Latest news with #AccountsCommission
Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Times
Scottish council staff off sick at record rate
The level of absence among council staff is at its highest level on record as local authorities are urged to improve their workforce planning. Figures released by the Accounts Commission on Thursday showed the absence rate among non-teacher staff rose to an average of 13.9 days in 2023-24 compared with 10.8 in 2010-11. During the same time, the teacher absence rate increased from 6.6 days to 7.6 days. • We are in a new era of health in the workplace — things must change In a report the commission urged councils to plan their workforce into the future, especially given the age of staff. While 35 per cent of staff — the highest level — are between 25 and 44, a total of 27 per cent of workers are between 45 and 54. There are 29 per cent of workers aged 55 to 64. The commission said: 'Addressing rising sickness absence, embracing innovation and digital technology, and increased collaborative working will all be necessary to attract and retain staff and ensure we all continue to benefit from a skilled and motivated local government workforce.' Local authorities should align their workforce plans with their own priorities, the report said. The commission added that councils were dealing with 'clear and continuing financial pressures' and had to 'transform how they deliver services' to cut costs. 'Auditors report that councils have responded positively to these challenges but that further progress with workforce planning is still needed in light of continuing financial and demand pressures,' the report said. • Scots out of work for sickness and disability at highest level for 20 years Jennifer Henderson, a member of the Accounts Commission, said: 'We all benefit from a skilled and motivated local government workforce; staff are the most important resource that councils have. 'Councils must fundamentally reform how they deliver services, and Scotland's 260,000 council workers are crucial to this. 'Councils need to align their existing workforce plans with their priorities so they can ensure their workforces are the right size and shape, and their staff have the skills they will need. In particular, they need to ensure workers have the digital skills necessary for the scale of changes ahead. 'We have seen many councils already responding to this challenge, and there are valuable opportunities for local bodies to learn from each other.'
Scotsman
5 days ago
- Health
- Scotsman
Sickness absence among teachers and council staff hits record high over 'breaking point' claims
Sign up to our Politics newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Sickness absence rates for teachers and other council staff in Scotland have surged to a record high as local authorities were described as being left at 'breaking point'. A report by the Accounts Commission, the public spending watchdog, found absence levels among teachers rose in 27 out of 32 councils between 2022/23 and 2023/24, with an average increase of 11.7 per cent nationally. This represents an increase of 85 per cent since Covid. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad For wider council staff, sickness absence increased in 25 out of 32 local authorities, rising by 45 per cent since Covid and an average of 4.5 per cent nationally between 2022/23 and 2023/24. Stress, mental health and fatigue have been cited as key contributors to rising sickness absences | PA A total of 2.65 million days were lost to sickness across local government in 2023/24. This trend is mirrored in the Scottish Government workforce and NHS Scotland, with the latter reporting a sickness absence rate of 6.2 per cent until February last year - its highest level in the past decade. The Accounts Commission referenced a recent report that cited stress, mental health and fatigue as key contributors. 'The Chartered Institute for Personnel Development's Working Lives Scotland 2024 report highlights there is a growing unease across the public sector,' the report added. 'There has been a drop in the proportion of public sector employees saying they feel inspired at work and an increase in the proportion of staff feeling detached from their jobs and motivated only in monetary terms.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Teaching unions have also sounded the alarm over rising levels of abuse and violence in schools. The Accounts Commission said Scotland's councils urgently needed to make progress with workforce plans if they were to protect services and financial sustainability. The body said the number of staff employed by councils had risen, but this had not kept pace with ever-increasing demand. Multiple challenges are affecting Scotland's 260,000 council workers, the commission said, including struggles in recruiting and retaining staff. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'Recruiting and maintaining a skilled local government workforce remains challenging and, at the same time, demand for council services is increasing,' it said in a new report. 'This is placing additional demands on the existing workforce and there are indications this is now impacting upon the wellbeing of an ageing workforce, with absence levels rising to a new high.' Scottish Conservative finance spokesman Craig Hoy said: 'This eye-opening report exposes the deeply damaging impact years of savage SNP cuts and gross mismanagement is having on Scotland's council workforce. Craig Hoy MSP. 'The record high sickness rates among staff paints a picture of local authorities being at breaking point due to SNP ministers asking employees to do more with less. They simply cannot meet the demands being placed upon them to try and protect the day-to-day services communities rely on. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'With staff costs also rising, this situation is completely unsustainable going forward unless SNP ministers finally get a grip and give councils a fair funding deal. For too long the nationalists have passed the buck to councils and it is clear workers are paying a heavy price for those failures.' Jennifer Henderson, from the Accounts Commission, said: 'We all benefit from a skilled and motivated local government workforce. Staff are the most important resource that councils have. Councils must fundamentally reform how they deliver services and Scotland's 260,000 council workers are crucial to this. 'Councils need to align their existing workforce plans with their priorities so they can ensure their workforces are the right size and shape, and their staff have the skills they will need. In particular, they need to ensure workers have the digital skills necessary for the scale of changes ahead. 'We have seen many councils already responding to this challenge, and there are valuable opportunities for local bodies to learn from each other.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A Scottish Government spokesperson said: 'Workforce planning is an operational matter for local authorities. The Scottish Government has provided councils with a record £15.1 billion this year - a real-terms increase of 5.5 per cent.
