Agenda item

Consideration was given to a report which sought agreement to allow the use of Voluntary Redundancy (VR), in principle, as a means alongside the other voluntary options in order to help reduce cost and therefore created savings that could be passed onto Oldham Council.

The Committee was aware that Oldham Council was seeking to achieve cost reductions in order to meet an anticipated budget gap of circa £30m.  This included the application of initiatives across three themes: Assets & Property, People and Service Transformation.  As part of the approach to the People theme, a set of Workforce Reduction Proposals had been developed and agreed by Oldham Council.  These proposals had been developed with a view to having a consistent approach across ‘Team Oldham’ which included Oldham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Unity Partnership and MioCare.  The introduction of a similar approach within Unity Partnership (the Company) had been agreed by the Board of Directors (the Board).

At this stage, the proposals were all voluntary and the options that had been agreed included the ability for all Company employees to consider applying for: voluntary redundancy; early release; early retirement; reduced hours; annual leave purchase and sabbaticals.  The Board agreed that, subject to Shareholder Committee agreement, the principle use of Voluntary Redundancy (VR) would be open to all employees.  Assessment of implications would then occur on an individual basis to ensure that future service needs were not compromised by any approvals  Any proposal for possible rationalisation or redundancy of a group of staff in the Company was a Matter Reserved for Shareholder decision. 

Options/Alternatives

Option 1 – To agree the recommendations

Option 2 – Not to agree the recommendations

RESOLVED that;

1.            The Unity Partnership Board of Directors had agreed that the Company would adopt a similar approach to the Team Oldham Workforce Reduction Proposals, as a means of generating voluntary cost reductions across the employee base be noted.

2.            The various voluntary options which included voluntary redundancy, early release, early retirement, reduced hours, annual leave purchase and sabbaticals as outlined at Section 4 of the report be noted.

3.            The requirement for Shareholder Committee agreement to allow the Company to proceed with a potential VR programme and that other voluntary options did not require Shareholder approval be noted.

4.            VR being allowed for this specific cost reduction proposal programme be agreed;

5.            The invitation related to VR would be available to all roles within the Company rather than excluding any specific sections or teams be noted.  Assessment of all applications would then occur on an individual case-by-case basis ensuring future service needs were not compromised by any approvals.

6.            Whilst not known how many, if any applications, there might be for VR and no certainty as to whether any applications may be approved by the Company be noted.  It was possible that the number of redundancies might be above 20.  This would trigger the need for a S188 and HR1 reports to be sent to the Trades Union and Government respectively.  The Board had delegated the ability to issue a S188 notice and HR1 to the Chief Operating Officer subject to Shareholder Committee agreement to a potential VR programme.)