1. Board Report 28 September 2016
Agenda Item
Title
Executive Director lead and presenter
Report author
BD/16/142
Workforce Report
Andrew Dean - Director of Nursing and Quality
Jenny Turton – Head of Human Resources
Toria Nelson – Workforce Planning Manager
This report is for:
Decision X
Discussion
To Note
History
None
The following impacts have been identified and assessed within this report
Equality
Quality
Privacy

2. 2016/17 Workforce report month 5

3. Table of contents Key Messages 3 Recruitment and Workforce 4
Turnover and Retention 5
Sickness Absence 6
Disciplinaries 7
Age Profile 8
Ethnicity 9

4. Key Messages Recruitment and Workforce
The Trust employed staff at 31 August 2016 and has an establishment of , leaving a vacancy gap of This is a slightly improving picture from the figures presented in July of in post and a vacancy gap of
799 offers of employment have been made in this financial year up to 31 August This time last year we had made 634 offers of employment.
Wiltshire LDU have the highest number of vacancies within the Trust at wte and have a recruitment planning and scoping event in October to plan actions to address this
wte EU workers are currently employed by the Trust and NHS Employers are working on our shared challenges in light of the decision to leave the EU
Turnover and Retention
The current turnover rate is 13.29% compared with 14.69% in August 2015
In comparison with a number of other mental health Trusts, our Turnover rate is decreasing slightly
A number of initiatives are being led via the Wellbeing Taskforce and the Staff Experience Groups in order to aid retention
Sickness Absence
The current rolling absence figure in August 2016 is 4.35%, with an in month sickness absence rate of 4.17% compared against the Trust target rate of 4.6%
The majority of absences last for only one or two days.
Bristol LDU have the highest rate of musculoskeletal related sickness absence and a pilot will be taking place in November with our occupational health physio service in order to support these staff further
Disciplinaries
There are currently 10 disciplinary cases underway
Two of these involve the Police
Age Profile
The majority of the Trust workforce is aged 40 plus
61.5% of the registered nursing workforce is aged 41+ and 30% are aged 51+
Ethnicity
The Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) Report is appended to this report and highlights a number of the key issues relating to each of the indicators within the standard. Actions are currently being addressed within the Trust such as understanding the reasons of the gap between BME / White applicants in the relative likelihood of appointment after shortlisting, and work to reduce this gap lawfully
RECOMMENDATION
The Board is asked to note the content of this report and to advise of any further steps that it requires the Strategic Workforce Group to undertake in order to be assured that issues are being managed effectively
The Board is asked to consider if a quarterly Workforce Report would be more beneficial in terms of being able to identify trends more clearly rather than in month differences

5. Recruitment and workforce – current position
Month
WTE
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
The Trust has WTE staff at 31 August 2016 compared with staff in June The Trust’s current establishment is which leaves a vacancy gap of which is 7.49% of our workforce.
187 offers of employment have been made in August 2016, compared with 213 in July 2016 and 146 in June In August last year we made 103 offers of employment.
799 employment offers have been made in this financial year up to 31 August 2016, compared to 634 employment offers made at the same time last year.
The LDU with the highest number of vacancies is Wiltshire with wte.
A Wiltshire Recruitment Planning and Scoping Event has been arranged for the 14 October with relevant internal key stakeholders. Its aim is to operationalise the recommendations in the attached Wiltshire Recruitment Deep Dive (Appendix 1) which took place in July.
The recruitment promotional material package has been reviewed and being redeveloped to include more attractive items and presentations.
As part of the standard review with TRAC, we are meeting with the suppliers to ensure we are making the best use of this new recruitment system.
Super user TRAC training is being provided to LDUs in October.
The Disability Two Ticks System is being replaced in July 2017 with a scheme called Disability Confident.
wte EU workers are currently employed by the Trust, of these are Nurses and are Medical staff. NHS Employers have convened a coalition of organisations across health and social care to address our shared challenges and purpose in light of the decision to leave the EU. NHS Employers will keep HR Directors updated and have encouraged us to discuss further in our employer networks.

