

d.                 Develop different techniques and tactics to ensure engagement with a dispersed workforce.

 

3.                 Seek to maximise the occupation of the Civic Centre as the main administrative headquarters and centralise other Council facilities and potential third-party occupiers within the premises

a.                 Zone the Civic Centre (by Service Area of Directorate) so that staff were able to work together in their professional groups when in the building.

b.                 Develop service specific areas (confidential areas, fixed locations for specific activities, etc.) including public accessible areas either on a drop in or appointments basis.

c.                 Develop technological solutions to support this (booking system, etc.).

d.                 Develop approaches to the utilisation of the reception area and meeting rooms.

 

4.                 Should the Council retain a dispersed working model ask Democratic Services Committee to review current well-being provisions to ensure that they are adequate and make recommendations to Council.

 

5.                 Should the Council retain a dispersed working model ask Democratic Services Committee to assess if the current remuneration package is sufficient and, if required, make recommendations to Council.

 

Options 2, 3, 4 and 5 we therefore the preferred options.

 

Option 1 limited our ability to meet our carbon reduction targets and rationalise our assets. If Cabinet chose Option 1 we would still need to develop a hybrid meeting ability due to the requirements of the Local Government and Elections Act and Members would have the option to access meetings remotely. Employees may have expectations regarding remote and home working that were therefore not met.

 

If the preferred options were accepted by Cabinet, we would consult with recognised Trade Unions on any changes to HR policies. A final report would be presented to Cabinet in the Autumn detailing responses to this consultation and with further options for the utilisation of the Civic Centre. We would also discuss the proposed reviews with the Democratic Services Committee.

 

Comments from Cabinet Members:

 

§  Councillor Harvey mentioned that this was a serious report for consideration and thanked the staff for their hard work and how they adapted to working from home as well as being proud of the Council workers.  Extra Covid cases of over 30,000 were reported today with 33 deaths.  We were still far from normal and needed to protect the public and staff.  This new way of working was therefore fully supported by the Cabinet Member.

 

§  Councillor Rahman echoed Councillor Harvey’s comments and it was important to highlight the work carried out by staff.  The wellbeing of staff was important as we recovered from the pandemic, therefore on that basis the Cabinet Member fully supported the report.  In addition, prospect of supporting flexible working opportunities by utilising the Civic Centre by bringing in third party organisations was also welcomed.  It was hoped that the new way of working would bring back some normality to small businesses within the city centre to support regeneration of the city centre and help with the lunch time trade for these amazing independent businesses which was a priority.

 

§  The Leader agreed with Councillor Rahman comments and supported other businesses, which was part of the Corporate Plan and welcomed businesses using the Civic Centre.

 

§  Councillor Mayer mentioned that as Cabinet Member he had supported moving towards this position for a while and supported flexibility of the work life balance.  The output of staff working from home had improved and did not have a detrimental effect towards the council.  The Cabinet Member also added that the council could should not return to the old model and therefore supported the report.

 

§  Councillor Davies stressed the importance of work life balance for staff and in the Council’s recent survey staff mentioned that they were unable to disconnect from work at the end of the working day and this a body that should be looked into. There was also a positive impact on our city, as the WG promoted that they wanted 30% of the Welsh workforce to work remotely which would drive regeneration and economic activity. This would also enable the regeneration of our local communities as well as the city centre and allow for small shops to thrive.  More importantly, we had to look at the decarbonisation of the city, to meet the requirement of being carbon neutral by 2050 the community based business hubs within the city and at the Civic was a positive way to take the city forward.

 

§  Councillor Cockeram attended a conference for young children, with about 250 in attendance and people were pleased to see each other for the social contact. It was good to have a right balance and although he agreed with both Councillor Mayer and Davies, sometimes staff were not switching off and the social contact with people was also greatly missed.

 

§  Councillor Truman mentioned that this was an opportunity to look at new ways of working.  The space at the Civic Centre needed to be evaluated and it would bring a lot of opportunities for the a different approach of the usage of the building to be considered.  Savings made by staff not working in the building had a positive impact on both the Council and staff.  Finally, the Cabinet Member mentioned the importance of keeping the touch with Union representatives to proceed with any positive changes.

 

§  Councillor Hughes thanked the council staff for their transition and was pleased that the report also tied in with the city’s decarbonisation goals.  The Cabinet Member therefore supported the recommendations outlined in the report and was confident that we would find a way to support staff.

 

§  The Chief Executive was pleased to hear the views from Cabinet on the report and mentioned the hard work that the Head of People and Business Change had put into this.  The Chief Executive made assurances that this would be a steady journey and whichever model was adopted would be for the benefit of Newport citizens. In light of the recent management structure report agreed at Council, this would also lead to a new culture of working.  There was a need for some service areas to touch base which was why the report intended to move towards a hybrid model.  The Chief Executive would also take on board the comments of the members and all colleagues in relation to the proposals within the report.

 

Decision:

 

Cabinet agreed to the recommendations outlined in Options 2, 3 4 and 5 within the report, which approved a new operating model, in principle, subject to consultation with relevant Trade Unions and staff on changes to terms and conditions of employment and a review by Democratic Services Committee of dispersed working on members’ well-being and support.