The Herald Scotland
09-07-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Mundell: SNP is depriving pro-Union areas of funding
In March, Dumfries and Galloway councillors were forced to find £30 million in savings over three years, blaming what they described as an 'unprecedented funding gap' from the Scottish Government. READ MORE Meanwhile, NHS Dumfries and Galloway is currently trying to find more than £23m in savings. It has even cut down on lawn mowing across its entire estate as part of a 'wider effort to prioritise and protect patient care'. However, the challenges are not confined to the south of Scotland. A recent report by the Accounts Commission found that Scotland's councils are facing a near £1 billion budget gap over the next two years. The watchdog said for this year, the gap between the country's 32 local authorities stands at £647m – up £52m from 2024–25. This comes despite councils receiving £15.2bn from the Scottish Government in the 2025–26 budget – a real-terms increase of 6%. The report on local government budgets highlighted the 'recurring pressures' authorities face, from inflation, annual staff pay deals and the growing demand for services. One of the biggest impacts is the hike in employers' national insurance contributions brought in by the Chancellor at last year's budget. Cosla say this could cost £370m a year – more than double the £144m provided by the Scottish Government towards the rise. READ MORE Speaking during Scotland Questions, Mr Mundell said: 'Does the Secretary of State share my view that whatever the budget SNP Scottish Government have, they have cynically and systematically deprived funding from areas that do not support independence, leaving councils like Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders and their health boards struggling to provide basic services?' Scottish Secretary Ian Murray responded by accusing the SNP of neglecting the entire country. 'The whole of Scotland voted against independence in 2014,' he said. 'And it seems to me that the SNP government strategy is to starve all of Scotland's public services of the vital funding they require.' The Scottish Government has been approached for comment.
The Herald Scotland
31-05-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
North Ayrshire Council warned of £46.7million funding gap
The report revealed that the council's latest Medium Term Financial Outlook has identified a structural funding gap of £46.7m in the three-year period to 2027-28 (including HSCP pressures). Projected savings from transformation fall significantly short of the savings required. Officers are clear that future recurring savings also need to be made through workforce changes, cuts in services, and council tax and fees and charges increases. Officers have indicated that future recurring savings also need to be made through workforce changes, cuts in services, and council tax and fees and charges increases. However, Audit Scotland claim the transformation programme needs to be sufficiently ambitious to respond to the scale of the financial challenges. The Accounts Commission's Local government in Scotland Financial bulletin 2023-24 noted that councils need to intensify transformation activity, progressing at scale and pace to ensure their financial sustainability. The council's current transformation programme, known as its Sustainable Change Programme, was approved in 2023 and clearly sets out how it intends to transform its services, in line with its priorities, through five workstreams and six service reviews. Between 2021-22 and 2024-25 the council achieved financial efficiencies from its Sustainable Change Programme of £3.136m. They plan to make further efficiencies of £8.5m over the next three years. There was scope for the council to consider opportunities for more radical transformational change with partners. Mark Boyd, Head of Service (Finance), told the committee that in terms of transformation there is a lot of work going on and the solar farms would generate revenue. They were progressing with a number of services reviews like waste services, learning resource reviews and digital workstreams. There was also more momentum about how the 32 councils could better work together. In areas like blue badges, he said they could maybe have one solution across the authorities. Thirty-two councils were all doing similar tasks and they had to look to harness that activity and target efficiency from it. Budget preparations were beginning next week with the executive leadership, the finance boss revealed. There were also ongoing discussions with other Ayrshire councils around wider reform and opportunities to share services and that would continue although there had to be the will to progress that through three separate entities that had to be done at officer level and leadership level.
