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EMPLOYMENT PROFILE

April 2008 - March 2009

Introduction

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The Haringey employment profile gives an overview of the organisation's workforce over the 2008/9 financial year. It focuses on performance in relation to the total number of employees and also reports the various diversity strands within the organisation such as disability, gender, ethnicity and age.

The profile enables the organisation to understand trends and to practice, review and implement policy. It also contributes towards our understanding of the impact of people management practices on employees.

It enables Haringey to fulfil obligations under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 and maintain our Equality Standard for Local government (Haringey is currently at Level 2 working towards Level 4).

Level 4 of the Equality Standard (2007) requires the organisation to:

use existing or adapted personnel information systems to provide equality data relating to human resources targets

produce monitoring reports at regular and specified intervals and circulate them to designated consultation and scrutiny groups

use equality data to monitor personnel procedures

use equality data to monitor the number of staff leaving employment and their reasons for leaving

use monitoring reports to assess whether the authority's employment profile is aligned to the profile of the local labour market

The data illustrated in this report has been retrieved from the SAP system and is based on all Haringey Council employees except for casual/sessional staff and teachers (based in schools).

Directorate Key
Directorate	Code
Adults, Culture & Community Services	AS
Children & Young People's Service	C
Children Schools (excluding Teachers)	C-S
Corporate Resources	CR
People & Organisational Development	PO
Policy, Performance, Partnerships & Comms	PP
Urban Environment	UE
Haringey	HGY

The Council Employment Profile at a Glance…

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Headcount

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White and BME

Ethnicity comparison by directorate (%)
Directorate	BME	WHITE	WHITE OTHER
AS	55.9	26.9	16.4
C	54.7	27.5	15.7
C-S	38.6	34.7	21.3
CR	58.0	26.8	14.4
PO	41.4	39.1	18.9
PP	43.9	35.5	19.7
UE	51.1	33.7	14.5
HGY	48.7	30.9	17.7

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The Council Employment Profile at a Glance…

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Gender and Part-time Breakdown

Gender and part-time breakdown by directorate (%)
Directorate	Male	PT Male	Female	PT Female
AS	34.6	5.8	65.4	26.1
C	17.1	4.0	82.9	40.5
C-S	13.9	7.2	86.1	73.2
CR	40.1	7.4	59.9	23.1
PO	27.8	1.2	72.2	8.9
PP	33.3	1.8	66.7	11.0
UE	54.3	2.7	45.7	4.2
HGY	26.2	5.6	73.8	42.1

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The Council Employment Profile at a Glance…

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Age Summary

Age summary by directorate

Directorate

% <25

% 55+

Ave. Age

C-S

HGY

Sickness Absence

Average sickness days by directorate
Directorate	Average Days
AS	10.21
C	11.21
C-S	7.27
CR	8.79
PO	4.88
PP	8.43
UE	10.92
HGY	8.88
HGY Target	8.80

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Employment Profile

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Contents

Section	Topic	Page
One	Our Workforce	6-9
	Summary	7
	The Council Workforce (including agency)	8-9
Two	A Diverse Workforce	10-18
	Summary	10-11
	Ethnic Breakdown	12-13
	Gender & Part Time Distribution	14
	Age Analysis	15-17
	Disability Analysis	18
Three	Recruitment & Retention	19-28
	Summary	19-21
	Turnover	22-26
	Length of Service	27
	Economics - the impact on Haringey as an employer	28
Four	In Sickness and in Health	29-34
	Summary	29
	Sickness Absence Data	30-34
Five	Council Performance	35-37
	Sickness Absence	35
	Past and Present	36-37
Six	Directorate Profiles	38-41
	Adults, Culture and Communities	38
	Children and Young People	39
	Corporate Resources	40
	Urban Environment	41
Seven	Appendices	42-43
	Appendix A - Salary Information	42
	Appendix B - Leaving Reason Groupings	42
	Appendix C - Ethnic Groups	42
	Appendix D - Performance Indicators descriptions	43
	Appendix E - HR Employment Strategy & Metrics Team	43

Section One - Our Workforce

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Summary

Employees and Agency staff

The council employs 7289 staff excluding casual/ sessional staff and teachers. There are approx 1800 casual/ sessional staff and 1500 teachers.

The council headcount increased from 7240 last year. The additional staff have been employed in schools, with the majority in part time jobs e.g. teaching assistants and school meals supervisors.

We also engaged, on average, 623 agency workers per month throughout 2008/9. This a decrease in the average of 19 staff, compared with an average usage of 642 in 2007/8. The majority were hired due to an increase in volume of work, which cannot be met with existing resources. The most common job roles are care workers, administrators and social workers.

As at March 2009, 14% of Haringey's total workforce was agency, this compares well with 15.6% for London Councils (London Councils Scorecard Quarter 3 2008/9).

Detailed management information is provided monthly to enable senior managers to challenge the activity in their business units.

Section One - Our Workforce

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The Council Workforce

As at the end of the 01 April 2008 - 31 March 2009 period, Haringey Council employed 7289 employees (excluding casual/sessional staff and teachers). There are approx 1800 casual/sessional staff and 1500 teachers.

Establishment coverage - Headcount
Directorate	Headcount	% Workforce
AS	1370	18.8
C	1431	19.6
C-S	2548	35.0
CR	876	12.0
PO	169	2.3
PP	228	3.1
UE	667	9.2
HGY	7289	100.0

Grade distribution by directorate - Headcount
Directorate	MANUAL	SC1-SC5	SC6-SO2	PO1-PO3	PO4-PO7	PO8+
AS	109	671	342	137	88	23
C	10	556	397	140	225	103
C-S	90	1963	370	103	20	2
CR	20	258	305	117	117	59
PO	0	11	70	40	34	14
PP	0	18	45	75	66	24
UE	5	189	202	157	72	42
HGY	234	3666	1731	769	622	267

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Section One - Our Workforce

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The Council Workforce (continued)

The following table gives a snapshot as at March 2009 on the total number of full time equivalent Council and agency employees. Schools have been removed as their total agency usage is unknown.

Haringey Council has a headcount of 4741 excluding schools.

Establishment coverage (excluding schools) - FTE
Directorate	Headcount	Council FTE	Agency FTE	Total FTE (Council + Agency)	% Agency of Workforce
AS	1370	1190	165	1355	12
C	1431	1153	200	1353	15
CR	876	743	115	858	13
PO	169	163	6	169	4
PP	228	216	20	236	8
UE	667	641	178	819	22
HGY	4741	4106	684	4790	14

14% of Haringey's total workforce is made up of agency staff

Urban Environment has the highest % agency of their total workforce at 22% followed by Children's at 15%

People and OD have the lowest at 4%

Section One - Our Workforce

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The Council Workforce (continued)

Agency usage

The average number of agency staff employed per month for 2008/9 was 623, this a decrease in the average of 19 staff, with 642 for 2007/8

The table below shows comparative usage in two different months, March 2008 and March 2009.

