The Permanent Secretary, Human Resources Director and Assembly  Government trades unions met on Monday, 24 July to discuss future  staffing and partnership working. Following a constructive meeting,  all parties reaffirmed their commitment to partnership working, agreeing that our shared vision for improving the delivery of public  services in Wales and determining the supporting staffing would be  best achieved by this approach.

Staffing

All parties agreed on the need for us to work more efficiently and effectively to release resources to improve front line services and  that to deliver this, staff numbers must be based on business need. 

The Permanent Secretary, therefore, gave his assurance that he has no  target for job reductions. We are committed to ensuring that the  quality of public services in Wales is strengthened, not compromised, by any changes to staffing. In line with Making the Connections, our priority is making efficiency gains wherever we can to achieve value for money and best quality service. But  as we have stressed before, mere cost cutting measures alone are not the way  to realise this.

The recently-published Beecham Report makes clear:
"Improved efficiency is not about cuts; it is about finding new ways of providing services, either to improve performance or to make  savings which can be redirected for investment in other services."Our collective challenge is to work together to deliver these business objectives, recognising the important contribution of staff and  managing organisational change sensitively, fairly and effectively.

Partnership Working - Reaffirming our commitment

Bernard Galton, Human Resources Director and the trades unions will be  developing a partnership forum, involving senior HR and trades unions  officials to oversee the management and implementation of the HR  strategy, workforce planning and budgets. A key role will be to  monitor current and future staffing across the Assembly Government. These developments will be taken forward in a spirit of collaboration with honest, transparent, two-way communication. Where differences  arise, these will be recognised at an early stage, and every effort  will be made to resolve them through open discussion and a  problem-solving approach, with the aim of moving forward on the basis of consensus.

Developing our Partnership Approach

Partnership working has successfully underpinned the relationship  between trade unions and management since the Assembly Government came into being. Both parties acknowledge that a review is timely to strengthen the Partnership Arrangements and re-energise the partnership spirit that worked successfully during the mergers.

The review will also look at how we ensure wider staff involvement in decision-making. As part of engaging staff, departmental directors leading the restructuring of the organisation will continue to create opportunities to involve their teams and trades unions representatives in discussions to ensure that  they:

• better meet the changing business needs of their departments;     

• better serve the people of Wales; and

• meet the  challenge of the proposed, departmental running cost budgets over the  next few years.

To develop our partnership longer term, we have agreed  to:

Undertake a joint review of current employee relations structures and  modernise as appropriate. This may include looking at establishing a  Corporate Partnership forum to replace the Whitley Committee, agreeing  the scope of such a forum, decision-making powers and terms of  reference.

To develop subordinate, departmental Partnership Committees to ensure the  principles of partnership are translated into visible actions.

Organise joint training events on the benefits of partnership working involving directors, managers, senior lay and national union officers.

By revitalising the way we work together, we hope to provide a framework for staff to have a genuine input into the decision-making process on staffing and other key issues, both on a departmental and organisation-wide basis.

JON SHORTRIDGE PERMANENT SECRETARY

JEFF EVANS (PCS)

GARETH HOWELLS (PROSPECT)

 PAUL NEILSON (FDA)

JULY 2006

Justin Chipp Branch Secretary PCS Carmarthen Branch