Agenda item

 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  Committee agenda, the Head of Commissioned services  had received written notification from  some of the affected staff in this  group putting forward a  request for a reduction of   their hours. The Committee noted that  proposals for  reduced hours   would be considered by the service  to understand if the reduction in hours equated to the  reduction in FTE posts required under this section of the structure. The Committee requested that they be informed of the outcome of  this  consideration.

• Unison expressed  their opposition to the testing of Admin staff and further raised concerns about the  unfilled Service Operations Manager post , deletion of Tenancy Support Officer  with the creation  of a senior post in its place.  They felt that these changes highlighted  that management roles were being   created  and  some  frontline posts deleted. A response was provided by the Deputy Director of Community Housing who explained  the policy and operational  reasons behind filling the posts and  the  need to mitigate against  the  loss of a number of management roles in the service.  The committee was also asked to keep in mind  that it would  be important for the new structure  to provide some career progression posts.

• The  vacant position of the Head of Housing Needs and Letting was debated. Currently the responsibilities with this role were being shared amongst the senior management team . The Committee challenged the need to recruit to this vacant position given that  the  responsibilities of  this role had been absorbed for the past 9 months. They felt that work load increase for senior staff was not  enough of a reason to agree to this management post being filled. The Deputy Director of Community Housing recommended that this position be filled for an initial  18 month period to allow the management team to respond to forthcoming significant  local  and national policy  changes. These were: the review of ALMO,  decisions on council housing stock, impact of rent capping,  the management of the supporting people budget. The Committee were reminded that there  were  no policy positions left  in the Housing service  to support this policy  work following the centralisation of policy posts.

RESOLVED

1. The Committee did not agree the recommendations of the report and asked that the information sought on workloads , spans of control  be  responded to in  a separate addendum and attached to the main report  for consideration at the next special meeting of the  Corporate Committee on the 19^th December.

2. In addition, the Committee asked that this addendum also include a management response to the tabled Unison comments.