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Compared to last year the number of agency staff looks to have increased by 98, even though the overall average for usage is lower for the year compared to 2007/08. The vast majority of these additional staff (86) have been engaged in areas of safeguarding in the children & families and adult care areas of the council. Children's Service has the highest agency usage
People and OD and Policy, Performance and Partnerships has the lowest agency usage

Section One - Our Workforce

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The Council Workforce (continued)

Reasons for hiring agency staff

The graphs below detail the reasons why they were hired and the most common roles that they covered.

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Section One - Our Workforce

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The Council Workforce (continued)

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73% of agency workers were hired due to volume of business

Professional/Technical, care, administrator and social worker roles were the most common roles filled by agency

Section Two - A Diverse Workforce

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Summary

Ethnic Breakdown and Gender

Haringey employs 7289 staff (excluding casual/sessional employees and teachers).

73.8% of the workforce are women. This is greater than the borough profile of 49.9% women. The Council's statistics demonstrate that Haringey remains an employer of choice for women. The Council offers women flexible working benefits and development schemes such as springboard to help increase the number of women in professional / senior posts. More than 40 women staff successfully attended springboard this year
48.7% of the council workforce are from black & minority ethnic groups (BME). This is a slight increase of 0.4% on last year. This compares well with the Haringey population of 34.4% BME. In addition there are 17.7% staff from white - other backgrounds (0.5% up from last year) such as Irish, Greek, Greek Cypriot, Turkish, Turkish Cypriot, etc
Of the 73.8% women in the workforce, 36.9% of this figure BME women, comparing well with the percentage of 34.9% white and white - other staff
Of the top 5% earners in the council 19.7% are BME staff. This is a small rise of 0.7% on 2007/8 figures

44.2% of staff live and work in the borough.

The above statistics show that, broadly we have a workforce that reflects the community we serve.

We are encouraging greater promotion of diversity issues through the people plans within each business unit.

Full-time and Part-time

47.8% of the workforce is classed as part-time workers (less than 36 hours per week). Of these part-timers 88% are female and 12% male

The Council runs a childcare voucher salary sacrifice scheme for part-time and full-time workers to help parents save money

Section Two - A Diverse Workforce

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Summary (continued)

Age Profile

The average age of the workforce is 44 years old

4% of staff are aged under 25. The percentage of residents in the borough aged 16-24 is approx. 13%

16% of staff are aged 55+ compared with approx 10% in the borough profile 55-69 years age range. This has increased by 2% since last year

The percentage of 55+ workers increases in the higher pay grades. This is to be expected since with increased experience the opportunity to get better paid jobs increases

There are currently 96 staff over the age of 65 who have taken advantage of the age discrimination legislation and requested to work over 65 years. This has increased by a further 25 staff from last year's reported figure of 71

The general population continues to age, largely due to the baby boom of the 1960s. As these workers retire there are less workers to replace them due to reducing birth numbers since the 1960s. The national picture is mirrored in Haringey.

It is forecasted that in the next 25 years, there will be a 22% rise in the 40 - 65 age group. This is an estimated 17,500 residents. At the other end of the scale it is expected that younger residents aged below 39 will fall in the next 25 years by 6.3% (7,300).

The over 65 age group is projected to rise by 20.6% over the next 25 years. This could increase the numbers of staff looking to work past 65 and will also increase demands on services for older people, many of which are provided by the Council.

The Council is ensuring our future service delivery by planning ahead. Long term people strategies, succession planning and talent management are all key focus points for 2008/9.

Disabled staff

6.7% of staff declared they are disabled. This is a further increase on last year's figure

Section Two - A Diverse Workforce

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Ethnic Breakdown

This section contains data on the 7289 employees employed by Haringey Council.

The table below shows the different ethnic groups by gender and grade bands (see Appendix A for Salary information).

% Ethnic distribution by grade bands
Grade Band	BME	White	White Other	Not Dec	Total
MANUAL	1.1	1.2	0.4	0.5	3.2
SC1-SC5	26.5	13.7	8.6	1.5	50.3
SC6-SO2	12.3	6.5	4.5	0.4	23.7
PO1-PO3	4.6	3.9	2.0	0.1	10.6
PO4-PO7	3.5	3.4	1.6	0.1	8.5
PO8+	0.7	2.3	0.6	0.1	3.7
TOTALS	48.7	30.9	17.7	2.7	100.0

48.7% of the council workforce are from black & minority ethnic groups. This compares well with the 48.6% white staff

The % of white staff in grade bands PO1+ is slightly higher compared with % BME staff

50.3% of the workforce are in grade band SC1-SC5, with 26.5% being BME staff

The % of BME staff has increased from 48.4% to 48.7% over the last year

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Section Two - A Diverse Workforce

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Ethnic Breakdown (continued)

Haringey serves a multicultural community of around 217,000 with 34% coming from black & minority ethnic communities. With 7289 staff (approximately 9000 including teachers), Haringey Council is the largest employer in the borough. 44% of employees live locally and overall the Council's black & minority ethnic (BME) workforce is representative of the diverse community Haringey serves.

The following table shows the % of ethnic groups by directorate.

% Ethnic distribution by directorate
Directorate	Black	Asian	Mixed	Other	BME	White	White Other	Not Dec
AS	42.8	6.6	2.8	3.6	55.9	26.9	16.4	0.8
C	42.6	7.1	3.1	2.0	54.7	27.5	15.7	2.2
C-S	24.8	8.9	2.9	2.0	38.6	34.7	21.3	5.5
CR	41.1	9.4	3.1	4.5	58.0	26.8	14.4	0.8
PO	25.4	7.1	7.1	1.8	41.4	39.1	18.9	0.6
PP	34.6	2.6	3.9	2.6	43.9	35.5	19.7	0.9
UE	35.1	7.0	6.0	3.0	51.1	33.7	14.5	0.6
HGY	34.9	7.8	3.3	2.7	48.7	30.9	17.7	2.7

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Section Two - A Diverse Workforce

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Gender & Part Time Distribution

This section shows the distribution of employees who are considered to be part-time (employees who work less than 36 hours).