The Herald Scotland
24-05-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Look after Scotland first with new winter fuel payment
Discussion so far appears to revolve around a form of 'means testing'. That is one approach. However, it is my view that UK governments, of whatever political hue, cannot bring themselves to look at the needs of the population. Is it cooler in Shetland 12 months per year compared to the South of England? Do homes located in the Highlands require more heat and light during the winter months? I would recommend setting a base level around the Liverpool area and applying a graduated reduced heating allowance to the regions to the south of that line and a graduated increase to the north. It is surely not beyond the wit of the Exchequer to make use of postcode data and differentiate the parameters to be used to determine a 'levelling up' approach to an individual's needs. Governments appear to be able to determine taxation levels and varying service charges for gas and electricity on a geographical basis. I would term this approach as logical. But would it be viewed as an acceptable political approach? I doubt it in London but I would urge all Scottish MPs to get behind my motion and look after the Scottish population. Stewart Lightbody, Troon. Disordered evidence Neil Mackay's article on the increasingly intemperate language used in what he terms "disordered discourse" ("Clarkson shows he knows diddly squat about Scotland", The Herald, May 22) was apposite at a time when there is repeated evidence of this in any discussion of Scottish politics, whether it be in The Herald or elsewhere. The Letters Pages are a prime example of this with derogatory references to SNP supporters as "sheep-like supporters" who "parrot the same lines". But the SNP that won 56 seats in the 2015 General Election only won nine last year. So by definition their support can hardly be described as "sheep-like". In reality such remarks are not discourse but simply mendacity for mendacity's sake. A further example is the £650 million shortfall faced by local councils as highlighted by the Accounts Commission. The Commission blames this on "soaring inflation" plus "increased costs and demands". These are all outwith the ability of the Scottish Government to control. Yet there is a predictable knee-jerk response from opposition politicians with Labour's spokesperson saying this is a direct consequence of 'SNP incompetence and cuts'. This is despite the Accounts Commission itself saying that 'not all cost increases faced by councils can be met by government funding' and that £350 million of additional costs faced by councils can be attributed to the National Insurance increases implemented by the current Labour Government at Westminster. Read more letters The presentation of facts doesn't deter those with a malign view of their opponents from constantly framing events through the prism of their own bias. For example, the failure to build two ferries on time is once again blamed on "SNP incompetence". But Scottish Government ministers had no oversight role in the actual build process. They are not a party to the contract and as such cannot direct or influence events on the ground. Nevertheless that does not stop them from being blamed for the mistakes made by those who had that responsibility. Predictably rival parties maintain that if they were in power none of this would have happened. And of course no evidence to validate this assertion is ever offered up. The civil servants, workers and management responsible for the ferries debacle – either in whole or in part – will invariably remain in place along with the usual bland assurances that "lessons will be learnt". But they never are. For instance we now learn that the same mistakes made on the Glen Sannox were made on the Glen Rosa without anybody apparently noticing. This is despite repeated reassurances given to ministers and to various Holyrood committees by Ferguson's management that the monitoring of procedures had been tightened up. It is therefore not so much a case of disordered discourse but more one of disordered evidence. Robert Menzies, Falkirk. CalMac users satisfied In response to Peter Wright (Letters, May 23): there is nothing 'whitabootery' about citing UK cost over-runs when my taxes (and those of everyone else in Scotland) are used to pay for them. Anyone can check on the status of Isle of Wight ferries and they will find BBC and local/national newspaper reports on frequent cancellations, 'more misery', 'held to ransom [a £440 return ticket]', a 'scandalous' ferry system – often due to maintenance failures and breakdown (sound familiar?). New Tory MP Joe Robertson (after 14 years of Tory rule), asked the Labour Government to 'protect Isle of Wight passengers from excessive ferry prices... bad and unreliable service for a vital transport link from unregulated ferry companies'. Sir Keir Starmer concurred at PMQs with this MP, that islanders were reliant on foreign-owned, debt-laden, unregulated ferry companies for essential travel. As for consulting local residents of the Hebridean islands, luckily I do not have to. A six-month survey of 15,000 ferry users (published January 2025) found an average satisfaction rate of 84%, two per cent up on the previous summer. If you don't like or trust this, you can ask CalMac for details of who carried out the survey. Being properly regulated, it cannot refuse to answer. It would be nice in Scotland if ferries, knife crime, education, policing numbers, NHS waiting lists et al could all be reported in our media