Agenda Item X Page 1 of 14 ESSEX FIRE AUTHORITY Essex ... · X MEETING DATE 17 February 2016 REPORT NUMBER EFA/XX/16 SUBJECT Essex County Fire & Rescue Service Workforce Report 2015

Agenda Item X EFA/XXX/16 Page 1 of 14

MEETING

Essex Fire Authority

AGENDA ITEM

X MEETING DATE

17 February 2016

REPORT NUMBER

EFA/XX/16

SUBJECT

Essex County Fire & Rescue Service Workforce Report 2015

REPORT BY

Lindsey Stafford-Scott, Director of HR and Organisational Development

PRESENTED BY

Lindsey Stafford-Scott, Director of HR and Organisational Development

1. SUMMARY This paper provides an overview for Members on the Service’s workforce for the period 1st January 2015 – 31st December 2015. It should be noted that the overall headcount and FTE data matches the Finance Report however, the further analysis was done using reports run during mid-December which include those on career breaks. This includes details of formal Human Resources (HR) casework issues addressed by the Service’s HR Casework Team and Managers over the twelve month period January – December 2015 and also other activity undertaken by the wider HR team. Whilst this data has been reported in summary to the fire Authority annually for some years, the Cultural review made a number of recommendations including number 7. ‘Ensure that FRA reports address a wider range of cultural and industrial relations subjects and not just operational, financial and risk issues’. It is hoped that this more detailed workforce information report will provide members with a clearer focus on the People issues within the Service and what is being done to address them.

2. RECOMMENDATION

Members of the Essex Fire Authority are asked to note the contents of the report. 3. BACKGROUND The HR team transitioned into a new operating model in April 2015. The model has improved the recording and monitoring of employee relations cases and the robustness of the information across the organisation has been enhanced, resulting in a consistent approach on reporting on cases supported by the HR Casework Team. The HR Support Team launched a Cherwell Information System, which introduced employee self-service and logging of HR enquiries via a Customer Portal, the ability to log calls taken by the HR

ESSEX FIRE AUTHORITY Essex County Fire & Rescue Service


Support Team and a knowledge base to enable the HR Assistant/HR Advisor to be able to search knowledge articles and similar HR enquiries from resolved/closed cases with the same categorisation. For the purposes of this paper a report was run using the SAP data management system to drill down to the specific workforce metrics. It should be noted that any employees with multiple contracts (e.g. Wholetime On-call or Wholetime with casual Support contract) appear as 2 heads. Exit Interview data and Recruitment and Selection data have also been used to provide further analysis. 4. WORKFORCE DEMOGRAPHICS At the end of December 2015, the Fire Authority employed 1519 employees made up of 283 Support staff, 34 Control staff and 1202 Uniformed staff (Wholetime and On-call). Table 1 below shows the number of employees within each of the following work group categories; Operational, On-call, Control and Support.

Table 1: Headcount and Whole Time Equivalent (“WTE”) by category

Category Headcount WTE

Wholetime 722 722

On-call 480 379

Control 34 32

Support 283 260

Grand Total 1519 1393

5. WORKFORCE COMPOSITION BY PROTECTED CHARACTERISTICS 5.1. Age profile Figure 1 illustrates that the Service is fairly age diverse between the ages of 18 – 64. The average age of Service employees is 42. The age group which forms the highest percentage of workforce is in the age band 40 – 49 years; this is consistent with other public sector organisations which have more middle-aged employees (35 – 44 and 45 to 54) than the private and not-for-profit sectors (CIPD). This is consistent with the Office National Statistics (ONS) recorded median age of 39.7 which is expected to increase to 40.6 by 2022. The lowest percentage of the workforce is staff over 65 followed by the 60 – 64 age group. The majority of the workforce are under 49. The average age profile of new starters shows that the average age for a new starter is 33.5. The age profile of leavers indicates that the average age of leavers is 44.