Gender & part-time distribution by directorate
Directorate	Headcount	Total % PT	Male		Female
Directorate	Headcount	Total % PT				Total	% PT	Total	% PT
AS	1370	32.0	80	5.8	358	26.1
C	1431	44.4	57	4.0	579	40.5
C-S	2548	80.4	183	7.2	1865	73.2
CR	876	30.5	65	7.4	202	23.1
PO	169	10.1	2	1.2	15	8.9
PP	228	12.7	4	1.8	25	11.0
UE	667	6.9	18	2.7	28	4.2
HGY	7289	47.8	409	5.6	3072	42.1

47.8% of the workforce are considered to be part-time. This breaks down to 42.1% female and 5.6% male

73.8% of the workforce are women

88% of part-time staff are women

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Section Two - A Diverse Workforce

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Age Analysis

This section shows the age profile of Haringey Council's workforce using age bands.

The table and chart below shows the age distribution of the workforce over 3 years.

% Age distribution over last 3 years
Age band	2006/7	2007/8	2008/9
16<25	4.2	5.2	4.0
25<35	18.9	18.9	18.3
35<45	31	31.1	27.9
45<55	30.4	30.6	33.4
55<65	14.4	13.2	15.1
65+	1.1	1	1.3
Total	6985	7240	7289

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The % of staff aged 34 and under has fallen by 1.8% compared with 2007/8

49.8% of the workforce are aged 45+, an increase of 5% from last year

The workforce continues to age with16.4% of staff aged 55+, a 2.2% increase from last year's figure

Section Two - A Diverse Workforce

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Age Analysis (continued)

This section highlights the age distribution throughout Haringey Council using age bands.

The following table displays the % of staff in each age band per directorate.

% Age distribution by directorate
% Age distribution by directorate
Directorate	Total	Ave. Age	55+	16<25	25<35	35<45	45<55	55<65	65+
AS	1370	45	20.0	4.9	14.9	25.5	34.7	19.1	0.9
C	1431	45	18.6	3.4	14.9	26.3	36.8	17.7	0.9
C-S	2548	43	15.4	4.6	17.4	28.3	34.3	13.9	1.5
CR	876	43	16.9	2.2	21.0	30.5	29.5	14.7	2.2
PO	169	40	9.5	4.7	33.1	24.9	27.8	9.5	0.0
PP	228	41	7.9	2.2	28.1	31.6	30.3	7.0	0.9
UE	667	41	11.7	3.7	25.8	31.2	27.6	10.2	1.5
HGY	7289	44	16.4	4.0	18.3	27.9	33.4	15.1	1.3

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The average age of a Haringey Council employee is 44, this has increased by 1 year compared to 2007/8

Adults, Culture and Communities have the highest % staff 55+ but also the highest % of under 25s at 4.9%

Section Two - A Diverse Workforce

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Age Analysis (continued)

This section highlights the age distribution throughout Haringey Council using age bands.

The following table displays the % of staff in each age band by grade band.

% Age distribution by grade band
	16<25	25<35	35<45	45<55	55<65	65+
MANUAL	4.8	2.0	2.7	3.5	4.4	6.3
SC1-SC5	74.4	46.7	46.6	50.3	52.9	76.0
SC6-SO2	19.0	31.3	26.5	21.1	17.7	12.5
PO1-PO3	1.4	12.7	11.9	9.9	9.8	3.1
PO4-PO7	0.3	6.4	9.4	9.8	9.5	1.0
PO8+	0.0	0.9	2.9	5.4	5.7	1.0
Headcount	289	1337	2037	2433	1097	96

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Almost half of staff in all age groups are in grade band SC1-SC5

Staff 55+ have the highest representation in grade band PO8+ compared with other age groups

Section Two - A Diverse Workforce

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Age Analysis (continued)

% Age distribution by length of service
	16<25	25<35	35<45	45<55	55<65	65+
0<1	44.6	18.3	11.5	8.0	3.6	4.2
1<2	22.8	18.7	12.3	10.1	6.1	3.1
2<5	24.9	38.1	27.5	20.7	11.5	7.3
5<10	7.6	20.9	27.6	26.8	20.1	26.0
10<15	0.0	3.7	8.7	11.4	14.1	13.5
15+	0.0	0.2	12.4	22.9	44.6	45.8
Headcount	289	1337	2037	2433	1097	96

Section Two - A Diverse Workforce

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Disability Analysis

The table below shows the number of disabled staff per directorate by grade band. The number of disabled staff as % of directorate is also displayed.

The number of disabled staff has risen to 5.0% of the workforce, from 4.6% last year.

This figure is different from the 6.7% published in the Performance Indicators, which is based on staff who have made a declaration of their disability status as a `Yes' or `No'.

Disabled staff by directorate & grade band
Directorate	Total	% of Workforce	MANUAL	SC1-SC5	SC6-SO2	PO1-PO3	PO4-PO7	PO8+
AS	91	6.6	8	46	19	7	10	1
C	77	5.4	1	23	28	7	18	0
C-S	68	2.7	2	50	12	3	1	0
CR	56	6.4	0	15	27	8	4	2
PO	9	5.3	0	2	2	3	2	0
PP	16	7.0	0	0	1	10	4	1
UE	47	7.0	1	13	16	12	4	1
HGY	364	5.0	12	149	105	50	43	5

The chart shows the breakdown of disabled staff by grade band.

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Section Three - Recruitment & Retention

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Summary

Employee Turnover

The Council's overall turnover rate stood at 17% for the last year, this is an increase of 3.4% on last year's figure. This is attributable to schools with a turnover level of 24%. The remainder of the council is in line with the turnover levels of other London authorities, which have an average turnover rate of 13.5% (London Councils Scorecard Quarter 3 2008/9).

New Starters

984 new employees joined Haringey over the 2008/9 financial year. Comparatively in 2007/8 there were 1127 new starters.

Out of all new starters, 17% were from the 16-24 age band, compared with 29% of new starters aged 25-35. The working population in Haringey has 12% within the youngest age band 16-24 (ONS: 2007).

44% of new starters are from BME backgrounds. Comparatively the wider employment rate of BME people in employment within Greater London is 28% (GLA: 2006).

2% of new starters declared a disability.

71% of new starters are women. The Council continues to attract women at all levels in the Council and has schemes such as Springboard to help women reach their full potential. An alternative scheme `Navigator' is aimed at male employees.

Recruitment and Retention

Redeployment

We improved our redeployment process last year to give all redeployees an in depth skills assessment interview at the beginning of the process and then attend two workshops which focus on job application skills and interview skills.

