Agenda item

OS/176/15 ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES Q1 PERFORMANCE REPORT

C Thorpe introduced the report and went through some of the current Environmental Services projects. The department celebrated National Compost week which saw the Council give away 10 tonnes of compost that was given to the Council from D Williams, who are the new Green Waste contractors. This was all claimed within 50 minutes of Cupid Green opening. The biggest change on the waste collection service was the move to plastic shopping bags instead of the green compost liners has saved residents significant amounts of money throughout the year. The department worked for quite a long time with anaerobic waste contractor before deciding they preferred the fact that they could extract plastic shopping bags from the food waste. The change was well publicised online and in the Dacorum Digest. With regards to Clean, Safe and Green, the official opening of the Walled Gardens in Gadebridge Park was opened by the Mayor. Furthermore, the Women’s Tour of Britain was well attended. The team completed a bedding display for Tring Town’s 700^th anniversary was completed. Three parks were judged and received green flag for them. The department have started harvesting timber from Chipperfield Common to be used to make benches to place in the borough. In terms of sickness levels within Clean, Safe and Green are slightly higher than the budget of 303 days and Refuse was again slightly higher and over the budget by 43.2 days. Long term sickness cases have now ended for this quarter and there is a mix of these long term cases ranging from a heart attack at work, deep vein thrombosis and cardiovascular problems.

In terms of the reasons for sickness, they have started to be recorded for the last few quarters to give the Committee a flavour of why staff members are off. Some of it is work related like back problems, muscular-skeletal and gastrointestinal problems. C Thorpe stated that sickness was to be expected as the crews work in close proximity of one another. Some members of staff have been on restrictive duties for a number of years and the reasons range from existing neck and back issues, injuries at work and this has resulted in mainly drivers, being able to move wheel bins but not being able to empty recycling boxes or food caddies. The members of staff on restricted duties have been referred to Occupational Health to determine whether they are able to return to full duties and the staff have been made aware of this process. Three staff members have now been declared fit to return to work, awaiting another report and one colleague is yet to see Occupational Health but they are all expected to return within one month.

On Clean, Safe and Green, the department has been working closely with the Health and Safety executive to ensure issues are being addressed in relation to hand-arm vibrations. Currently, it is not a major issue in the service but this disorder has been pre-empted and a lot of work is being done with the staff so they can recognise the conditions that cause it and the equipment is regularly tested.

In terms of performance data, in quarter one the team collected 3,600 tonnes of communal waste, 1000 ton food waste, 3770 tonnes of green waste which was slightly down throughout the country. Every quarter, the department is emptying 7.5 million containers and all targets have been achieved despite them being stricter than previously. 

Councillor Ashbourn remarked that contagious illnesses also apply in other work places and how are anxiety, stress and gastrointestinal problems qualified?

C Thorpe answered that work related stress has only been a recent occurrence due to the service being changed and perhaps, crews working harder and longer to what they were used to in the past. The department undertakes return to work meetings and keeps in regular contact with staff members that are off work. Most of the stress is due to the staff member’s home life not working life.

Councillor Ashbourn then asked if officers will be closely monitoring the sickness levels and comparing with other sectors.

C Thorpe stated that the department has been doing so for years and with the introduction of FirstCare, it is hoped that it will produce data of a higher quality.

Councillor Hicks asked if this data was for the last three months.

C Thorpe confirmed that it was for the months of April, May, and June 2015.

Councillor Hicks indicated that obviously, these months have good weather and absences due to colds and flu will increase in the cold winter months.

C Thorpe acknowledged this and said the service experiences peaks and troughs with season change.

Councillor Howard asked if the department encourages its staff to have the flu injection.

C Thorpe told the Committee that they have approximately 85-90% take up of the flu injection and every year it is advertised with posters so the crew are aware each year.

Councillor C Wyatt-Lowe referred to the Operational Risk Register and asked the department was satisfied with the measures in place and therefore confident it could remove the reds.

C Thorpe believed his department were doing everything they can to manage sickness. He said he was working closely with staff members and the return to work interviews are completed within 24 hours. The department offers out the assistance program if needs be and regular sickness reviews where staff are set targets and if these targets are not met, there is the option to suspend sick pay.

Councillor Riddick referred to item 11.2 and asked regarding hand-arm vibrations affecting other equipment as the grass cutting season is coming to an end. Furthermore, in item 3.1 the report states that FirstCare will reduce sickness levels but what does that actually mean.

C Thorpe advised that hand-arm vibrations can be caused by leaf blowers, strimmers and hedge cutters.  The teams can have up to 10 staff and the jobs are shared between the staff. Also, each member of staff keeps a diary of the time spent on each piece of equipment. With regards to FirstCare, it will help manage sickness consistently as staff must ring a medically qualified operator and they can give advice about how long an absence is required.

Councillor Riddick expressed his support and stated that this was a positive new measure.

Councillor Ashbourn noted that it might be interesting to compare with other sectors.

C Thorpe said they intended to compare with other authorities.

Outcome

The Strategic Planning and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee noted the report.