Figure 1: Age Profile

5.2. Gender distribution Of the overall headcount, 203 (13.3%) are female and 1320 (86.7%) male. This is an increase of 10 for the overall female headcount and a reduction of 40 for the overall male headcount on the 2014 figures. This figure is slightly below the figure reported in the DCLG Fire and Rescue Operational Statistics Bulletin 2014/2015 which reports that the average overall female headcount across all Fire Services in England to be 14.3%. Overall the number of men and women in the Support Staff category are very similar. Table 2 shows the support staff gender distribution. There are 279 Support Staff in total, comprised of 48% female employees and 52% male employees. Overall the number of men in Operational (Wholetime, Retained and Control) roles is significantly higher than female. There are 1244 Operational Staff in total, comprised of 6% female employees and 94% male. This is further reflected in the number of female employees holding supervisory and managerial positions; currently just 1 female at Middle or Strategic Manager level. The average number of females employed in operational roles in England of 7% (DCLG Fire and Rescue Operational Statistics Bulletin 2014/2015).

Table 2: Gender by category

Gender Category Headcount

Female Operational 34

On-call 3

Control 32

Support 134

Total 203

Male Operational 690

On-call 480

Control 5

Support 145

Total 1320

Grand Total 1523


Gender data for the county of Essex shows that 51% female and 49% male. Therefore based on current reporting the Service is not representative of the communities it serves. 5.3. Ethnicity There remains a lack of monitoring data available and it should be noted that it is not mandatory for employees to provide this information. 809 (53%) individuals have no record for the category of ethnicity. From the records we do have, 45% of employees identify as White British with 0.7% identifying as Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME). Apart from the majority, White British, the highest number Ethnic group is White Any Other (0.8%). DCLG Fire and Rescue Operational Statistics Bulletin 2014/2015 data would suggest that other FRS have more robust ethnicity data as only 11.2% have been recorded as not stated. Other FRS report 84.86% White (including White Other) and 3.92% as Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic. The 2011 census data shows that ethnicity data for the county of Essex shows that Essex has become more diverse although, as with England and Wales figures, most of Essex residents are in the White ethnic group; 94.4%, a bigger proportion than England and Wales (85.5%). There are smaller proportions in all other ethnic groups in the residents of Essex compared with England and Wales (2011 census data - ONS). Therefore based on current reporting the Service is not representative to the communities it serves. 5.4. Disability Headcount Of those staff who have provided disability data; 0.4% state that they have a disability.99.6% of employees have not provided any information regarding disability. It should be noted that disability data is captured at the point of entry into the workforce, and data is not subsequently captured routinely during the post holder’s tenure. The Census 2011 shows that the proportion of population across England that are disabled was 18% and within Essex 17%. 5.5. Sexual Orientation The records for sexual orientation indicate that the majority of staff at 65% have not declared. Heterosexuals account for 33.9%. Combined figures for people identifying as LGB (Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual) is 1.1%, which we believe is under-reported and is lower for the national estimation by Stonewall for population identifying as LGB is between 5-7%. There is no data on sexual orientation within the local community as the ONS concluded that it would not include sexual orientation in the 2011 UK Census. The Service continues to invest in its management capability around equality and inclusion to encourage behaviours that nurture a supportive and inclusive environment. Since the last report there have been a number of key successes. During the last quarter of 2015 the HR Casework Manager and Chair of Being (LGBT Network) working with Stonewall undertook a Policy Audit with reference to LGBT/Equality and Diversity. The recommended changes ensure family friendly policies (Adoption Leave Policy, Maternity Policy, Paternity Policy, Shared Parental Leave, Time off for Dependants) include reference to those in a same-sex couple. The Service will be consulting on the changes with the recognised trade unions in the first quarter of 2016. This review also highlighted the lack of data and key changes required to SAP to enable employees to ‘self-serve’ and add sexual orientation data. The next steps will be to undertake a data collection and validation exercise.


6. TURNOVER Employee turnover refers to the proportion of employees who leave an organisation over a set period, expressed as a percentage of total workforce numbers (CIPD). The overall total staff turnover figure for 2015 was 10.45%. Table 3 below provides the total staff turnover of each staff group.

