(a)

flu vaccinations for council staff were to be undertaken at the Guildhall other than Ballard House as the Guildhall was considered to be a more central location and was easier for more officers to access;

(b)

in order to protect staff and continue to deliver council services during a possible outbreak of both flu and covid, the Council was actively encouraging the workforce to be vaccinated and was continuing to review the safe systems of work alongside public health colleagues to ensure they were fit for purpose. A traffic light system was in place to monitor the numbers of people contracting flu and covid and would help to mitigate potential risks;

(c)

in terms of timescales for the accommodation strategy, Windsor House was to be decanted in March 2023, and Midland House was to be decanted in the summer of 2023; some delays in work had been down to a range of complex factors including the Council’s partners signing the lease for Crownhill Court later than expected and issues with the supply of goods. The redevelopment to the ground floor of Ballard House for childrens services was going out to tender currently;

(d)

the Council had free Lateral Flow Test kits which were for the use of front line staff as it was considered that office based staff could work from home if required. The procedure and data collected for the LFTs was kept under constant review as part of the safe system of work review and this could be provided to the committee once available;

(e)

the Director for Public Health would be consulted as to if Councillors should be provided with free Lateral Flow Tests due to the work they do within the community – a response would be provided to Members;

(f)

the high level results from the Big Listen survey including the number of respondents and their responses were due to be discussed at senior leadership team meetings as well as possible actions. An external provider was used for the survey in order to give the workforce confidence that their responses would be considered confidentially and would also allow benchmarking with other public sector organisations. It was anticipated that this information would be available in November and would be able to be shared;

(g)

during the covid pandemic a decision was made by the Council that if someone had experienced covid then their absence from work as a result of this would not trigger absence accumulation responses; this was reviewed by the Council in the Autumn as it was important the Council supported individuals to come back to work and not spread the virus within the organisation. The trade unions were of the opinion that those suffering with long covid should be allowed to have a significant length of time off work without it affecting their sickness levels or pay. The Council considered that a ‘one size fits all’ policy was not appropriate and cases would be considered on an individual basis – this was subject to further discussion with trade union representatives;

(h)

the pilot into the use of external sites for workspace such as Market Hall and Oceanstudio had concluded and was successful. The focus was currently on ensuring the Council was getting maximum use out of its own office space as it was only 25% occupancy however numbers were expected to rise over the winter months due to the increase in fuel costs.  

(1)

to note the contents of the report;

(2)

that data collected as part of the LFT review including numbers, costs etc (as part of the wider Safe Systems of Work review) would be provided to Members;

(3)

a response from the Director for Public Health regarding the feasibility of Councillors receiving free Lateral Flow Tests due to the frontline work they undertake within their communities would be provided;

(4)

the Return to Work Safely Update would be added to the work programme for the 30 November scrutiny meeting, to focus upon The Big Listen results and headlines. The Cabinet Member and three Trade Union leads to be invited in order to provide staff-side perspective;