Mid Devon Council workers are still homeworking

Just half over have returned to work

Mid Devon District Council is continuing to encourage its employees to work from home where possible.

A report to the council’s scrutiny committee found the number of people doing their jobs at home has remained relatively stable since the pandemic began – from a high of 40 per cent to around 30 per cent in June.

However, just over half of staff now attend council workplaces in person, boosted by the reopening of leisure centres and the lifting of government restrictions.

The report also revealed that the authority’s spend on agency staff is continuing to grow, blamed on high sickness absence and a lack of critical workers like HGV drivers. Just over £170,000 was spent on agency work in the first quarter of this financial year and the annual total is predicted to be higher than the £575,000 spent in 2020/21.

Presenting the report, Matthew Page, corporate manager for people, governance and waste, said he was expecting a “difficult winter” for the council.

“We’ve got different variants still coming around in relation to covid, the challenge of influenza and flu, but also a lack of supply of critical workers which other organisations are also competing for, which includes HGV drivers,” he said.

Mr Page added that the council is looking at allowing some staff to work in a more ‘hybrid’ way, which may lead to it having more office space than is needed.

The report said: “This recognises that whilst some aspects of the workforce will need to be on site to deliver frontline services to the public, other parts of the workforce have benefited from having greater flexibility and being able to go to the area of activity where they are most required.

“Other opportunities include reducing our carbon footprint and revising our approach to travel as well as looking at options around the potential renting out of office space.”

Councillor Ray Radford (Conservative, Halberton) asked whether there was any efficiency loss because of staff working from home: “You would think if they’re within the office complex they can get information from other officers etc,” he said.

Mr Page replied: “In some of our areas we’ve had the feedback that effectiveness has actually risen because of the result of staff working from home.”

He added: “We have to look at each service and what [it] needs to deliver to the public and what is in the best interests of that service, but we wouldn’t want to see a decrease in terms of our service effectiveness.”