Agenda item

[Charlotte Johns, Director of Strategy, to present report]

Councillor Miles, Cabinet Member for Resources, introduced the presentation and gave a definition the term ‘agile working’. The presentation will give more details about agile working in the Council in the future.

The Cabinet Member advised the panel the Civic Centre is the Council’s headquarters where the majority of Council employees are based and will continue to be based. The working environment has changed as result of pandemic restrictions and it is expected that home working will be part of future flexible and agile work plans for immediate future. The Cabinet Member commented on the challenges of home working under lockdown conditions and explained that the Council has developed new working practices in the past few months in response the challenges presented by the pandemic.

Charlotte Johns, Director of Strategy, commented on the key questions that she would like the panel members to consider during the presentation. The overall context of the presentation was to brief the panel about the work being done to harness the power of digital connectivity for the Council in the broadest sense.

The Director of Strategy presentation covered two main areas, lessons learnt from the use of agile working and harnessing the power of digital in the government mandated lockdown and then looking longer-term on how the Council should take forward the use of agile working and technology to inform its policies going forward. The Director of Strategy listed three areas of work, citizens and businesses, employee and the environment with specific examples of agile working and the use of digital technology during the pandemic.

The Director of Strategy commented on the work done to ensure a rapid mobilisation of agile working. The Council had done preparation in advance of the formal lockdown to deliver mobile working technology. A number of test days were used make sure the organisation was ready for the change to home working. In addition, there was a rapid rollout of new systems such as Microsoft Teams to support home working.  At the start of the 2020 it was reported that 300 people were using Microsoft Teams, that figure has now increased to over 3,700 people. ICT has collaborated with employees and Councillors to help develop these systems.

The Director of Strategy commented on work done to make sure that people had the right devices and equipment to enable them to work from home, while also recognising the difficulties faced by some employees during the lockdown. The Director of Strategy commented that using new developments in technology has enabled the Council to quickly introduce the Stay Safe Be Kind telephone service to ensure that vulnerable residents were supported during the first national lockdown.

The Director of Strategy reassured the panel that the safety and security of the Council’s ICT systems is a priority and the work done has led to the award of Cyber Essentials plus certification. The award gives external accreditation and assurance about the security and resilience of current ICT systems. The service is continuing to roll out key infrastructure changes such as the 5G network which will connect 170 public sector premises in the City and work on this continued during the lockdown.

The Director of Strategy commented on key ICT systems such as the Eclipse. The system has been now live and working well in bringing together a number of key systems and data sets to make sure that children social care workers have timely information when needed. The Director of Strategy commented on other changes to key ICT systems which have enabled the continued delivery of Council services to the public during the lockdown and other restrictions.

The Director of Strategy commented on the extensive engagement work done with members of the Citizen Panel and the feedback highlighted the need for flexibility in how the Council respond sand deliver services going forward; while recognising concerns about the level of digital exclusion across some areas of the City. The feedback from the employee Life in Lockdown survey had 1270 respondents, which is the highest response rate than any other previous employee survey. The survey findings were important in helping to understand how lockdown restrictions has impacted on the lives of employees that responded.

The panel discussed the benefits and challenges presented by employees working in agile way and remotely. The panel expressed concern that current remote working has limited the opportunity for people to talk informally to either develop ideas to solve problems or share ideas. The panel wanted to look at ideas for capturing and sharing such knowledge. The panel also highlighted the importance of team working in physical locations where possible and considered that a balance needs to be found that will allow people to work in a building.

The Director of Strategy agreed with the view of importance of finding a balance. The issue was highlighted in the response from employees in Life in Lockdown survey about the issue of flexibility during lockdown. There is a desire to take the best aspects of having to work in this way but also not to lose benefits of working collaboratively in the same physical location at some future date. The value of informal networking and problem solving was highlighted. The importance of Civic Centre as being the key employee base for Wolverhampton was also highlighted.

The panel discussed whether the evidence presented was intended to support the idea of employees using Council buildings and working from home will continue into the near future and the implications for employee wellbeing of the continued agile working arrangements.

The panel discussed the profile of people who took part in the survey and how representative the views expressed were of the majority of Council employees. The Director of Strategy accepted that while the survey did not cover the majority of the employees it has been the highest response to an employee survey. The panel expressed concern about making decisions about future agile working arrangements without considering the possible impact on the use of buildings and on the working conditions of employees, who may be affected. The issue of employees working at home with poor broadband connectivity was given as an example.

The Director of Strategy reassured the panel that findings are a work in progress and work will continue to reflect on future agile working arrangements.  The findings from the employee Life in Lockdown survey is part of the evidence collected at a point in time and the latest survey is intended to present an update to these findings.

The Director of Strategy commented that the Our People Strategy report is the agenda for the next meeting of the panel. This report will respond to some of the issues of concern highlighted by members of the panel about agile and flexible working, particularly for employees who may be struggling with managing work and their caring responsibilities. The panel discussed the issue of the long-term mental effects of working from home for employees.

The panel commented on the need to continue to consider the needs of the population who cannot afford the cost of connecting online to different services and the linked issue of loneliness linked to home working.

The Director of Strategy commented in the importance of digital inclusion and referred to the reason for suggesting the issue of connectivity as a cross-cutting theme across all the scrutiny panels. The issue is considered to be critical to ensuring the best outcomes for local people and a significant amount of work is ongoing to support this aim.

The Director of Strategy reassured the panel that the Council has put a lot of effort into raising the awareness of the challenges created by having to work from home during national lockdowns, and gave examples of the range of practical support offered to employees in recognition of the importance of maintaining good health and well-being. Furthermore, learning from the experience of the first lockdown is being used to inform the current response to what Councillors, employees and other stakeholders are saying about the way the Council delivers services to local people. The panel discussed the importance of delivering good quality services to residents regardless of the method chosen.

The panel discussed the issue of employee appraisals during the lockdown and other restrictions. The issue of performance management is an issue which can be included as part the presentation to the panel at the next meeting. The Director of Strategy commented on the new employee appraisal process of professional conversations, which is focused on outcomes. The new process includes specific detailed sections for managers and employees to talk about health and well-being issues.

The Cabinet Member welcomed the contributions of panel and offered to present an update on progress of the issues detailed in the presentation to a future meeting. The panel suggested the report should also include update on findings from employee welfare checks. The Cabinet Member acknowledged the importance to the Council of creating informal spaces for employees to discuss issues and to share ideas.

Resolved

1.    The panel agreed to note the report.

2.    The Director of Strategy to consider the panel comments on agile working in the future report to the panel on the Our People Strategy.