A Dundee councillor has questioned whether the “efficiency” of the local authority’s public services is hampered by hybrid working.
The council’s scrutiny committee met on Wednesday to discuss the local authority’s “internal audit plan” along with other items.
This takes stock of council operations and services and puts them in order of a “risk priority.”
Included in the report is a list of actions removed from the plan; among these, a proposed review of “workforce management”.
West End, Liberal Democrat councillor, Fraser Macpherson expressed surprise and questioned why the decision was taken and raised issues caused by the impact of continued hybrid working.
‘Efficiency of the council’
Mr Macpherson said: “Obviously, there’s a significant amount of members of staff, who now either work from home or work partially from home than they did prior to the Covid pandemic.
“I just wondered, in relation to the efficiency of the council, if this is not something that we really have to be considering?
“To ensure, really that we’re satisfied that changed arrangements, which are the case for some staff, not all, are actually working to the benefit of the council at least as well, if not better than was the case prior to the pandemic taking place?
‘Point taken’
Cathy Wyllie, the council’s chief internal auditor answered: “I take your point, and I think it is something that we will look at in due course. And it may be something that we add back into the plan for ’23, ’24, when we bring that forward.”
Mr Macpherson added he received many “anecdotal complaints” that council properties such as Dundee House “don’t have the buzz” because of a lack of “public face” to serve people coming in.
‘What’s right for the service’
The council’s chief executive, Gregory Colgan said: “The whole leadership team is responsible for ensuring their services deliver an efficient and effective service.
“And in carrying out the approach to hybrid working, where we looked at the different type of work models, it’s not solely based on what an employee wants, it’s about what’s right for the service.”
‘Councillors should raise concerns’
He continued: “If there are any particular concerns that elected members have, I would encourage them to raise them with the service, if indeed it’s around things like phones not being answered.”
He added: “I’ve reflected on the point made about public offices, and I think one of the challenges we’re seeing as a local authority, is that the public are not using our offices like they did pre-pandemic.
“So the buzz even around the number of people who are in Dundee House when it’s open is significantly less because what we’re finding is, a number of people are choosing to do transactions online.”
Mr Macpherson agreed to a degree, but pointed out that the emptiness of council buildings was made worse by the local authority that no longer provides “the ability for you to pay your council tax at Dundee House anymore.”
“That’s definitely, and in my view, a detrimental knock-on effect.” he concluded.
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