Concerns over vacancy levels as Wrexham council looks to make budget cuts

Wrexham councillors have concerns about the toll ‘vacancy control’ is taking on the council’s workforce as the authority desperately tries to make budget savings.

Earlier this month Wrexham Council’s leadership confirmed the authority was staring at a projected £23.8m budget overspend just months into the new financial year.

Immediate action is being taken to find savings and curb spending, including decisions on how and whether staff leaving are replaced.

Concerns were aired during a meeting of the authority’s customers, performance, resources and governance scrutiny committee that not replacing leavers, or being slow to recruit to vacancies, could heap additional pressure and stress on the staff left behind.

Lead member for organisation, planning and corporate services Bryn Cefn Cllr Beverley Parry-Jones (Con) and Sue Robins, head of service for HR, had given members a workforce monitoring update which discussed staff sickness and absences.

Minera Cllr Jerry Wellens (Lab) asked about the management of vacancies as part of the council’s mitigation measures to bring the budget back under control.

Ms Robins said vacancy control had long been in place at the council but had been ramped up more recently, with vacancies reviewed to see whether there was a need to advertise externally, internally only, or the position could be stopped altogether.

Discussions take place with department heads and HR before it is decided a vacancy should be filled.

Holt Cllr Mike Morris (Con) expressed concern that while money would be saved, in the long-run it could be detrimental to the council if there is an impact on staff left behind.

“It’s a double-edged sword isn’t it, vacancy control and vacancy management”, he said.

“If there isn’t a genuine need then fine, not a problem, but I hope it’s not going to be a bureaucratic stalling exercise to hold people back. Because what’ll happen then is the staff who are left will be put under even more pressure and the sickness and absence levels will increase.

“To hold a vacancy back until everyone’s chewed the fat over it for six months and the other people are left picking up the pieces is not really acceptable. It needs to be quickly established whether it’s a meaningful vacancy, one that must be filled or not.

“We don’t want to have people increasing their stress levels even further by having to do the work of two people.”

Cllr Morris’ concerns were echoed by Cllr Wellens who added: “There is a significant potential effect in delivering the service.

“Either lower levels of service can be expected or more work is being done by the people who are in post.

“I echo Cllr Morris’ concern on that.”

Ms Robins answered that recruitment decisions which could impact on colleagues are not taken lightly.

She said: “We do have to think about the impact on colleagues if we’re not recruiting to a post.

“We are taking great care with this. Some of them (vacancies) are being looked at in the way is this an opportunity just to delay it slightly without impact on others or is it an internal opportunity to give someone a promotion within the council and that might just enable change somewhere else, redesign a job, do something differently.”

Cllr Wellens felt that it was “still early days to understand the impact of this” on staff and residents, and recommended a report on the implications and effects of vacancy control mitigations be produced for a future meeting.

Chairing the meeting Chirk North Cllr Frank Hemmings (Lab) agreed to table this as a recommendation which was backed by the committee.

By Rory Sheehan – BBC Local Democracy Reporter