The total number of redeployees processed in 2008/9 was 65. Of these, 24 were redeployed (37%), creating a saving of £234,826. On average redeployees were on the redeployment register for 70 days.
Our redeployment success rate has significantly increased from last year by 16% which consequently has doubled the Council's redeployment savings in comparison to 2007/8

Apprenticeships

The council has been offering apprenticeships to around a dozen local residents in the 16-24 age range for the last few years. As a result of additional government targets and funding the council have a set a target of achieving 70 apprenticeships within the next 2 years. We have set a target of 30 apprenticeships this year which will comprise 12 admin, 5 gardening and 13 social care apprenticeships.

Employing long term unemployed using the Hays Agency contract

Agency temps are sourced from a variety of suppliers managed by Hays Resource Management, 41 suppliers have signed up to Hays' regeneration charter. They are committed to registering candidates who have attended free training through one of our regeneration partners. The candidates include long term unemployed, single parents and disabled candidates.

Section Three - Recruitment & Retention

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Summary (continued)

Successful completion of training ensures the candidate has a recent reference, from the training establishment. This reference allows them to apply for agency work, which once completed provides them with a second reference enabling the candidate to apply for permanent work through the Haringey guarantee scheme. Candidates are supported through the process by Hays' regeneration consultant who is based in Human Resources. Additional links have been forged with Working Links in the last 2 months. This organisation offers support and training to the long term unemployed and those on benefits.

Through this partnership 89 people individuals have been placed with local agencies with 77% still working and 6 have obtained permanent jobs with the council.

Pay and benefits

We agreed the equal pay package last year with the unions and this is currently being implemented. There is a comprehensive package of benefits which include the pension scheme, flexible working opportunities, learning and development programmes, reduced cost health screening, free money management seminars and shopping and entertainment discounts.

Staff survey

The survey enables us to establish what our employees value most about working for Haringey. Some key findings from the last survey in July 2008 are:

62% staff believe we work with integrity & deliver on our promise
91% staff believe they have the knowledge and skills to do their job
60% staff believe they get the right information to do their job well
56% staff believe their opinion is sought on decisions about their work
64% staff believe the Council ensure that all have an equal opportunity to Learning & Development

Section Three - Recruitment & Retention

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Turnover

The following tables look at the different categories of employee turnover per directorate in 2008/9.

Reason for leaving category by directorate
Directorate	Dismissal	Other	Redundancy	Resignation	Retirement	Contract End	Total
AS	14	11	7	107	34	15	188
C	11	13	13	100	30	28	195
C-S	13	51	10	344	46	146	610
CR	13	4	9	48	9	8	91
PO	0	1	1	10	3	4	19
PP	3	0	0	24	2	6	35
UE	13	20	1	61	3	6	104
HGY	67	100	41	694	127	213	1242

Employee turnover rate (%) by category & directorate
Directorate	Dismissal	Other	Redundancy	Resignation	Retirement	Contract End	Total
AS	1.0	0.8	0.5	7.7	2.4	1.1	13.4
C	0.8	0.9	0.9	7.1	2.1	2.0	13.9
C-S	0.5	2.0	0.4	13.6	1.8	5.8	24.2
CR	1.5	0.5	1.0	5.5	1.0	0.9	10.4
PO	0.0	0.6	0.6	6.0	1.8	2.4	11.3
PP	1.3	0.0	0.0	10.4	0.9	2.6	15.1
UE	1.9	2.9	0.1	8.9	0.4	0.9	15.1
HGY	0.9	1.4	0.6	9.5	1.7	2.9	17.0

Schools has the highest turnover rate at 24.2% with the majority of leavers resigning (13.6%) or their contracts coming to an end (5.8%)

Policy, Partnerships, Performance & Communications has the 2^nd highest level of resignations at 10.4%

We have seen an increase in leavers in 2008/9 compared with 965 reported on in 2007/8. Schools had an additional 200 leavers in 2008/9 compared with last year, which has significantly raised Schools and Haringey's turnover rate.

Voluntary resignations has risen from 630 2007/8 to 694 2008/9, bringing the voluntary turnover rate to 9.5%, a 0.6% increase from last year.

Section Three - Recruitment & Retention

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Turnover (continued)

The level of voluntary resignations is of particular interest, as being employee-initiated; it can serve as a good indicator of an organisations health. Low levels may indicate good management practice, retaining pay & benefits and recognition systems, good retention practices, flexible work life balance schemes, clear internal career paths and opportunities, or a combination of any of these, with high levels often meaning the reverse.

It is also the largest group of leavers (56%) and the one most easily influenced, thus enabling large savings if approached correctly.

Haringey Council's voluntary resignation rate of 9.5% is slightly higher than the average for London Boroughs at 7.8% (London Councils Scorecard Quarter 3 2008/9).

Reason	Haringey Council	London Councils 2008
Resignations	9.5%	7.8%

The following chart highlights the majority % of voluntary resignations compared with all other categories.

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Section Three - Recruitment & Retention

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Turnover (continued)

The following table shows the voluntary resignation rate for each grade band by length of service.

The level of voluntary resignations of staff with less than 2 years is similar to last year, but there has been an increase in the level of resignations in the 2-10 years service brackets.

% Voluntary resignation rates by grade band and length of service
Grade band	Total	0<1	1<2	2<5	5<10	10<15	15+
MANUAL	11.9	23.4	11.7	15.3	9.4	3.6	3.3
SC1-SC5	6.7	10.6	7.7	8.4	9.8	0.8	2.5
SC6-SO2	11.2	24.8	19.2	14.8	16.5	2.7	0.3
PO1-PO3	7.2	9.9	17.6	11.6	6.0	2.8	3.4
PO4-PO7	15.7	4.7	39.6	16.2	30.9	8.6	7.2
PO8+	12.1	8.3	26.3	17.9	22.2	2.2	4.5
Totals	9.5	15.0	14.0	12.2	13.2	2.5	2.9

Number of voluntary resignations by grade band and length of service
Grade band	Total	0<1	1<2	2<5	5<10	10<15	15+
MANUAL	123	39	14	39	22	4	5
SC1-SC5	191	50	29	62	37	4	9
SC6-SO2	190	40	32	65	44	8	1
PO1-PO3	56	6	12	19	7	4	8
PO4-PO7	103	2	21	27	30	10	13
PO8+	31	2	5	11	9	1	3
Totals	694	139	113	223	149	31	39

Number of voluntary resignations by age band and length of service
Age band	Total	0<1	1<2	2<5	5<10	10<15	15+
16-24	39	17	9	12	1	0	0
25-34	262	59	47	99	54	3	0
35-44	200	37	29	63	51	10	10
45-54	144	21	25	38	33	14	13
55-64	42	4	3	11	8	3	13
65+	7	1	0	0	2	1	3
Totals	694	139	113	223	149	31	39

Section Three - Recruitment & Retention

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Turnover (continued)

The following table shows the voluntary resignation rate for each grade band by age band.

