Agenda item

MRawdon introduced the paper which highlights achievements over Q2; overall a positive outturn.  Officer comments are contained within report. 

The 2 amber items relate to CSU and are caused by some staff turnover to other jobs within the Council.  To re-train a new starter can take up to 12 months for them to be fully up to speed on all services.

Achievements & updates also contained in report.

MRawdon invited questions on the report.

The Chair referred to item 7.3 – MASK programme, querying what is that?

MRawdon advised it is a youth programme for youngsters who maybe have some confidence or mild mental health issues.  This is the 4^th cohort, working with a company using masks that builds to a performance at the Old town Hall at end of programme.

The Chair referred to summer grants, item 7.2 and asked; is that all we give out during the year? 

MRawdon advised that figure only refers to Qtr 2.  Overall the figure is in the region of £60k for grants, we ensure that by end of year all grants are allocated.  Grants are available to Community & Voluntary Groups.

Cllr W Wyatt Lowe referred to indicator CSU 11 on pg 17 and asked; can you explain what the numbers under RAG are?  This does not seem to equate correctly.

MRawdon advised that he would check and come back with the background figures.

Cllr England sympathised with difficulty around staffing and referred to the comment regarding 12 months for training, asking; in that space of time are some new starters are moving on to new roles?  Is there anything that can be done to keep people in the roles?

MRawdon responded that whilst it is good that staff are moving within Dacorum, it has a negative impact on the service.  Currently looking at introducing a longer notice period (currently 1 month).  The CSU staff are attractive to back offices as they are multi service skilled and have a lot of the background knowledge that helps them to gain roles in back office.  CSU is also a tough working environment due to the nature of the role.

Cllr England asked, could those staff that have moved on be kept in a ‘pool’ of draw down staff to help CSU?

MRawdon advised that it is difficult to work with the other managers to facilitate that as they have a service to deliver also.

Cllr Griffiths commented that as a CSU manager in her day job, you have to be careful not to make it too onerous in terms of notice period; you don’t want people to be deterred from applying for roles because they will be tied in too tightly.

MRawdon advised that at this time CSU are also not able to work flexibly.  Have been trialling them working from home more, adding that it is easy to monitor performance but up until now technology has prevented work from home in this department.

Cllr England suggested overstaffing the CSU area to avoid the situation of going to amber.

Report noted.