Table 3: Turnover by staffing group Staff group Turnover

Operational 5.91%

On-call 11.98%

Control 5.48%

Support 20.39%

The overall turnover rate for the Service is lower than the average total turnover rate of for public sector services; 14.1% (XpertHR). However support staff turnover is significantly higher than the average public sector turnover. 6.1. Leavers During 2015 the total number of leavers from the Service was a headcount of 162 with reasons for leaving broadly attributed to natural turnover with resignation accounting as the main reason for leaving at 51.2%, see figure 2.

Figure 2: Reasons for leaving

Table 4 provides a further breakdown of this data and shows that the on-call staffing group have the highest number of leavers for the reason of resignation. The 6 redundancies for Support Staff


were in relation to the changes to cooks on stations. The main reason for leaving of operational (Wholetime) staffing group was retirement.

Table 4: Reason for leaving by staffing group

Staff Group Reason for leaving

Transfer to other Service

Retirement Resignation Redundancy End of Contract Dismissal

Operational 4 31 7 0 0 2

On-call 1 5 45 0 1 6

Control 0 0 0 0 0 2

Support 0 8 31 12 5 2

Further analysis of the 29 exit questionnaires received during 2015 shows that domestic/family was the most common reason for resignations, with the second highest reason being travelling/location. An explanation for the reason of travelling/location could possibly be due to the Time Travel Compensation allowance ceasing for those that relocated from Hutton to Kelvedon Park as part of the Phase 2 relocation. Within the exit questionnaire leavers are asked to rate their experience of working for the Service under various categories. Relationships with colleagues and relationships with manager were rated overall very good. Prospects for advancement/promotion and career development opportunities were rated overall as poor. Figure 3 shows the length of service of leavers, the highest category being over 20 years with 26.6%, this correlates with 27.2% of leavers retiring.

Figure 3: Length of service of leavers


6.2. Joiners/Recruitment During 2015 total headcount of 106 staff joined the Service; 52 being On-call and 54 being support staff (23 of which were fixed term contracts). There was no Wholetime recruitment during 2015 (a recruitment freeze has been in place since 2009). The Workforce Transformation Programme saw the delivery of an open and transparent recruitment and selection code of practice and its accompanying policy and processes. A Recruitment and Selection Training Programme has been developed with the aim of skilling managers in safer recruitment and enabling to interview without HR presence. After a pilot in October 2015 the programme was modified and has run again with positive feedback; Managers are feeling more confident in conducting the interviews, following a competency based framework and having positively commented on the section on understanding unconscious bias feelings they have a better awareness of their thoughts and actions. The programme is available for all staff who participate in selection and interview processes and will be run again twice in January. During the autumn the HR team have visited On-call stations to meet with Officers to explain the recruitment process for On-call firefighters. These visits have been extremely popular with positive comments on using the new paperwork. Additionally this has been valuable for the HR Support Team to gain feedback on the Officers experiences with the new process. From the feedback changes have been made to the process and paperwork which is hoped will make the process more effective in the future. 6.3. Workforce Planning

During 2015 the workforce planning process has been reviewed to improve the decision making process and ensure there is the right level of accountability. The HR Business Partners are working with budget holders to forecast for future needs e.g. retirement projections, to ensure the right people, are in the right place, at the right time. 7. ABSENCE 7.1. Sickness data During 2015 there have been 9255.13 duty days lost due to sickness. Please note this does not include On-call sickness, only Wholetime and Support. If on-call managers enter sickness data onto MSS this pulls through the incorrect payment on SAP as it is unable to talk to the HBS system. This system error means that it is not possible to configure payments for on-call to include average turnouts and attendances and the HR Support Team therefore have to manually calculate this figure. This system limitation means that we are unable to report on on-call sickness. The estimated number of days lost per employee using this data is 8.9 days per employee which is significantly higher that the CIPD average mean average days lost per public sector employee per year which is between 7.9 to 10.4 days per employee (CIPD Absence Management Report 2015).

