1. Agenda Order – Following consultation with other members, the Chair brought forward discussion of this item.

2. Reason for Urgency: The Chair had approved the submission of this report as a matter of urgency so as to comply with the Committee’s work programme.  Hard copies of the report were circulated at the meeting, including a coloured A3 size copy of Appendix 1 (Summary data of the Council’s current interim positions) which was confidential and not for publication.

2.1. Caroline Holland (Director of Corporate Services) briefly introduced this standard item, including apologising for the report’s lateness.  She explained that this had been due to delays in obtaining the relevant information and then the need to check its accuracy before it could be released to members.

2.2. The Chair referred to the need for future such reports to be on time and included with the main agenda.  Caroline Holland advised that she had already asked for a meeting with relevant officers so as to ensure this happened.

3. Appendix – Font Size – Councillor Ian Munn complained about the small font size on the Appendix, making it difficult to read.  Caroline Holland undertook to look at this and also the possibility of displaying the Appendix via a projector on a screen at future meetings.

4. Discussion - Marissa Bartlett (Head of Joint HR Transactional Services) then further introduced the report, including advising that the trend graphs on pages 10- 13 of the Appendix reflected the figures on the front page of the Appendix (page 5).  During the subsequent extensive discussions, Marissa Bartlett together with Caroline Holland responded to members queries.

4.1 In response to queries about the placement of (temporary) interim staff in the Council, Marissa Bartlett advised that -
(a) “on contract” referred to temporary staff engaged -
(i) either through the Council’s corporate contract with Comensura for the supply of temporary agency staff:
(ii) or through the London Borough Recruitment Partnership (LBRP) for very specialist consultant type roles; and ;
(b) “off contract” referred to interim staff recruited outside of the above provisions..

4.2 She confirmed that managers were encouraged to use “on contract” staff and discouraged from using “off contract” staff; and outlined the steps taken by HR to scrutinise and keep under review all interim contracts, and the greater difficulties of policing contracts for “off contract” staff, including hiring managers not engaging with HR.

4.3 Officers indicated that now Finance notified HR when “off contract” invoices were received in order that HR could then discuss the particular contract/post with the relevant hiring manager.  It was noted that this was a further mechanism to ensure that all interim staff contracts were captured by the Council’s systems; and that the number of “off contract” interim staff had decreased considerably.

4.4 Officers confirmed the graphs on the back page of the Appendix (page 14) showed that the trend was for the number of interim (or temporary) staff to increase.  Marissa Bartlett advised that a similar situation was occurring in other Boroughs, and one reason for this could be that as organisations, such as local authorities, go through significant organisational change, there was a tendency not to fill vacant posts with permanent staff at first, but to make a temporary appointment pending a further review of the service concerned.

4.5 Members referred to the market for some specialist posts being mainly only local authorities and the possibility of local authorities liaising to set salary limits for such posts.  Officers outlined the difficulties of achieving this, but indicated that there was an appetite across London to work together to get a common understanding of the appropriate price point for certain roles such as social workers, planners and IT workers.

4.6 Comparative Figures - Caroline Holland confirmed that in relation to the comparative spend figures for various Boroughs on the back page of the Appendix (page 14), she had asked HR to see if information on the number of interim/temporary posts involved in each Borough could be obtained.

4.7. Corporate Services Dept.– Members expressed concern that the Corporate Services Department had the highest number of “off contract” interim staff, when the Corporate Services Department had responsibility for policing other Departments on interim staff.  Caroline Holland outlined the areas of her Department where “off contract” interim staff often had to be used, such as various business improvement projects and IT services where permanent staff where difficult to recruit.  She confirmed that recruitment via Comensura or LBRP as appropriate was always tried first prior to appointing “off contract”; and that the necessary exemption form had to be signed off by another Director in each case.

4.8. Salary Figures – A member referred to the Appendix including weekly and monthly salary figures, and suggested that for ease of comparison all figures be in full time equivalent.  Caroline Holland advised that some posts were full time and some part time, so costs to date or to end of contract were given; and indicated that an hourly rate reckoner could possibly be included with the figures..

5. Street Naming Officer - Councillor Ian Munn expressed concern that he and other Cricket Green Ward Councillors hadn’t been consulted about recent new street names in their Ward by the temporary officer dealing with this matter.  Caroline Holland undertook to deal with this.

RESOLVED: That the progress made to monitor and control the use of temporary workers and consultants be noted.