Issue - meetings

 The report proposes changes to Community Housing Services‘ (CHS) staffing structure in order to achieve the base budget savings target for 2012/13 and seeks the authority to implement a  revised staffing  structure.

The Committee were asked to agree a new staffing structure for Community  Housing services. This decision came within the remit of Corporate Committee terms of reference, taking decisions relating to changes to the establishment which were not covered by the Officer Scheme of Delegation.  The Committee were advised by the Legal representative that they were able to comment on the detail of the changes to the structure and propose amendments.

The Committee noted that  there had been two previous restructures of this service, the first in 2010/11 necessitated by the  reductions in the number of households in temporary accommodation and high level of homelessness preventions being achieved. The second  restructure occurred in May 2011 in response to the  Council’s voluntary redundancy programme. This  third restructure, considered by the Committee,  was initiated  in response to a reduction in base budgets for 2012/13. The Committee were asked to note that during these 3 restructures there had been a significant number of  management posts  deleted.

 The detail of the changes to the staffing structure  and how the  impact  of deleted posts would be managed was set out in appendix A.

 Members raised the following issues:

• Spans of control and whether the ratio of managers to staff fitted the Rethinking Haringey policy of  1 manager to 8 staff.  Members  pointed to the lower number of staff allocated to  Head of Commissioned services in comparison to the number of staff assigned to the Head of Housing Needs and requested information be provided on the ratio of managers per staff  member. Taking on board the explanation about  the specialist and strategic  nature of some teams, Members wanted to understand  further the balance between  management and operational roles  in Community Housing service and requested that   this be made clear  in the information to be provided  on spans of control.

• The need for statistical information to provide an understanding of whether the workloads in the new structure  were  realistic and  workable  for agreement .The Committee were informed   that  in the coming 5 months the service would be  looking at streamlining work processes,   identifying and abolishing duplication,  and considering   better use of IT  systems to reduce unnecessary tasks and ensure workloads were feasible. An example of the current workload of an income recovery officer was also provided as a guide  with an estimation of  what the increase would be after the restructure.  Members wanted further evidence about how workloads  had  been assessed and roles compiled for the new structure.  Information should be provided on : increase in volume  of the  current duties  of each job role after the restructure , their  current   volume,  and  how  the  future impact of local and national policy changes were being prepared for and  accounted  for in workloads going forward under the proposed restructure.

• The Committee  referred to  Unison comments on the tabled paper regarding the  reduction in admin staff from 13 to 10 and their concerns about the   selection method  planned  to recruit to the remaining 10 posts.    Since the publication of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 65