Concerns over council staff shortage

Staff shortage is a serious problem in some departments at Gloucestershire County Council according to Shire Hall chiefs.

There is a national shortage of workers in many sectors and employers are struggling to recruit.

And the council is among those finding it a challenge to attract and retain qualified and experienced staff in some key roles across Shire Hall.

Deputy leader Lynden Stowe (C, Campden Vale) told today’s (January 25) cabinet meeting that it is a “pretty serious problem”.

He made the remarks in response to a question by opposition leader Ben Evans (LD, Churchdown) at today’s (January 25) cabinet meeting.

Cllr Evans had asked what measures were being proposed in next year’s budget to help the authority meet the challenge.

Cllr Stowe said the council will be allocating an extra £212,000 towards recruitment.

He said: “It is a pretty serious problem in quite a lot of our departments so anything we can do to either retain or recruit new staff we will be doing.

“Sometimes that will mean being a bit creative with some of our advertising, contracts, etc.

“We have invested short term in recruitment; in upskilling our recruitment team, improving our recruitment practice, increased our social media presence and we are about to launch a new employer brand aimed at attracting a wider pool of people.

“In recent years, we’ve invested in agile to enable hybrid working, in career development through the social work academy, our many apprenticeships, our ‘growing great managers’ programme and in our work to increase the diversity of our workforce.

“All of these investments contribute to creating a working environment and culture where staff want to stay and work with us.

“There is £212,000 additional one-off money in the corporate resources budget to fund the additional work in the recruitment team.

“The impact of the additional investment will be reviewed to consider whether this should be continued. Some of the money to pay for advertising comes from staffing budgets; from underspends due to the vacancies being recruited.”

By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter

Gloucester News Centre – http://gloucesternewscentre.co.uk