Your East Riding...

Feedback: I found the roadshow I attended extremely interesting as it gave me a much better understanding of the council and its priorities, problems and challenges. It allowed me to feel part of the council as a whole rather than only knowing what is going on in my own area. Thank you for taking the time to keep us all informed. I feel it would be helpful to have something similar on maybe an annual basis to keep us all up to date.

Caroline Lacey: Thank you for your feedback and suggestion. I found the roadshows really helpful in being able to communicate with a large number of staff and have been really pleased with the feedback, questions and enthusiasm they have generated. I will be looking to make these an annual event.

Feedback: I have been stopped by members of the public at lunchtimes who noticed my where everyone matters lanyard and gave constructive feedback on council services. Other than directing them to the website or general phone number, should I be doing anything further to log these?

Caroline Lacey: It is great to hear you have had constructive feedback from members of the public about council services and you are clearly acting as an ambassador for the council. I think you are doing the right thing directing people to the website, we don’t need to record these comments anywhere.

Feedback: I think the pledge is very relevant to the current priorities in the East Riding and feel proud to be working at the council.

Caroline Lacey: I am really pleased to hear you are proud to work for the council. I will continue to publicise the outcomes of the work we are doing around leadership, recruitment, retention and flexible working through The Grapevine and Insight over the next few months, so look out for these articles.

Feedback: My question is around flexible working and staff wellbeing. Is the maternity policy going to be reviewed? If I start a family I am worried I will be left behind from being able to access flexible working options, especially as the current policy states I would not be able to retain the same job role should I drop to lower than full-time hours after maternity leave. This suggests new mums are not deemed able to manage their roles on a part-time basis and have to drop to level one. I’m sure you understand this brings its own worries and frustrations and affects staff retention as they do not feel they are being given the opportunity to develop.

Caroline Lacey: I have looked into the question and there is no restriction within the policy on returning to work part-time in the same job following maternity leave.

The maternity policy states: “2.10.1 An employee has the right following OML to return to the position (subject to paragraph 2.10.2 below) to which they are employed under their existing contract of employment. If an employee returns to work following AML, their entitlement is to return either to the same job, or if that is not reasonably practicable from the council’s perspective, to another suitable job which is on terms and conditions not less favourable.”

This does not relate to flexible working or a reduction in working hours.

This provision is built into the legislation and takes into consideration operational difficulties that could result from a longer absence from work as a result of maternity leave. It therefore gives the employer the ability to move an individual according to business need.

In relation to any request to reduce working hours following maternity leave, this is dealt with by the Right to Request Flexible Working policy.

This policy applies to all employees with more than 26 weeks service who wish to request any changes to hours, days, working patterns, etc. It does not refer specifically to maternity leave and does not treat individuals returning from maternity leave differently to any other.

This policy states: “An employee only has a right to request to work flexibly. There is not an absolute right for the request to be granted.”

However the council will always try to accommodate flexible working requests and has a duty to seriously consider any such requests but, in considering any request, has to balance the needs of the individual and that of the service.

A request should only be refused if certain grounds apply relating to considerations like additional cost or not being able to meet customer demand due to staffing.

I hope this makes the policy situation a bit clearer. It may be there are particular service issues that mean flexible working requests cannot be accommodated at level two but I encourage you to discuss this with your manager.

Feedback: Having returned to work after having a child, I appreciate the approach you are taking to flexible working. Knowing we are valued not only as staff members but also as people has really encouraged me to offer extra, doing work in my own time for instance. I also really appreciate the launch of the coaching and mentoring project as this is an area I feel has been a gap in our organisation previously. The attitude that a happy ‘workforce’ (although I dislike the term) is likely to be reflected in happier residents is great.

Caroline Lacey: Thank you for your support of the work we are undertaking around flexible working and coaching and mentoring.

We will be taking a report to Cabinet in November following the outcome of the pilot work on flexible working, with a view to rolling out the approach across the authority.

The workstreams on recruitment and retention will also be feeding back in November/December and we will be keeping everyone updated on the outcomes of these workstreams through The Grapevine and Insight.