The Resources and Performance Select Committee noted the Performance Monitoring Session Notes 11 December 2023, the Actions and Recommendations Tracker and Forward Plan and agreed the minutes of the previous meeting. The Committee then discussed two key topics:

Removal of Payroll Service from MATs and Academies

The Committee considered the decision to remove the payroll service from Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) and Academies.

Surrey County Council’s cabinet made the decision in May 2023 to cease providing its payroll service to MATs and Academies. At the time the Council was transitioning from its SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to a new Unit4 system, and a survey commissioned in 2022 had revealed levels of dissatisfaction with the payroll service provided to MATs.

Councillor David Lewis, the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources, and Anna D’Alessandro, the Director of Finance Corporate and Commercial (Interim s151), argued that the Council was not best placed to provide a payroll service to independent organisations and that specialist payroll providers could better serve their needs. They reported that the transition of MATs to new payroll providers had proceeded smoothly.

However, some Committee members felt that the decision should have been taken earlier and argued that Surrey should have been able to run a successful payroll bureau. There were also concerns that MATs had not been consulted before the decision was made.

The Committee also received evidence from Tom Holmwood, the Head of HR Operations, on the current performance of the new Unit4 payroll system. He reported that the number of queries the Council was receiving had doubled since last year, but was now on a downward trajectory.

The Committee made a series of recommendations, including that stakeholders affected by Cabinet decisions should be consulted, where appropriate, before the decision is made; that Cabinet decisions directly affecting stakeholders should be shared with them all at the earliest opportunity; and that customers of the payroll service should continue to be promptly notified of any problems occurring and the resolutions.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Update

The Committee considered a report from Michael Smith, the Chief of Staff to the Chief Executive, on the progress made in response to the recommendations made by the Resources and Performance Select Committee in June 2023 relating to equality, diversity, and inclusion.

The report highlighted several areas of progress, including:

• Working with voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) partners to ensure vulnerable and underserved groups have access to support measures, including the Household Support Fund.
• Increasing the capacity of the Inclusive Refuges Programme.
• Significant improvements to the accessibility of the Council’s external website.
• Launching a programme to increase diversity within the trustee boards of VCSEs.
• Carrying out three in-depth reviews of staff experience, focusing on disabled, LGBTQ+ and ethnically diverse colleagues.
• Establishing the role of the Accessibility Forum in providing scrutiny of and advice to the Council's Agile Organisation Programme.
• Achieving Carer Confident Level 2 status.
• Improving the system for assessing staff needs for workplace adjustments.
• Rolling out new training offers for staff on equality, diversity and inclusion.

However, the report also identified several challenges, including:

• Pressure on workplace adjustment budgets.
• Data migration issues following the transition to Unit4.
• Difficulty in reaching staff who do not have access to Council IT equipment or email addresses.
• Budget pressures and key roles, including the Accessibility Officer and Digital Accessibility Officer, being short-term funded.

The Committee heard evidence from Councillor Mark Nuti, the Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing and Public Health (EDI lead member), Councillor Natalie Bramhall, the Cabinet Member for Land and Property, Nikki Parkhill, the Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, and Shella Smith, the Director for People and Change. The Committee also received evidence from Claire Burgess, the Chief Executive of Sight for Surrey.

The Committee made a number of recommendations, including that the recommendations of the Local Government Association Peer Challenge and those of the three workplace reviews be incorporated into the 2024/25 Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan; that the Council’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and People and Change teams work with voluntary organisations representing people with lived experience of disability to help them prepare people with all forms of disability for employment; and that the EDI Team share its longer-term visions within the EDI Strategy in Summer 2024.