Purpose

To consider whether the delivery of People
& OD services to Waverley Borough Council, and to create a
joint team for delivery of the service

Content

Decision:

1.      
Delegate
the People and Organisational Development functions to Waverley
Borough Council for delivery of services through a joint team with
effect from 1 September 2025.

2.      
Approve
the creation of new joint posts to deliver People and
Organisational Development services to both Guildford Borough
Council and Waverley Borough Council and to delegate authority to
the Joint Assistant Director for People and Organisational
Development to implement a joint staffing structure within the
approved budget.

3.      
Approve a
supplementary estimate of £66,469 to be funded from the MTF
reserve/budget; and

4.      
Recommend to Council
(meeting on 29 July 2025) that it resolve to:

            
i.     
Note the
Executive’s delegation of the People & Organisational
Development functions to Waverley Borough Council for delivery of
services through a joint team with effect from 1 September
2025.

          
ii.     
Note that
the joint staffing structure for delivery of the People and
Organisational Development functions will include staff transferred
from Guildford Borough Council on 1 September 2025 and Waverley
Borough Council staff.

        
iii.     
Delegate
authority to the Strategic Director of Democracy, Law & People,
in consultation with the co-Chairs of the Joint Governance
Committee, to update the Inter-Authority Agreement to include
provisions that ensure all decisions in relation to any delegated
functions are made by both Guildford Borough Council and Waverley
Borough Council.
Reason(s):

1.      
To enable the People and Organisational Development
functions to operate in an efficient and cost-effective way, with
the ability to provide more specialist skills across both
authorities leading to increased efficiency with an expansion of
knowledge for individuals and sharing of best practice in the
delivery of services.

2.      
Recent years has seen a huge drive of people related
initiatives with a lack of strategic resource to lead and guide the
teams in a consistent and compliant way.  This has led to gaps, risks in application of
processes, complaints and delays in delivery.

3.      
The previous restructure through ‘Future
Guildford’ resulted in the whole Guildford Borough Council
team being referred to as ‘Specialists’ and paid on the
same salary band, with no recognition to the varying levels of
responsibilities held and outcomes.   This has resulted in a lack of professional
identity and leadership of the functions, and based on the level of
roles, responsibilities and performance, has resulted in the
function having reduced engagement in strategic and
transformational thinking.

4.      
To provide increased resilience across both
authorities as there will be a larger pool of officers delivering
the services across Guildford Borough Council and Waverley Borough
Council.  The current structure has many
single points of failure when staff go on agreed leave of absence.
An outcome of this puts serious strain on the resources that remain
to cover and increases the risk of service delivery
failure.  The proposed structure will
provide additional resilience to cover sickness absence, annual
leave, vacancies and increased workload, should this be
required.

5.      
The proposed structure addresses the gaps in
delivery, for example Attraction and Resourcing, Data and
Analytics, and builds resilience with the two teams coming
together. It also brings the skilled resource from the Case
Services team.

6.      
There will be opportunities to combine systems that
will provide both cash savings and give consistency in our approach
to reporting on key people metrics and readiness for Local
Government Reorganisation (‘LGR’) with usable
functionality thereby reducing manual interventions. To ensure that
joint working is undertaken in a consistent manner and in
accordance with existing HR policies for such posts, and the
Inter-Authority Agreement between the two authorities for the
sharing of staff.

7.      
The current function does not have the collective
capability to drive and deliver transformational change around
collaboration.  There are many
identified changes to be made in relation to ‘getting the
basics right’.  The proposed
structure will deliver the capacity and capability needed to embed
successes in ongoing collaboration efforts and enhance the pace of
future collaboration and LGR, continuous improvement in service
delivery and non-cashable savings.

8.      
The proposed structure will continue to support the
ongoing preparation activity to support LGR, including data
cleansing, building connections across the District, Borough and
County Councils.  Following a unitary
decision, a more structured programme of work will be required to
support the change, requiring significant people resource,
including supporting our people through the change process,
implementing strong retention policies, preparing for TUPE,
harmonisation of Terms and Conditions, and appointing senior
leadership for new shadow unitaries.

9.      
To reduce dependency on expensive external resources
and further implement succession planning and career development
which have already seen an increase in internal promotion
appointments to vacant posts.

10. 
Cost savings will not be made through the proposed
structure, but service quality and a modest investment in
technology will enhance the employee experience and that of the
line management roles to support their staff and therefore supports
the vision of the collaboration between the two
authorities.
Other options considered and rejected by the
Executive:
Options 1, 2, and 3.
Details of any conflict of interest declared by the Leader or
lead councillors and any dispensation granted:
None.