% Voluntary resignation rates by grade band and age band
Grade band	Total	16-24	25-34	35-44	45-54	55-64	65+
MANUAL	11.9	24.0	22.7	13.0	8.5	6.1	18.2
SC1-SC5	6.7	10.7	15.0	6.3	3.4	1.8	4.3
SC6-SO2	11.2	9.3	24.8	8.7	6.3	2.2	0.0
PO1-PO3	7.2	0.0	13.8	6.3	4.6	4.0	0.0
PO4-PO7	15.7	0.0	24.7	18.5	13.0	7.6	66.7
PO8+	12.1	0.0	24.0	14.8	8.8	13.6	0.0
Totals	9.5	11.7	19.3	9.3	6.2	4.1	8.3

Number of voluntary resignations by grade bands and age band
Grade band	Total	16-24	25-34	35-44	45-54	55-64	65+
MANUAL	123	9	29	39	30	12	4
SC1-SC5	191	24	80	48	30	7	2
SC6-SO2	190	6	102	48	30	4	0
PO1-PO3	56	0	25	16	11	4	0
PO4-PO7	103	0	23	39	32	8	1
PO8+	31	0	3	10	11	7	0
Totals	694	39	262	200	144	42	7

The voluntary resignation rate for 16-24 age band has reduced this year to 11.7% from 14.9%

66% of these 16-24 year olds left within 2 years of starting, this is the highest % for any age band

We have seen a 4.4% increase in voluntary resignations for age band 25-34 from 14.9% to 19.3% and a slight increase of 0.9% for 35-44 age band compared with 2007/8

32% of staff who left voluntary had 2-5 years service with Haringey

Section Three - Recruitment & Retention

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Turnover (continued)

The following tables show the number of leavers for each directorate by ethnic group and age band.

Leavers by directorate and ethnicity
Directorate	BME		White		White Other		Not Declared		HGY
Directorate		Total	%	Total	%	Total	%	Total	%	Total	%
AS	107	56.9	58	30.9	20	10.6	3	1.6	188	15.1
C	95	48.7	64	32.8	23	11.8	13	6.7	195	15.7
C-S	191	31.3	251	41.1	139	22.8	29	4.8	610	49.1
CR	62	68.1	18	19.8	11	12.1	0	0.0	91	7.3
PO	3	15.8	13	68.4	2	10.5	1	5.3	19	1.5
PP	14	40.0	15	42.9	6	17.1	0	0.0	35	2.8
UE	61	58.7	31	29.8	9	8.7	3	2.9	104	8.4
HGY	533	42.9	450	36.2	210	16.9	49	3.9	1242	100.0

The number of black & minority ethnic leavers is lower than all white staff and lower than the proportion of BME staff in the workforce. This appears to be an ongoing trend compared with last year, showing more white staff leave the organisation than black & minority ethnics.

Leavers by directorate and age band
Directorate	16-24		25-34		35-44		45-54		55-64		65+		Totals
Directorate		Total	%	Total	%	Total	%	Total	%	Total	%	Total	%	Total	%
AS	11	5.9	39	20.7	41	21.8	55	29.3	33	17.6	9	4.8	188	15.1
C	23	11.8	45	23.1	42	21.5	48	24.6	31	15.9	6	3.1	195	15.7
C-S	44	7.2	202	33.1	159	26.1	119	19.5	74	12.1	12	2.0	610	49.1
CR	5	5.5	28	30.8	29	31.9	13	14.3	11	12.1	5	5.5	91	7.3
PO	1	5.3	7	36.8	3	15.8	0	0.0	6	31.6	2	10.5	19	1.5
PP	5	14.3	16	45.7	7	20.0	5	14.3	2	5.7	0	0.0	35	2.8
UE	8	7.7	32	30.8	25	24.0	28	26.9	7	6.7	4	3.8	104	8.4
HGY	97	7.8	369	29.7	306	24.6	268	21.6	164	13.2	38	3.1	1242	100.0

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The highest % of leavers are in 25-34 age band
25% of leavers have less than 1 years service, of these, 59% had reached the end of their temporary/ fixed term contract

Section Three - Recruitment & Retention

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Length of service

The following table shows the average length of service for each directorate by grade band. Measuring by length of service is a useful way to gauge the amount of experience and knowledge of organisational process and history.

Average length of service in years by directorate and grade band
Directorate	MANUAL	SC1-SC5	SC6-SO2	PO1-PO3	PO4-PO7	PO8+	Total
AS	13.7	7.4	9.9	12.6	10.3	11.0	9.3
C	5.6	8.5	8.6	10.6	9.1	10.4	8.9
C-S	2.4	6.0	8.1	10.3	6.4	8.0	6.3
CR	8.6	6.9	9.6	10.7	11.0	9.3	9.1
PO	0.0	10.1	6.6	11.0	11.8	13.0	9.4
PP	0.0	5.8	5.4	6.3	9.5	13.3	7.8
UE	8.9	3.9	9.0	10.7	9.9	9.6	8.1
HGY	8.5	6.6	8.8	10.6	9.8	10.5	8.0

The average length of service per Haringey employee is 8 years
People and OD have the highest average of 9.4 years followed closely by Adults, Culture and Communities (9.3) and Corporate Resources (9.1)
Schools have the lowest average of 6.3 years and this could be due to high turnover rates

The data below shows that 48% of the organisation has between 2-9 years length of service. This could indicate that the vast majority of staff employed are happy with their job and stay on for a long period of time.

However, there is a dip within the 10-14 year range at 9% of the organisation. 18% of leavers in 2008/9 had 5-9 years service, the second highest group of leavers by length of service. The reason for this could be that staff that fall into 5-9 year range find they have less promotional opportunities, as the average length of service increases within the higher grade bands and there are less leavers.

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Section Four - In Sickness and In Health

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Summary

Sickness Absence

The Sickness Absence Target set by the Council is 8.80 days per person.

The Council's average sickness absence rate at the end of March 2009 was 8.88 days, again showing a marked improvement from last year's average of 9.67 days and almost hitting our set target.

The overall direct cost of sickness absence for 2008/9 was £5,544,079. This is a saving of £495,316 from last year's cost of £6,039,395

The Council is continually committed to reducing sickness absence and will decrease its target of 8.80 days to 8.50 days for 2009/10. We have also identified individual business targets for sickness absence to help achieve the corporate target.

During 2008/9 the Council revised its Sickness Absence Monitoring and Control Procedure and reduced the sickness triggers days from 8 to 6 days. This will assist the organisation to address sickness levels before they get too high or problematic.

