Agenda item

To receive the HR Update Report – Publication of HR activity on Council’s website.

The Board received the HR Update report.

During the discussion of this item, the following points were made:

·       The Interim Assistant Director HR & OD advised that the Council was required to produce a Gender Pay Gap report and a report setting out the Council’s involvement in the Government’s apprenticeship scheme.

·       Councillor Bishop-Firth noted that it had not been possible to maximise the benefit of the entire apprenticeship levy.  She questioned how much it had not been possible to use, approximately how many apprenticeship places this equated to, and what alternatives had been considered.  She went on to ask whether more IT apprentices could be taken on by the Council.  The Interim Assistant Director HR & OD stated that the levy was a pot which accumulated over time, and after a number of years, this money was lost.  At the moment, the pot, which the Council was trying to use, was quite high.  The scheme had been modified a number of times by the Government, so it was no longer so age limited.  There had to be a development portion within the role.  It was noted that there were detailed requirements for support within the scheme, so sometimes there was not sufficient time to support individuals going through the scheme, particularly in schools.

·       Members were advised that it was Apprenticeship Week next week.  There would be a push and promotion across the Council so that consideration be given to whether any vacancies could be converted into apprenticeship posts.  It was quite a slow process, but there was a dedicated resource in HR working on the apprenticeship scheme.  Work was being undertaken to ensure that areas in the Council such as IT had apprentices where possible.

·       Councillor Bishop-Firth suggested that the Personnel Board would be interested in monitoring how the Council was maximising the levy.

·       Councillor Helliar-Symons praised the presentation of the report.  She referred to some of the challenges with the existing apprenticeship pathway, specifically the fact that there was a level 3 Teaching Assistant and Level 6 Teacher apprenticeship but nothing in-between to bridge the gap and allow Teaching Assistants to progress.  She questioned whether this was the result of legislation or Council policy and was informed that it down to how the scheme had been set up by the Government.  Some Councils were feeding back to the Government around some of the challenges around the scheme, particularly around the shortage of Teaching Assistants.

·       Councillor Weeks questioned how many of the 73 apprentices worked for the Council and how many worked for maintained schools.  The Interim Assistant Director HR & OD agreed to feed back to Members.  The majority worked for the Council.

·       Councillor Kaiser asked whether in the event the Council took on a major contract, if it was possible to include that the Council would like the partner to take on some apprentices.  The Interim Assistant Director HR & OD agreed to ascertain this and feed back to the Board.  It was unlikely to be legal that the Council insisted that the partners took on apprentices, but it was probable that they could ask that this be considered.  Councillor Weeks indicated that often when it came to planning applications for larger projects, it was a requirement that apprentices be taken on.

RESOLVED:  That

1)       the Gender, Pay Gap report that will be published before 30 March 2022 be noted.

2)       the report setting out the Council’s involvement in the Government’s apprenticeship scheme be noted.