Directorate: / Children Services
Service Area: / Audit & Practice Development Team
Date: / 24/01/2016
Statement of
Change
To:All staff within the scope of the change
TU representatives
- Corporate Background
1.1The Council faces a time of unprecedented change and a need to make significant budget reductions as a result of the Government’s austerity programme, which is designed to reduce spending and balancethe national debt.
1.2Since 2011, the Council has agreed savings totalling £153m. For the period 2016 to 2019, further savings of £76m are required with a gap of a minimum of £29m still to address.
1.3The Council is challenging all areas of expenditure to address the budget gap, with a fundamental review of all services being undertaken so that we challenge areas of non staffing spend and ways to reduce demand for Council services, cost of contracts and other efficiency opportunities that arise from process improvement or technology first, in order to reduce the need for staffing reductions wherever possible.
1.4It is however a reality that given the scale of the financial challenge, the Council has no choice but to deliver savings from staffing budgets and we have estimated that this will mean at least 1800 fewer people will be employed in the Council over the coming years. The Council is committed to achieve staff reductions by voluntary means wherever possible with a programme of support in place to assist our workforce through an extremely sensitive and challenging time.
1.5A programme of Service Reviews is underway across the Council with all directorates progressing in depth reviews of the services they deliver, the way they are delivered and the costs of doing so. In some cases the outcome of the review will be a reduction in costs to deliver the same or similar services; others will require a fundamental redesign within a similar resource envelope.
1.6Structural redesign will be aligned to the Council’s agreed grading structure.
- What is the Process?
2.1This Statement of Change sets out the impact of the service review on staff structures, roles and employees. It will be used to underpin engagement with staff on the proposals and is designed to ensure a framework that allows both a consistent approach yet allow an understanding that an element of flexibility may be required depending on issues arising from specific reviews.
2.2The process will follow the Council’s Managing Change Procedure.
- Engagement
3.1There will be a 4 week engagement period for all staff in scope of the review. An initial face to face briefing will begin the process, setting out the proposals and engagement process. There will be an opportunity to ask questions of service managers and the briefing will be attended by a People Management advisor with Trade Unions representatives also invited to support staff.
3.2The Statement of Change will be made available to all staff and additional FAQs relating to the service proposals will be posted on the Employee Information Website. These will be regularly updated to reflect questions raised during the engagement process.
3.3Engagement opportunities will be tailored to the specific needs of the service and employees in scope. They will consist of drop in sessions, one to one meetings and a further group meeting at the mid-point. A final group meeting will be held following the closure of the engagement period, once all feedback has been considered and final decisions have been made.
- TradeUnions
4.1The Council is committed to work closely with Trade Union colleagues through this period of significant and sensitive change.
4.2Trade Union representatives will be briefed informally ahead of the initial meeting with affected employees and the Statement of Change document will be shared with them at that meeting. Union representatives will also be invited to all attend engagement meetings and an opportunity will be made available at the end of the initial staff meeting to allow an initial discussion with their members.
- Review, Decision and Outcome
5.1We will aim to notify all in scope employees of the outcome within 2 weeks of the engagement process ending. This will be accompanied by an outline timetable for the process.
5.2Should there be a need to extend the 2 week decision period as a result of significant issues raised, then all staff will be notified as early as possible, with an explanation for why an extension is required.
- Assimilation Processes
6.1The full details of the assimilation process are contained in the Reshaping Guidance document which was updated on 20 May 2016.
6.2Whilst engagement is taking place it is important that all ‘in scope’ employees examine their current role profile to ensure it accurately reflects the reality of their substantive role. Amendments to job descriptions will only be accepted with the relevant line manager agreement.
6.3The assimilation outcomes are:
Direct assimilation
- Defined as where a role in the new structure is substantially similar (75% match or more) and at the same grade.
- Direct assimilation can only occur where there are sufficient posts available for the number of employees involved. If there are fewer posts than employees then a competitive selection process will be required.
Assessment assimilation
- Defined as where a role in the new structure is substantially similar (75% match or more) and at a different grade.
- It is the responsibility of the employee to identify and objectively evidence that a new post is substantially similar (75% match or more), which must be verified by 2 managers (Service Manager and Service Assistant Director).
- Upon verification a desktop assessment will be undertaken to ensure that the candidate for assimilation has the required level of skills, knowledge and competencies to undertake the essential duties of the new post.
Competitive selection
- A competitive selection process is necessary for recruitment to those posts where there are more employees who meet the assimilation criteria than jobs available.
No match – “At Risk”
- Employees, who are not assimilated or appointed to posts, will be formally placed ‘at risk of redundancy’ and afforded ‘ring fenced’ status in the Vacancy Preference Process. “At Risk” is a formal term relating to redundancy.
- Vacancy Preference Process (VPP)
7.1Where an employee is not assimilated into one of the posts in the new structure, they will have the opportunity to be considered for the remaining posts before they are opened up to wider competition. Employees will be provided with the details of the remaining vacancies and given the opportunity to apply for up to a maximum of 3 roles.
7.2Where employees have not been appointed to posts following VPP they will be eligible for Alternative Employment Support. All avenues will be explored to avoid the need for redundancy; however once there are no other options available then redundancy notices will be issued.
- At Risk
8.1Where it is not possible to directly assimilate an employee to a new post within the structure they will be placed “at risk” because there is no suitable alternative employment within the proposed structure. “At risk” is a formal term relating to redundancy.
8.2Where employees have not been appointed to posts following VPP they will be eligible for Alternative Employment Support. All avenues will be explored to avoid the need for redundancy; however once there are no other optionsavailable then redundancy notices will be issued.
9.What do we need to achieve through this review and restructure?