normally, without hyperbole, and in context. GR Weir, Ochiltree. Is castration a viable course? How should we view Labour Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood's consideration of chemical castration for sex offenders ("Chemical castration of sex offenders to be piloted in 20 prisons, says Mahmood", heraldscotland, May 22)? It follows a review led by a former justice secretary, David Gauke, which the Scottish Government is reported to be considering. Throughout society there seems to have been an explosion of abhorrent offences involving grooming gangs, sexual abuse of children and a rise in rape statistics. Steps both short-term and long-term will have to be taken to stem the flood of such obnoxious crimes. Long-term projects in this direction will take years to come to fruition while short-term measures could have a sharp-shock deterrent effect upon those who wish to indulge their unsavoury sexual appetites upon unwilling victims. Castration, chemical or surgical, could put the frighteners on those who harbour insalubrious designs upon their targets. However, the introduction of castration for sex offenders could mean that a reintroduction of the death penalty might have to be considered, if those who cannot or are unwilling to control their unhealthy sexual impulses resort to the murder of their victims to avoid the unpleasantness of lifelong castration and so hope to escape detection.. What penalty would await those women who are complicit in helping those who indulge their sexual fantasies with unwilling victims or themselves participate actively in such sexual abuse? Then there are women who lure underage youngsters into having sex with them, both male and female. They merit a condign penalty for ruining young lives. In this age of equality of the sexes, what punishment would Shabana Mahmood propose for those offenders? This is a can of worms which deserves to be explored and investigated. Denis Bruce, Bishopbriggs. UK Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has proposed a trial of chemical castration of sex offenders (Image: PA) Trump right to cut PBS funding AJ Clarence (Letters, May 22) appears to be suffering from what our friends across the pond currently describe as "Trump Derangement Syndrome" – in that, whatever happens, or indeed is claimed by social media to have happened, it is his fault. In a similar fashion, more locally, the equally deranged SNP blames Westminster for anything negative. Your correspondent is upset that Donald Trump has "defunded Sesame Street". In fact what has happened is that Warner Bros – which provided much of the programme's funding – was not renewing its deal with PBS and has now stopped its support. In addition, quite rightly, Mr Trump has reduced the state funding provided to PBS on the grounds that while it is meant to be apolitical, it clearly is not. In a similar way, many here firmly believe that the BBC should be defunded due to its endless left-leaning bias in all matters political – hence the increasing numbers refusing to pay their TV licences. Why should taxpayers fund media outlets to produce what is effectively political propaganda? Regarding AJ Clarence's criticism of Mr Trump on Israel: the President has enabled ceasefire negotiations and talks between Israel and the Hamas terrorists, while his predecessor Joe Biden sat on Benjamin Netanyahu's war cabinet. Derangement syndrome fully engaged. Steph Johnson, Glasgow. Does Hamas want peace? Your Letters Pages today (May 23) make interesting reading with regards to the situation in Gaza. Little or nothing is made of the impact of the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas but a lot is made of the consequences for Gaza. I have criticised the Labour Government for not thinking ahead but it looks suspiciously like Hamas did and the current situation is exactly what it wants. Peace can never be achieved by starting hostilities with an utterly atrocious massacre. Does Hamas really want peace? Highly unlikely, so you have to ask the question about what is the end game and it must be a Hamas victory which equates to the destruction of the state of Israel. Shockingly perhaps Benjamin Netanyahu is right when he this week equated "Free Palestine" with "Heil Hitler" for neo-Nazis. Dr Gerald Edwards, Glasgow. Green cloud cuckoo land The SNP's Net Zero Secretary Gillian Martin has said that people living in cities should consider getting rid of their cars to help tackle climate change. Ms Martin also supports the expansion of heat pumps. She can afford an expensive EV since she gets a salary of £116,125 from the Scottish taxpayer. She might not know that heat pumps are at least four times more expensive than gas boilers and are less efficient and that Scotland only has 0.1 per cent of global emissions. She and too many other politicians live in a green cloud cuckoo land where they chant "Where Scotland leads others will follow". They should all be put back into their green boxes and the lids closed. Clark Cross, Linlithgow. Sum amusement Willie Towers' letter (May 21) reminded me of a maths teacher of mine who would chalk a lengthy maths solution on the board then say: "Right, look at the board while I run through it." We never did have the pleasure of seeing him achieve this feat. More recently, though still some time ago, a teaching colleague in the maths department would similarly elaborate a maths problem on the board then ask the class "Are you with me?" to be met with a chorus of "No, we're with the Woolwich!". Readers of a certain age will remember the TV advert. Bob Byiers, Bearsden.
