Agenda item

The Corporate Committee requested an addendum providing information sought on spans of control and workloads.

The addendum report contained detailed information on manager ratios, spans of control, impact of the restructure on workloads and responses to Unison comments as requested by the Committee at the previous meeting. The Committee were asked to reconsider the recommendations of the previous report and agree the proposed structure of the Community Housing Service as set out in paragraph 5.7 of the main report and appendix B.

The Committee learnt that the service was operating well within Rethinking Haringey guidelines on spans of control before and after the restructure, this was a ratio of 1 manager to 8 staff.   The Committee further noted changes to the recruitment of senior operational posts from an open ring fence to a closed ring fence following consultation with staff representatives and that a reduction of admin staff from 13 to 10 would be achieved through voluntary reductions in working hours. There had been further meetings with staff to share workload ideas and there had been a good response from staff on plans about how workloads would be managed. The Head of Housing Needs and Lettings post and Service Operations manager were still included in the structure and reasons for their recruitment were set out in the report.

There was concern raised about the capacity of the admin staff to cover their duties following the reduction in 3 posts and it was agreed to review their workloads after a period of 6 months and provide an update back to Committee members. The Chair recommended that the Committee should also consider   a review   of how the wider Council restructure had progressed.

The Chair asked the UNISON representative to respond to the report and Chris Taylor began by welcoming the positive negotiations which had taken place with staff following the previous Corporate Committee meeting. There were still concerns about the capacity of staff working in the temporary accommodation and homelessness teams with imminent national policy changes such as rent capping to be implemented and expected increases in homelessness.  UNISON still contended that the proposed reduction in 2 frontline posts   and the creation of senior operational posts was not required as this would take resources away from the frontline and they continued to advocate not recruiting to these two senior positions. They further questioned the need to recruit a service operations manager and Head of Housing Needs and Letting.

 The Cabinet Member for Housing attended the Committee to respond to Committee members and   UNISON’s concerns and provide assurance about the work of the Community Housing Team .He provided the reasons for not   immediately recruiting to the post of Head of Housing Needs and Lettings. He explained that the Mayor of London will not provide an estimate about the impact of the rent capping and therefore Councils were operating on a wait and see basis.   The Deputy Director of Community Housing added that the level of need was not known but what could be predicted was the   increase in   rents and temporary accommodation costs.   He illustrated the good work of the service    by referring to the recent re – registration of 21,000 clients on the Housing register which had been completed without   major complaint by residents to Members. 

The  Assistant Director  for Community Housing further  outlined the key policy  decisions and challenges for the service  which included the  ALMO ,managing the  Supporting People  budget of 12m . If the structure were agreed without the two senior posts included it would lead to a further restructure in the service.

Having considered the  representations and information  from the  lead officers in Housing and the Cabinet Member, the Committee:

 RESOLVED

1. That the revised establishment and structure of Community Housing Services as set out in paragraph 5.4 be agreed.
2. That the implementation of the revised structure as set out in paragraph 5.7 and Appendix B be agreed and be carried out in accordance with the Council’s Restructure Policy.
3. That a report on the review on the overall council restructure be considered by the Committee in 6 months time.
4.  That a hard copy of the recently compiled staffing profile be distributed to Corporate Committee Members.
5. That details of the recent review into the implementation of spans of control be distributed to Committee Members.