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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE CHIEF MINISTER BY DEPUTY G.P. SOUTHERN OF ST. HELIER
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 28TH JUNE 2016
Question
What policies are in place to manage vacancies across departments? To what extent are these policies reliant on the non-replacement of posts when they fall vacant, for employees to work extra shifts to cover for absent colleagues and the need to employ agency staff to fill rotas? How many agency workers have been used in each department in the first quarter of 2016 compared with the first quarter of the previous year?
Answer
Our employees are our most valuable asset. However, the public sector must react to changing circumstances, and reform is essential if we are to fund our priorities while also balancing the books by 2019.
To do this, government must innovate, learn and adapt so that every pound counts towards securing Jersey's future. In support of this, since the start of 2015:
- Actual staffing numbers (FTE) have reduced from 6,340 to 6,080, a reduction of 260
- Monthly overtime has reduced from £649,000 to £450,000
These changes have occurred as part of working with staff and their representatives to redesign the way we provide services. This is done while also managing vacancies as a means of reducing headcount naturally as staff leave, undertaking programmes such voluntary redundancies, and applying other policies such workforce planning, and redeployment so we protect our staff as much as possible.
This has resulted in modest fluctuations in the use of agency staff, which are measured on a rolling 12 month basis, as outlined below, as part of the overall changes that are taking place in the public sector.
Agency Staff 01/05/2015 01/07/2015 01/10/2015 01/01/2016 01/04/2016 01/05/2016
Chief Minister 19 22 20 16 21 24 Environment 2 5 5 3 4 4 EDD/EDTSC 2 2 2 - - - Education/Sport & Culture - 4 3 4 2 2 Health & Social Services 30 29 35 32 29 33 Home Affairs/CCA 12 10 14 13 13 15 Non Ministerial States Funded 15 16 20 21 16 18 Social Security 39 39 42 37 32 32 TTS/Infrastructure 9 14 18 11 17 24 Grand Total 128 141 159 137 134 152