Report of the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources attached.

This report provides an overview of work undertaken and vision towards the delivery of the Council’s priorities as set out in Our Manchester Strategy that are aligned with the Manifesto in those areas within the portfolio of the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources.

The Committee considered the report of the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources, which provided an overview of work undertaken and progress towards the delivery of the Council’s priorities, as set out in the Our Manchester Strategy (OMS), for those areas within his portfolio.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committees discussions within the Executive Members report were: -

·                What further work was being done to encourage other organisations to promote the city becoming a Living Wage City;

·                Achieving the Living Wage employer accreditation was welcomed by Members;

·                Was there any more information on the work that the Executive Member had undertaken to address the Council’s climate change agenda, with reference to the income received by the Council from Manchester Airport;

·                The improvements in the BHeard results from the 2019 survey were recognised;

·                Was the Executive Member undertaking any work to lever any significant sources of external funding to tackle climate change;

·                Had any consideration been given to updating the content of Listening in Action material, with reference to the Council’s position in tackling climate change;

·                What was the Executive Member’s views on the position of apprenticeships as part of the ‘Our People’ strategy; and

·                What more could be done to improve how the Council promoted its employment opportunities in order to attract the best people possible.

The Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources advised that in terms of working towards becoming a Living Wage city, he was engaging with a number of anchor institutions to actually commit to paying the Manchester living wage to its staff.  In terms of climate change, he reported that responsibility for Manchester Airport fell in the Leader portfolio, but he would pass on the Committee’s comments.  He advised that going forward schemes within the Capital Programme would need to demonstrate how they would contribute to addressing the Council’s climate change agenda and in terms of Social Value, he was awaiting results back from a pilot within Highways where a 10% weighting in terms of addressing climate change had been included in two tenders, to see if this was something that could be rolled out across all Council tenders.

The Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources commented that the Council would also look to try and source any external funding streams that were available to tackle climate change, such as grants for external charging point for electric vehicles.  He added that the Council would also look to use its leverage with other organisations to push this agenda forward.  He advised there was a HR refresh taking pace and the feedback from the BHeard survey would feed into the content of future Listening in Action sessions. 

The Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources commented that he was very passionate about apprenticeships and advised that last year, the Council (excluding schools) had exceeded its target in the number of apprenticeship starts and data would be released around this at the Social Value Conference on the 14 February 2020.

In terms of recruitment, the Executive Member acknowledged that in certain sectors the Council struggled to compete with the private sector as it was not able to match salary levels, however, he commented that working for the Council had a number of other non-monetary benefits and it was these benefits that the Council needed to promote more in order to attract the best possible applicants.

Decision

The Committee notes the report.