The Corporate Director - Resources submitted a report, the purpose of which was to provide the Cabinet Equalities Committee with data on the council’s workforce, together with comparative information and an update on employment related developments.

            The Equalities and Engagement Officer gave some background information, namely that reliable workforce data enabled the Council to:-

·         assess our performance in relation to the statutory duties set out under the Equality Act and the council’s Welsh Language Scheme;

·         work within the WLGA’s Equality Improvement Framework;

·         provide meaningful information aiding decision making.

            He then confirmed that Appendix 1 provided half yearly profiles and a data analysis of the contracted workforce from 30 September 2012 until 31 March 2014. From 31 March 2014, the profile now included data relating to the number of employees disclosing as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender captured following the recent data collection exercise and also a more detailed breakdown of employees’ Welsh speaking, reading and writing skills. 

The Equalities and Engagement Officer then confirmed that a revised data capture project is underway with a fresh approach to “marketing” the project to employees. The revised focus is on the benefits to employees of completing the questionnaire and disclosing sensitive information. The project would be re-launched in the summer and have an end date of 30 September 2014, and had a number of benefits to the council and its employees and these were shown in paragraph 4.2.1 of the report.

            He then added that four employee information packs had been developed and published on the council’s intranet site. The packs comprised of:-

·         Pregnancy and maternity including partners and adoptive parents;

·         Support for employees who are carers;

·         Retirement, and;

·         Domestic abuse/Sexual violence.

Additionally, edited versions of these packs (for use by the general public) have been published on the council’s public facing website and made available on the screens in the Customer Contact Centre.

The Equalities and Engagement Officer then stated that work is underway to meet the four actions in the “Council’s role as an Employer” objective which are due for completion in 2015. Information on this was included in paragraph 4.2.3 of the report.

            Following Council’s appointment of the Deputy Leader as Mental Health Champion, work was now underway to raise awareness of mental health issues amongst employees. Talking about mental health in the workplace helped to tackle discrimination which can have a significant effect on workplaces and employees. More information on this initiative was shown in paragraph 4.2.4 of the report.

            A Member noted that in terms of employees who are bi-lingual within the Council, the Appendix to the report reflected that as at 30 September 2013 there were 622, when six months previously to that there were 251.  He asked Officers for an explanation on this significant increase in a relatively short space of time, further asking if this figure included staff in the Education Department.

            The Equalities and Engagement Officer advised that this figure was a total figure that included staff in all Council services.  The reason for the increase in the above period of time, had been due to the data collection exercise that had been conducted referred to earlier in the meeting.

            The Member asked if the data for this could be split in future such reports to include staff in Education and then the remainder of staff within the Authority and Officers replied that this could be accommodated.

            In response to a further question from the floor, Officers also confirmed that in terms of age profiles for all data shown in the Appendix, in future such reports these could be broken down in age group blocks of five years, as opposed to age group blocks of ten years as was specified in the data.

            A Member noted that the age profile for staff aged 56-65 plus employed within the Authority was quite high.  He wondered if this was a bit too high and asked Officers if it was possible to make comparisons regarding this with other authorities.

            The Head of Human Resources and Organisation Development advised that this Authority had a commitment to employ young people, i.e. aged 16-25, by the way of introducing apprenticeships.  The new pension regulations that came in recently meant that employees could now retire at 55 if they so wished without the employers consent and could then gain access immediately to their pension.

            She added that there was no retirement age as such now, so employees could stay with the Authority beyond the age of 65.  She would investigate if there was comparable data in other authorities however, and if this was available she would advise Committee Members/Invitees accordingly.

            The Chairperson asked how information, available via the I.T. System and intranet etc regarding Council policies was made available to manual workers, e.g. litter pickers and carers etc, if they did not have access to a PC and if the information also applied to staff in schools, as strictly speaking their employer were school governors, rather than Chief Officers.

            The Head of Human Resources and Organisation and Development confirmed that the above type of information applied both to schools and other office based staff, and in terms of manual workers, information regarding policies of the Authority was made available to them through various avenues, one of which was via their pay slips which they always looked at as they usually worked overtime or shift work (that did not mostly apply to white collar staff) and their net pay therefore differed from month to month.

RESOLVED:         That the Cabinet Equalities Committee received and considered the workforce report.

The meeting closed at 11.36pm.