9.1This document relates to the removal of the Children’s Services Audit & Practice Development (A&PD) team and the creation of new posts within the Independent Reviewing OfficerTeam (IRO) and the transfer of one post to the Corporate Information Team.
9.2The aims of this review are:
- To enable auditing and practice development to be mainstreamed within the Children & Families Service. When the A&PD team was established in 2011 there were discussions about how, over time, this function could be sustained within social work teams. There is now an opportunity to take this forward given the refresh of the Advanced Practitioner job profiles which has enhanced their coaching and mentoring role. In addition, following the refresh of the Directorate’s Performance Management & Quality Assurance framework – there have been changes to our approach to audit work.
- To create an opportunity to re-direct additional capacity towards a priority area of improvement for Children’s Services following the Ofsted Safeguarding Inspection in March 2015 – the Independent Reviewing Officer team. Part of the role of an IRO should be to undertake quality assurance in its widest sense and this would give the team additional capacity to take on some of that wider role in the social care system.
- To remove the need for Externally Procured Workforce (EPW) IROs who have been appointed in order to keep caseloads in line with the national guidance in the IRO Handbook but at an additional cost to the Council (EPW IROs cost around £35,000 more each per annum).
- To importantly, provide greater continuity for relationships between children and young people and their IRO.
10Scope
10.1The following posts are in scope of this review:
Post Title, grade and salary / Grade & Salary / Cost (inclusive on on costs) / FTETeam Manager (vacant) / PCD16, £41,551 / £51,575 / 1
Audit & Practice Development Officer x3.59 (1.59 vacant) / PCD15, £37,858 / £163,339 / 3.59
Subject Access Records (SAR) Officer* / PCD15, £37,858 / £28,134 / 0.6
Total / £248,048 / 5.19
10.2*Subject Access Records (SAR) work is undertaken as a part-time post (0.6 FTE) but this person sits within the Corporate Information Team. This role is unique and would need to remain in order to undertake this statutory responsibility for the Council. It is proposed that this role will permanently sit within the Corporate Information team. The statutory responsibility and completion of required work will then be picked up and managed within this team.
11. Future Structure and Staffing Proposals
11.1The proposal is to delete the 3.59Audit Practice Development Officer roles.
11.2The proposal is to retain the SAR Officer (0.6FTE) but to transfer the role and budget to the Corporate Information Team.
11.3The following roles will be created in the IRO Service as part of the proposal:
(a)One Team Manager post (additional IRO team manager) to give the IRO service one team manager in each district
(b)Three additional IROs, one in each district
(c)One dedicated Business Support for CLA which will be managed by the Directorate Business Support service
11.4The proposed structure will consist of the following posts:
Post Title, grade and salary / Grade & Salary / Cost inclusive on on costs / FTETeam Manager / PCD16, £41,551 / £51,575 / 1
Independent Reviewing Officer x3 / PCD15, £37,858 / £140,673 / 3.0
Subject Access Records Officer* / PCD15, £37,858 / £28,134 / 0.6
Business Support / BS6, £18,560 / £22,421 / 1.0
Total / £242,803 / 5.6
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12.1
11.2The current and the new proposed structure can be found in Appendices 1 and 2.
12How to engage with the reshaping proposals
12.1A range of engagement channels will be used to engage staff with the reshaping proposals as set out above. In addition to the general engagement, individual employees will be offered one-to-one meetings which will allow for discussion on the potential impact of the proposals on them.
12.2To request a one-to-one or group meeting with management, please contact Fiona Musgrave, Senior Manager.
12.3Members of the recognised Trade Unions may wish to channel their feedback through their Trade Union representative.
12.4To ask questions, provide comments or submit feedback, a link on the Intranet has been set up. This will ensure questions are promptly directed to the most appropriate person to answer and responses will be included in the service related FAQs unless they relate only to the individual employee.
12.5Staff are encouraged to read the FAQs already on the website as a response may already have been provided.
12.6The Employee Information Website has been updated to contain a range of information to support employees through the change process. You are encouraged to view this website on a regular basis during the reshaping process.
12.7This document has been issued to each employee electronically, with a copy, proposed structure charts and role profiles also added to the Employee Information Website.
- Timescales
13.1The proposed timeline for the review is set out in the attached Appendix 3.
13.2I hope that I have covered as much as I can as part of this document, however if there are any queries please don’t hesitate to contact me.
John Barrett
Assistant Director
Appendices
Appendix 1 Current structure
Appendix 2 Proposed structure
Appendix 3 Timeline
Appendix 1 - Current Structure
Appendix 2 - Proposed Structure
Appendix 3- Timetable
DATE/S / ACTIVITYPhase 1 - Information exchange/engagement
13th Jan 2017 / Meeting with Trades Unions ahead of the start of engagement
24th Jan 2017 / Meeting with staff in scope (Trade Unions invited)
Consultation process starts
13:00- Room 110, Cumbria House, Carlisle
As required / Individual meetings available upon request
10th Feb 2017 / Mid-Point staff meeting (Trade Unions Invited)
09:00 – Room 111, Cumbria House, Carlisle
26th Feb 2017 / Consultation process closes
Phase 2 - Decision
27thFeb – 6th Mar 2017 / Collation and review of feedback from staff and Trades Unions and reflection of structure proposal.
9th Mar 2017 / Final Decision Staff meeting (Trade Unions Invited)
-Final structure released
10:00 – Room 109, Cumbria House, Carlisle
Phase 3 - Implementation
w/c 13th Mar 2017 / -Assimilation outcomes confirmed
-Vacancy Preference Process
-Interviews
-Where applicable redundancy notices issued
27th March 2017 / Transition to new structure
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