HR has been focussing on improving absence management over the last 2 years and has worked with managers to reduce long-term sickness. As a result, we have managed to reduce overall sickness absence from 10.4 days to 8.88 days.

As part of our strategy to reduce sickness absence levels we have been taking a 2 strand approach. We have improved scrutiny and action of management of absence and we are aiming to improve better attendance through creating a healthier lifestyle. These initiatives are summarised below:

Introduction of the sickness toolkit allows easier monitoring and identification of high levels of absence enabling a targeted approach to intervention

Promotion of a healthy lifestyle via sessions run by the Occupational Health Unit

Regular smoking cessation sessions set up and run by the Occupational Health Unit

Promotion of flexible working including a home-working as part of the smart working and accommodation changes roll-out

Shorter referral times for appointments with the St Ann's Hospital physiotherapy unit

Health and Safety undertake stress management audits where high levels of sickness and stress related absence are prevalent.

Section Four - In Sickness and In Health

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Sickness Absence Data

This section looks at sickness absence data and analysis.

The following graph shows sickness absence performance over a period of 12 months.

The average number of days sick per employee fell for most directorates contributing to Haringey Council achieving 8.88 days, again showing a marked improvement from last year's average of 9.67 days

The overall direct cost of sickness absence for 2008/9 was £5,544,079. This is a saving of £495,316 from last year's cost of £6,039,395

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Sickness days and cost over 2 years
Year	Average days	Cost
2008/9	8.88	£5,544,079
2007/8	9.67	£6,039,395

Section Four - In Sickness and In Health

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Sickness Absence Data (continued)

The following charts show the average number of days sick per employee divided into short & long term absence.

With 11.21 days per employee, Childrens Service had the highest average number of sick days per employee, 54.2% was attributed to long term (single spell of 20 days or more) absence

Adults had the highest proportion of long term sickness at 60.5%

Schools had the highest proportion of short term sickness at 66.8%

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Higher levels of average sickness absence (14 days plus) exist within the following service areas:

Directorate	Service
AS	Learning Disabilities, Haringey Adult Learning Section
C	Education Psychology, Early Years & Play, Finance Service, Resources & Placements, Children in Need & Safeguarding
PP	Anti Social Behaviour
UE	Housing Needs Service, Housing Supply Service, Parking Service

Last year 18 services had levels of absence in the 14 days plus group. This year this has reduced to 11 services.

Section Four - In Sickness and In Health

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Sickness Absence Data (continued)

This section provides further analysis on the average number of days sick per employee by reason, broken down into short & long term absence.

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% Breakdown of categorised sickness absence by short and long term (%)
Reason	Short-term (1-19 days)	Long-term (20+ days)	Totals
Back problems	5.9	6.8	6.3
Musculo-skeletal problems	5.8	12.5	8.9
Stress / mental health	4.9	18.6	11.3
Virus / infection	30.7	5.2	18.7
Other categorised	33.8	31.0	32.5

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Section Four - In Sickness and In Health

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Sickness Absence Data (continued)

The following charts show sickness absence by gender, ethnicity and age band.

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Section Four - In Sickness and In Health

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Sickness Absence Data (continued)

The following chart shows % of sickness within different grade bands.

The graph illustrates that staff in the lower grade bands are more likely to be sick, however, it appears to be proportionate to the % of the workforce within those grade bands.

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Section Five - Council Performance

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Sickness Absence

At the end of the 2008/9 financial year, Haringey Council recorded an average of 8.88 sick days per employee

It is interesting to note that the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) have published a report on the sickness of workplace absence, which shows that:

Larger organisations have higher rates of sickness absence

And that higher rate of absence is reported for female and older workers

Haringey Council is affected by these issues since it:

Has one of the highest headcounts of London local authorities

Has over 70% female workers

Has a workforce with an average age of 44 and over 16% of staff are aged 55 or more

Average no. of days sick per employee
Haringey Council 2008/9
Haringey (incl. schools)	8.88
Haringey (excl. schools)	10.05
London Councils Absence Survey 2007/8
- Upper quartile	9.3
- Lower quartile	11.1
- Average	10.2
CIPD Absence Survey Report 2009
Local government average	10.7

Reasons for absence comparison
Reason	London Councils Absence Survey 2007/8	Haringey 2008/9
Stress/Mental Health	15.6%	11.3%
Virus/ Infections	12.6%	18.7%
Back	7.3%	6.3%
Other Musculo-skeletal problems	11.4%	8.9%

Section Five - Council Performance

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Past & Present

This section compares Haringey Council's current performance with previous years for sickness absence, turnover and our workforce performance indicators (previously Best Value Performance Indicators).

Performance Indicators

We are still above our target of 50% of women in the top 5% of earners, with a 1.1% increase from last year

The number of BME staff within the top 5 % of earners has increased again this year to 19.7% from 19.0%

The number of staff with a disability has increased further this year and we are now 0.1% above our target of 6.6%

Reflecting the demographically diverse population of Haringey's community, Haringey Council has consistently exceeded it's target of having more than 39.3% of the workforce coming from BME backgrounds

We are still striving towards reaching our target of 22% of BME representation in the top 5% of earners and have made steady progress over the last 3 years

% women in top 5% earners
% BME staff in top 5% earners
% disabled staff of workforce
% BME staff of the workforce

(see appendix D for definitions)

Workforce Performance Indicators 2006/7-2008/9
Performance Indicator	2006/7	2007/8	2008/9	2008/9 Target
% women in top 5% earners	54.2	53.1	54.2	50
% BME in top 5% earners	18.2	19.0	19.7	22
% Disabled staff	3.6	6.6	6.7	6.6
% BME staff	44.9	45.7	46.2	39.3

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Section Five - Council Performance

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Past & Present

Turnover

The turnover rate is 17% for 2008/9, with an increase of 3.4% compared to last year.

Based on previous years, turnover within the organisation was on the decline, however, this year has shown a significant increase.

This is a consequence of an additional 200 leavers compared with 2007/8

Sickness Absence

The sickness absence progress chart

shows the decrease in average number of

sick days from 2006/7 to 2008/9

The consistent annual decrease is the result of continued effort by HR consultants and managers to reduce sickness absence through better monitoring

Agency Usage

As at March 2009 Haringey Council employed

more agency staff than at March 2008.