Table 5: Sickness absence by staffing group Staff group Absence days Average days lost per employee

Operational 6789.3 9.4

On-call No data No data

Control 252 6.8

Support 2213.8 7.9


Table 5 shows the breakdown of sickness absence by staffing group. Operational (Wholetime) have the highest number of days lost per employee at 9.4 days. Our data does not allow us to accurately report on the cost of employee absence. However, if an average salary is taken for each staff group and a daily rate is identified with on-costs then in 2015 sickness absence could have cost the Service in the region of £1,721,806.16. Table 6 provides the overall estimated cost of sickness absence for each staffing group based on the average salary with on-costs. For January to December 2015, Operational (Wholetime) had the highest number of duty days lost due to sickness (6789.3) followed by Support (2213.8) and Control with the lowest number of duty days lost (252).

Table 6: Cost of sickness absence by staffing group Staff group Absence days Overall cost

Operational 6789.3 £1,377,349.35

On-call No data No data

Control 252 £48,603.24

Support 2213.8 £295,853.57

*N.B. Operational average salary with on-costs £36,922

Support average salary with on-costs £34,746 Control average salary with on-costs £35,103

Table 7 provides a more detailed analysis of the cost of sickness absence which indicates that there is more short-term absence than long term absence for those in the Control and Support staff groups.

Table 7: Cost of short term and long term sickness absence by staffing group Staff group Duty days lost due to

STS STS cost Duty days lost

due to LTS LTS cost

Operational 3005.32 £609,689.27 3784 £767,660.08

On-call No data No data No data No data

Control 218 £42,045.66 34 £6,557.58

Support 1323.81 £176,913.97 890 £118,939.60

*N.B. Short-term sickness absence – less than 28 calendar days

Long-term sickness absence – 28 calendar days or more

It is also not possible to report in detail on the causes of all absence however the HR Casework Team are able to report on the top causes of long-term absence cases with acute medical conditions, stress, mental ill health, musculoskeletal injuries and back pain topping the list. This is consistent with other Public sector organisations. The Service has created a wellbeing strategy which focusses on these key areas and aims to take a pro-active approach to reducing such types of absence. 7.2. Managing Absence

The new Service Attendance Management policy has been collectively agreed and the HR Casework team are coaching managers through attendance cases in accordance with the principles within that procedure.


A briefing session for HR and Unions has been held on how absence will be managed going forward and the launch of the policy is imminent with e-learning and face-to-face training to develop line manager capability to manage absence. We will also be undertaking nearly 100 briefings – each watch, Fire Station, corporately. Other activity has included the launch of an Employee Assistance Programme (Workplace Options), a free confidential and independent resource to help employees balance their work, family and personal life. The service is available any time by phone, email or online and provides information, resources and counselling. The Fire Authority has also signed the Mind Blue Light Pledge which aims to raise awareness of mental health conditions and encourage people to tackle the stigma often associated with such illness. The Service is also launching a new approach to managing the impact of traumatic incidents on Service Employees with the launch of our TIRM Policy (Traumatic Incident Risk Management). 7.3. Attendance Management Cases The HR Casework Team have dealt with 91 attendance management cases during 2015, ranging from short term sickness to more complex long term sickness absence. During 2015 of those who have not returned to their contractual role, 3 individuals have been dismissed due to ill health capability (either not members of a pension scheme or haven’t qualified for ill health retirement under the conditions of the pension scheme) and 4 individuals have resigned during a period of long term sickness absence. It should be noted that one individual who was dismissed due to ill health capability had left the 2006 New Firefighter Pension Scheme and therefore did not qualify for ill health retirement and the pension was deferred. A Medical Appeal has been submitted to the Board of Medical Referees by the individual, if upheld and the panel decides that the individual is incapable of undertaking any regular employment then a higher tier ill-health pension will be put into payment. There have been 3 Ill-Health Retirements processed during 2015; 1 Wholetime Retained, 1 Support and 1 on-call. Table 8 details the cost of these ill health retirements.