6. Turnover and Retention
The current turnover rate for the Trust is % compared with 14.69% in August 2015 (calculated using Trust measure, permanent staff only, voluntary reasons for leaving).
There were WTE new starters in August of which 28 WTE were junior doctors. This is offset by WTE leavers of whom 17.3 WTE were Junior Doctors.
The Employee Relations Team and the Recruitment Team encourage managers to commence the recruitment process as soon as a resignation is received in order to shorten the gap between the resignation of one member of staff and the start date of the replacement member of staff.
A range of retention activities continue to be carried out by the LDU’s supported by the HRBPs and the impact is monitored by the Strategic Workforce Group and through Locality Performance Reviews.
The Trust is accredited with the Workplace Wellbeing Charter and continues to build on the previous health and wellbeing work.
The Wellbeing Taskforce, led by a member of the OD Team, continues to meet on a monthly basis and is represented by all LDU’s and Corporate Services. As previously reported, the taskforce is focussing on the Five Ways to Wellbeing. They are developing a wellbeing fund; wellbeing events including weight management and walking events. The taskforce reports into the Strategic Workforce Group.
The first Trustwide Staff Experience Group is due to take place on the 6 October, chaired by the Chief Executive. Representatives from LDU Staff Experience Groups and Corporate Teams sit on this Group and the agenda will focus on how it feels to work for the Trust and discussions around the Staff Charter.
The Trust benchmarks itself against a number of mental health Trusts of comparable size and complexity as well as other local mental health Trusts. Benchmarking from the source opposite (HSCIC) is published approximately three months after is it available within local Trusts.

7. Sickness Absence
The Trust position for sickness absence up to 31 August 2016 is a rolling absence figure of 4.35%, with an in month sickness absence of 4.17%.
Long term absence in August was 2.68% compared with 2.86% in August 2015 and short term absence was 1.49% compared with 1.67% in August The rolling 12 month figure was 4.65% in August 2015.
Between 1 September 2015 and 31 August 2016 there were 2571 absences of 1 day. If each absence takes 15 minutes of a manager’s time this equates to 642 hours or more than 17 weeks of work.
Absences of 1 and 2 days account for 4131 occasions of absence, more than all remaining absences added together.
Research has shown that in order to manage sickness absence organisations should have a robust procedure, carry out return to work interviews and provide support to their staff.
The Trust is currently reviewing the Managing Attendance and Absence policy; part of the process is a return to work interview and support is provided to staff prior to, during and after periods of sickness through our occupational health service
We have identified from our sickness data that Bristol LDU has a number of staff who have been absent due musculoskeletal illness. In discussion with our occupational health service we have agreed to run a pilot of their Physio Triage service which should provide extra support for those staff and speed up any physiotherapy intervention and therefore their recovery.

8. Disciplinaries Current cases No of cases over 12 weeks Suspensions
Current cases
No of cases over 12 weeks
Suspensions
No of cases where police involved
BANES
Bristol 6 3 2 1
CAMHS
North Somerset
Secure
South Glos.
Specialised
Swindon
Wiltshire
Corporate
Total 10 5
There are currently 10 disciplinary cases underway
There are no disciplinary cases awaiting appeal at Board level
Two of the disciplinary cases involve the police
The Trust disciplinary policy states that cases should normally be concluded within 12 weeks, and 6 cases are out of time
Reasons for cases being out of time include advice that staff members are not well enough to attend hearings/meetings; delay in availability of representatives to support members of staff; and police involvement in cases
Discussions continue internally and externally in order to expedite processes as quickly as possible

9. Age Profile 60.1% of all AWP employees are aged 41 or older
Of the Trust’s Registered Nurses 61.5% are aged 41 and older % of the Registered Nurse workforce is aged 51+
53% of medics and 54% of other registered professionals are aged 41 and over
At the October Strategic Workforce Group we will be looking at the age profile of our workforce in detail to understand the impact and identify any actions we can take in order to address the issues one of which could be to task the Staff Experience Groups to focus on retention of those staff who are younger than 41

10. Ethnicity
Appendix 2 contains the Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) which was approved at the Quality and Standards Committee in July.
The WRES is a contractual requirement with NHS England. Reporting on the WRES must be made on an annual basis, by no later than 1st August.
A number of actions have come from the WRES and the Trust is in the process of delivering those actions and these are summarised into the following themes:-
Targeting career progression / talent management activities to support BME staff in career aspirations
Understanding the reasons of the gap between BME / White applicants in the relative likelihood of appointment after shortlisting, and work to reduce this gap lawfully.
Continue to promote and improve access to learning and development opportunities for all staff.
Focused engagement with staff, including targeted engagement with BME staff, at LDU and service area level to understand (a) nature and cause of disciplinary actions; (b) disparities in staff perception of bullying, harassment and discrimination; and (c) disparities centred on the provision of equality of opportunity
Promoting increase of BME representation, with the appropriate skill sets, on the Board.