However, if we look at the average usage of

agency staff over the last 2 years, figures

indicate that we have engaged less agency

staff per month throughout 2008/9

compared with 2007/8

Management reports are provided monthly to

senior management to help them challenge

agency usage within their Business Unit

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Section Six - Directorate Profiles

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Adults, Culture and Community Services - Headcount approx 1400

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Section Six - Directorate Profiles

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Children and Young People's Services - Headcount approx 1420

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Section Six - Directorate Profiles

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Corporate Resources - Headcount approx 870

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Section Six - Directorate Profiles

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Urban Environment - Headcount approx 680

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Section Seven - Appendices

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Appendix A - Grade bands

Employee's salaries have been grouped into the following grade bands:

Current grade band ranges as of April 2008
Grade band	Min	Max
MANUAL	£11,613	£17,211
SC1 - SC5	£14,517	£23,046
SC6 - SO2	£23,733	£30,090
PO1 - PO3	£29,307	£35,946
PO4 - PO7	£35,946	£46,767
PO8+	£48,021	+

Appendix B - Leaving Reason Groupings

Employees leaving reasons have been grouped into the following categories:

Reason for leaving categories
Voluntary Resignation	Redundancies
Voluntary resignation	Compulsory redundancy
Retirements	Contract End
Early retirement, compulsory	End of fixed term contract
Compulsory age, retirement	End of temporary contract
Ill health retirement	Opt out of Haringey
Voluntary retirement	TUPE transfer
Voluntary early retirement 85 year rule
Voluntary early retirement age 60
Voluntary early retirement efficiency
Voluntary early retirement redundancy
Dismissal	Other/Not Known
Capability dismissal	Not Known
Disciplinary dismissal	Contravention of law
Sickness dismissal	Death in service
Unsatisfactory Probation	Frustration of Contract

Appendix C - Ethnic Groups

Employee's ethnicities have been grouped into the following ethnic groups:

Grouping	Definition
BME	Includes black, asian, mixed and other nationalities
WHITE	Includes all British nationalities
WHITE OTHER	Includes non-British white staff - Irish, Greek, Greek Cypriot, Turkish, Turkish Cypriot, Kurdish, Gypsy, Irish Traveler and other white nationalities

Section Seven - Appendices

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Appendix D - Performance Indicator descriptions

% of top 5% of earners that are women - Applies to Permanent staff only (employees on fixed term or temporary contracts who have been employed for over a year are considered as permanent), schools are excluded from the calculation, but centrally employed teaching staff are included. The top 5% are identified by ranking staff according to their gross FTE pay. The purpose of this indicator is to monitor towards equal opportunities.

% of top 5% of earners from minority ethnic communities - Applies to Permanent staff only (employees on fixed term or temporary contracts who have been employed for over a year are considered as permanent), schools are excluded from the calculation, but centrally employed teaching staff are included. The top 5% are identified by ranking staff according to their gross FTE pay. The % figure relates to only those employees in the top 5% who have their ethnicity declared. The purpose of this indicator is to monitor towards equal opportunities.

The no. of working days/shifts lost due to sickness absence per FTE employee - Applies to Permanent staff only (employees on fixed term or temporary contracts who have been employed for over a year are considered as permanent), schools are included in this BVPI. The denominatior is the average number of FTEs employed during the financial year. The purpose of this indicator is to monitor the level of sickness absence in local authorities.

% of staff declaring they meet the Disability Discrimination Act disability definition - Applies to Permanent staff only (employees on fixed term or temporary contracts who have been employed for over a year are considered as permanent) including staff in schools. Disabled staff are those who identy themselves as such against the Disablity Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA). The aim of this indicator is to measure progress towards achieving equal opportunites in employment.

% of staff from minority ethnic communities - Applies to those Permanent only staff including schools (employees on fixed term or temporary contracts who have been employed for over a year are considered as permanent), whose ethnicity is declared. The purpose of this indicator is to monitor towards equal opportunities.

Appendix E - HR Metrics Team

The following have contributed to the production of this report:

Steve Davies
Christiana Kyriacou
Colin Ahaneku

Please contact any of us for further information or if you have a query about the content of this report or require any other HR management information.

If you have any other queries or comments you wish to raise regarding the report or related issues, please contact Steve Davies, Head of Human Resources.

- 35 -

- 38 -

This directorate includes the following key business units:

Adults - residential homes, homecare, day care, learning disability, mental health and physical disability services
Commissioning & Strategy
Culture, Libraries & Learning - libraries and adult learning
Recreation Services - parks and leisure centres.

Key workforce indicators and annual performance

Business Unit	Agency usage - % of workforce			Sickness rate - Average days per person			% Voluntary turnover of staff with less than 2 yrs service
Business Unit		Apr 08	Mar 09	Change	Apr 08	Mar 09	Change	Apr 08	Mar 09	Change
Adults	13	14	+1	12.5	10.9	-1.6	12.4	12.4	0
Comm & Strategy	2	3	+1	8.6	4.9	-3.7	21.6	15.4	-6.2
Libraries & Learning	7	11	+4	11.9	12.1	+0.2	23.1	12.2	-10.9
Recreation	4	7	+3	9.7	8.6	-1.1	5.3	23.5	+18.2
AS	10	12	+2	11.7	10.2	-1.5	13.1	14.0	+1.1

Agency usage in the directorate is predominantly spread across a small number of job roles directly involved in providing personal care to residents in residential units for Older People and people with Learning Disabilities and people with Mental Health issues. These units operate on a 24/7 basis and so any staff absence must be covered and the most effective way of covering short term sporadic absence is with agency workers. Typical job roles include care assistants, support workers, domestics, cooks and kitchen assistants. Due to the nature of this service there will be a continued need for agency cover to cover for short term absence, however the service does recognise that reductions have to be made. As a consequence the Assistant Director has been holding monthly management panels where managers have to present agency reduction plans and account for their agency usage reductions and this is leading to reductions. Recent pay increases for these posts due to Single Status will improve our ability to attract staff to permanent positions which has been an issue and so this will lead to reductions in agency usage. The above statistics show a marginal increase in the percentage of agency workers however the actual number of agency workers has not increased - the percentage has increased due to the fact that the number of permanent staff has decreased.

Turnover: With regard to turnover the most significant number of leavers with less than 2 years service are from the Residential Service for Older People in the Adults Business Unit of the directorate. The job roles in this service have benefited significantly from pay awards due to Single Status and this will improve our ability to retain staff and the voluntary turnover rates will reduce accordingly. Even though the percentage of voluntary turnover appears high in Recreation, Learning and Libraries and Commissioning this relates to a very small number of resignations and so it is not an issue for the directorate.

Sickness rates across the directorate have been improving markedly, thanks to concerted and sustained management action to address sickness absence. Adult services have seen a reduction of 1.6 days in average sickness rates and Recreation has seen a reduction of 1.1 days. These two services and the directorate overall still have progress to make in reducing absence levels. Reductions across the directorate are continuing.