Table 8: Ill-health Retirement Costs Staff group Cost Comments

Operational Ill health payment £173,893 Cost spread over 3 years £57,964 pa This individual was both Wholetime

and Retained.

On-call £4,800 Lower tier pension

Control N/A N/A

Support £0 Individual over 60 years of age

8. EMPLOYEE RELATIONS This section provides an update on the number of formal cases being dealt with by the HR Casework Team in terms of disciplinary, grievance, and bullying and harassment. 8.1. Formal Disciplinary Cases Historically matters of attendance management and performance were included within the reporting statistics for disciplinary cases; this was due to the Service using Disciplinary Procedures to manage all such matters in accordance with the national terms and conditions for Firefighters (Grey Book). For the purpose of this report the attendance or performance cases

Agenda Item X EFA/XXX/16

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have been removed from the data for the previous year to enable an accurate year on year comparison of formal disciplinary sanctions. This data can be found in figure 4.

Figure 4: Year on year formal disciplinary data

With the exception of 2011, where the figures were unusually high due to one incident which resulted in 44 employees being subject to disciplinary action, the figures have shown a steady year on year decline since 2011 for first and final written warnings. In the year from 1 January to 31 December 2015 there have been 19 disciplinary cases which have resulted in formal disciplinary action being taken against ECFRS employees, Table 9 provides details of the sanctions awarded. This is an increase on 2014 figures which saw 13 cases. This increase is due to the fact that for 2015, all cases that were initiated via the formal route have been included even where the final outcome was not a formal warning (e.g. management advice letter, no case to answer or resignation).

Table 9: 2015 Discipline Cases

Overall formal figure Sanction

19 2 resigned during process

1 No case to answer

6 Management Advice (outcome of investigation)

4 First Written Warnings Misconduct

1 Final Written Warning/Demotion/Transfer (action short of dismissal)

5 Dismissals Misconduct

Of the 5 dismissals which have been effected:

1 Wholetime Fire-fighter (misconduct)

4 On-call Fire-fighters (misconduct)


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Of the 1 case which resulted in the sanction ‘action short of dismissal’ (which included a Final Written Warning, Demotion and Transfer) the individual was a Wholetime Supervisory Manager. Of the 4 cases which resulted in First Written Warnings:

1 Wholetime Firefighter (misconduct)

3 On-call Firefighters (misconduct) In addition to the above, two On-call Firefighters resigned during the disciplinary process. There are a further 3 live disciplinary investigations and 4 cases subject to external investigation and/or criminal proceedings, making an overall total of 26 formal cases. One emerging theme in the reasons for disciplinary action in this and the previous years is industrial disputes. Examples of such cases include:

Creating an intimidating and hostile environment for colleagues.

Making derogatory and discriminatory statement regarding another employee.

Exhibiting behaviour that may constitute unlawful harassment in relation to a colleague not being a member of a trade union.

The other actions leading to discipline during 2015 and previous years were varied, including failure to comply with reasonable management instruction, bringing the Service into disrepute, claiming unauthorised overtime and falsifying Service documents. The HR Casework team now also records all informal discipline action where any level of HR support is provided. Our records show that although there have been 19 formal cases completed during 2015 there have also been a further 28 informal discipline cases the HR Casework team have provided support. Examples of the type of activity this includes are provided below:

Issues of those contracted to the retained duty system (On-call) where they have not been providing sufficient availability or non-attendance at drill nights.

Reports made by the GIAN Team during periods of industrial action where the actions of striking employees have been perceived as intimidatory.

Outcomes of informal discipline cases are low level managerial action e.g. 1:1 conversation and recorded on Personal Record File (FB163) or other forms of Management Advice. For 2015 the HR Casework Team is able to breakdown informal and formal discipline cases by area as detailed below in Table 10:

Table 10: Breakdown of 2015 discipline cases by area

East West Corporate

Number of informal cases 11 14 3

Number of formal cases 7 15 4

A new Disciplinary Policy has also been drafted which proposes a review to timescales of the process and removes the current stipulation where a decision is made to determine the severity of the case at the outset without an investigation. This Policy will be subject to a review by the Expert Advisory Panel and consultation with Trades Unions.