This directorate includes the following key business units:

Frontline Services - covering parking and street enforcement, environmental health, trading standards and waste management
Strategic & Community Housing - housing assessment and homelessness
Planning, Regeneration & Economy

Key workforce indicators and annual performance

Business Unit	Agency usage - % of workforce			Sickness rate - Average days per person			% Voluntary turnover of staff with less than 2 yrs service
Business Unit		Apr 08	Mar 09	Change	Apr 08	Mar 09	Change	Apr 08	Mar 09	Change
Frontline	23	30	+7	14.7	12.1	-2.6	10.9	9.7	-1.2
Housing	10	9	-1	14.8	12.7	-2.1	6.3	17.7	+11.4
Planning	9	10	+1	6.9	5.6	-1.3	10.0	0	-10.0
UE	17	22	+5	12.8	10.9	-1.9	10.3	12.8	+2.5

Agency usage in the directorate is concentrated in Frontline services with a large number of parking attendants, enforcement officers and recycling operatives. These posts are difficult to recruit and retain because of the nature of the job role. These are vital frontline services for the council and therefore need to be staffed to ensure service delivery.

Going forward managers have been working with Human Resources to develop recruitment campaigns that will help to achieve fuller permanent employment in these areas. This has been predominantly in the area of engineers and we are keen to progress with recruitment pools for employment groups like recycling operatives. With the former we have been looking at ways in which we can manage our talent more effectively, an example of this can be demonstrated by building in a progression route within the Highways re-structure.

Turnover rates for staff with less than 2 years service are high in Frontline Services and Strategic & Community Housing. S&CH have recently had a whole service restructure which should in time lead to retention along with many other positives. HR are piloting a Development Centre to support the positive outcomes required, for example creating an awareness of individual work styles and how this relates to team working.

Sickness rates across the directorate have been improving significantly, thanks to concerted and sustained management action to address sickness absence. Frontline Services have seen a reduction of 2.6 days in average sickness rates and Strategic & Community Housing has seen a reduction of 2.1 days. These two services and the directorate overall still have progress to make and have been given targets of 11.5 days each by the end of this financial year to help achieve the overall council target of 8.5 days.

This directorate includes the following large business units:

Corporate Finance

Corporate Procurement
Benefits & Local Taxation
Corporate Property
Customer Services
Information Technology
Legal Services

Key workforce indicators and annual performance

Business Unit	Agency usage - % of workforce			Sickness rate - Average days per person			% Voluntary turnover of staff with less than 2 yrs service
Business Unit		Apr 08	Mar 09	Change	Apr 08	Mar 09	Change	Apr 08	Mar 09	Change
Corp Finance	22	16	-6	9.6	4.5	-4.1	0	0	0
Corp Procure	13	8	-5	5.2	11.1	+5.9	0	0	0
Benefits & Local Tax	14	8	-6	13.1	10.4	-2.7	3.6	3.4	-0.2
Corp Property	16	14	-2	8.8	8.8	0	5.1	1.9	-3.2
Customer Services	11	9	-2	14.0	9.4	-4.6	4.7	22.2	+17.5
I.T.	13	11	-2	8.9	4.7	-4.2	7.6	16.3	-8.7
Legal	16	32	+16	7.8	11.3	+3.5	23.8	17.4	-6.4
CR	14	13	-1	10.6	8.8	-1.8	7.1	7.5	+0.4

Agency usage in the directorate has reduced overall, with all business units except Legal Services seeing a fall in the number of agency workers. Many of these agency staff are required to cover short term vacancies pending recruitment or staff absence. The increased use of agency staff in Legal Services preceded a restructuring of the service following a strategic review which took place in 2009. As a consequence many improvements have been incorporated into the new structure, reflecting the desire to ensure that salaries for professional legal staff are competitive. It is anticipated that most vacant permanent positions will be recruited to by the end of 2009.

Turnover rates: Whilst the voluntary turnover figures for staff with less than 2 years service in IT would appear to be high it is understood that this is not particularly significant industry-wide in this sector. In Customer Services, the 22% turnover figure equates to 3 resignations from staff with less than 2 years service, out of a total staff complement of approx 150.

Sickness rates across the directorate have been improving markedly, thanks to concerted and sustained action to address sickness absence by Management in partnership with HR. In particular, Corporate Finance, IT and Customer Services have seen reductions of over 4 days per person. In Corporate Procurement and Legal Services the increase is due, in general, to 1 or 2 cases of long term sickness absence in both services.

This directorate includes the following key business units:

Children & Families
Children's Networks - children centres, early years and play, education welfare and psychology
Business Support & Development - catering and school transport contracts, finance, IT, schools personnel
School Standards & Inclusion - School standards service, youth service, early childhood service

Key workforce indicators and annual performance

Business Unit	Agency usage - % of workforce			Sickness rate - Average days per person			% Voluntary turnover of staff with less than 2 yrs service
Business Unit		Apr 08	Mar 09	Change	Apr 08	Mar 09	Change	Apr 08	Mar 09	Change
Children & Families	19	26	+7	13.2	12.3	-0.9	16.7	13.4	-3.3
Children's Networks	5	9	+4	11.2	11.5	+0.3	15.8	9.2	-6.6
Business Support	8	12	+4	12.7	12.2	-0.5	13.1	13.3	+0.2
School Standards	5	3	-2	7.8	8.6	+0.8	12.9	15.0	+2.1
CS	11	15	+3	11.6	11.2	-0.4	17.0	14.2	-2.8

Agency usage in the directorate is predominantly spread across a few job roles including social care workers, general kitchen assistants, play and children's centre workers. The majority of these agency staff are covering vacancies in areas which are hard to recruit (social work and catering) or staff absence. The JAR action plan has identified an area for improvement around the recruitment and retention of excellent staff across the partnership. As part of the work to address this the Council has been undertaking an intensive national and international recruitment campaign to attract social workers and social work managers. To date we have recruited 2 heads of service, 3 team managers, 32 social workers and 1 assistant director. Remaining vacancies being actively recruited to in the Safeguarding Service and Children in Care: 4 social workers, 4 Team Managers, 3 Senior Team Managers.

In addition managers in catering and transport and been working with Human Resources on a recent recruitment campaign for general kitchen assistants.

Turnover rates for staff with less than 2 years service are highest in Children and Families as a result of all the issues arising from the Baby Peter case. It is anticipated that with the appointment of permanent staff in place of agency workers, particularly at manager and senior manager level, a period of greater stability will follow.

Sickness rates across the directorate have remained fairly static although the inputting of sickness data has improved (which will have had an impact on data recorded) and significant progress has been made within business units in certain services e.g. Connexions and Catering. Targeted management action supported by HR is now being directed at Play.