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8.2. Employment Tribunal Claims There was an ET claim submitted during 2014 which was heard by the Employment Tribunal in 2015. This claim was in relation to direct disability discrimination/discrimination arising from disability/failure to make reasonable adjustment/unfair dismissal/harassment/victimisation. This claim was successfully defended. A claim was registered with ACAS during 2015 in relation to annual leave payment. This claim fell outside of the respective limitation period, i.e. 3 months from the date of the last alleged unlawful deduction. There have been no employment tribunal claims progressed during 2015 despite the number of dismissals for reasons of misconduct increasing. 8.3. Formal Grievance Cases Putting aside cases that were settled by mediation or were withdrawn, over the last year, the Service has received 12 cases of harassment, bullying and other types of grievances. In addition to those cases in Table 11 below, there are also a further 5 grievances which have been submitted and are currently live cases.

Table 11: Grievance Cases

Overall formal figure

By Group Outcome Reason

12 5 Wholetime 7 On-call

9 not upheld 5 Bullying & Harassment 1 Divergence of OH advice 1 Bringing the Authority into disrepute 2 Pay

1 upheld 1 Pay

2 partially upheld

1 Unfair treatment 1 Unfair promotion process

Figure 5 illustrates the year on year formal grievance data. This data shows a spike in the number of grievances received in 2013 with 21 submitted which has decrease year on year since.


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Figure 5: Year on year formal grievance data

The Service has drafted a new Grievance Policy; the aim of this is to introduce a focus on mediation supported by a new mediation policy and training, which will help to address issues and resolve them at the earliest possible stage. The Grievance policy will be subject to a review by the Expert Advisory Panel and consultation with Trades Unions. 9. RISK MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS All cases have been dealt with in accordance with SIS Volume 4/36 Disciplinary Procedure and with current employment legislation by Service Managers at the appropriate level, supported by HR Business Partners and their teams. There are no additional risk management implications. High levels of sickness absence, and poor levels of competence can have a detrimental effect on crewing availability, training and costs including overtime. 10. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS Three discipline investigations have involved the services of an external investigator the overall cost of this was £48,868.08 (net). All other cases have been investigated and hearings arranged using existing ECFRS resources. All costs have remained within budget. There are no direct budgetary implications arising from this report. 11. LEGAL IMPLICATIONS The Discipline Procedure does comply with the Employment Act 2002 (Dispute Resolution) Regulations 2004 and with the ACAS Code of Practice. However, it is currently under review along with the Grievance procedure and a new Capability procedure to ensure it is completely fit for purpose in a modern Fire Service. Where necessary, legal advice has been sought and acted upon.


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12. EQUALITY IMPLICATIONS The equality implications are detailed within the report. It is clear, and has been highlighted in the Independent Cultural review that the Service has some way to go to develop a workforce which is diverse and broadly representative of the communities we serve. Recruitment freezes and a long serving, reducing workforce provide limited opportunity to recruit a more diverse range of employees. However, the service is creating a Diversity Action Group which will develop new Diversity Objectives and associated activity. In the meantime the On-call Development Project is aiming to increase the diversity of our on-call workforce via an innovative and targeted recruitment campaign and a review of restrictive terms and conditions. 13. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS There are no environmental implications associated with the content of this report.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT (ACCESS TO INFORMATION) ACT 1985

List of appendices attached to this paper:

List of background documents (not attached):

Proper Officer: The Director of HR and OD

Contact Officer: The Director of HR and OD, Lindsey Stafford-Scott Essex County Fire & Rescue Service, Kelvedon Park, London Road, Rivenhall, Witham CM8 3HB Tel: 01376 576000 E-mail: [email protected]

Documents

Agenda Item X Page 1 of 14 ESSEX FIRE AUTHORITY Essex ... · X MEETING DATE 17 February 2016 REPORT NUMBER EFA/XX/16 SUBJECT Essex County Fire & Rescue Service Workforce Report 2015