A senior council officer has apologised after swimming lessons for children with additional needs were cancelled at the Orchard Leisure Centre in Armagh – with one councillor saying problems with staffing levels were now at “crisis point”.
Head of Recreation Daryn Causby issued a ’sorry’ on behalf of his team and department as he outlined efforts ongoing to try and fill vacancies.
But it was the HR process and the multitude of steps which potential candidates had to go through – which has surfaced on numerous occasions – that once again came across when the matter was discussed.
It was at the community and wellbeing committee of Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council where pool problems across the borough rose quickly to the surface.
Last week, Armagh I reported on the anger and frustration of parents and children at South Lake Leisure Centre at Craigavon, when swimming clubs were informed of cancellations with little notice.
Now the attention had turned swiftly to Armagh and the Orchard Leisure Centre experiencing similar issues there.
Sinn Fein Councillor Sarah Duffy said she had been contacted by parents of children with additional needs and children attending one-to-one swimming lessons, who had been “handed an extremely vague letter”.
They were informed lessons would be “postponed due to staffing and rota changes”, this coming “with no meaningful explanations, no timeframe for resolution and no reassurance for families relying on these services”.
Said Councillor Duffy: “While I appreciate that staffing issues are challenges faced by councils and organisations everywhere, when it comes to the most vulnerable children in our society, they deserve proper planning, proper communication and proper contingency measures in place, not services that are suddenly withdrawn.
“Removing that continuity has a real impact, not only on the children themselves, but on exhausted parents and carers, who are already under enormous pressure.
“With that in mind, can I ask officers what contingency planning was in place prior to this withdrawal, what steps are being taken right now to fill the staffing gaps and, most importantly, when can families expect these lessons and services to resume?”
Head of recreation Daryn Causby extended an apology to all of those who had contacted Councillor Duffy for the “disruption that they have experienced”.
And he conceded: “Lots of the focus we have seen over the last week has been on South Lake, but South Lake is not the only facility that is under pressure, so we do appreciate that that disruption also has impacted service users in Orchard Leisure Centre.
“I will say, just in relation to the complaint that you’ve received, we will send a formal response to you on that and to your constituents on behalf of the council, just to say that we do anticipate closing out on a piece of recruitment for an extra swimming teacher in Orchard Leisure Centre by the end of the week.
“We hope then to be in a position to be able to communicate out with that group of people to look at restarting that programme in the weeks ahead. So we will communicate that out in due course and again just reiterate our apologies for the service disruption.”
The latest problems at the Orchard Leisure Centre saw the ready resurrection of a familiar platform to delve deeper into the issue with staffing which, some pointed out, is experienced across all departments on council.
DUP Alderman Margaret Tinsley said: “My frustration is not with one group, not with our staff, not with our senior management team, but with the process. And my frustration is why we have got to this crisis point, why we’ve got to this stage?Before now, we have been told we are reviewing our process. I have been going on about this for many years and that is the bit that is actually frustrating me, because if we had a more robust HR system, we may not necessarily be in this.
“We had a fantastic recruitment drive. We were actually congratulating the whole team on the fantastic recruitment and the level of success that that brought in at the last recruitment stage.”
Last week, Alderman Tinsley said, there were “absolutely no job offers”, then adding: “Now miraculously, we do have 18 job offers going out, which is fantastic. But I would say, at least, I’m sure 50%, if we’re very fortunate, will be in a position to actually take that up after four months after the closing date.
“It’s not good enough and I know that that is no reflection on those staff that are working exceptionally hard, because it’s actually putting more pressure. And what I have raised here, I am raising across the council’s departments, because our leisure department is not the only one that is faced with this issue.”
Alliance Councillor Robbie Alexander shared similar frustrations, having said he had been inundated with emails of complaint, adding: “It’s very disappointing that we find ourselves in this situation.”
He suggested a working group to consider the issues and a “detailed meeting around it to really understand what the problems are” with a view to working towards a “longer term solution”.
Councillor Alexander said “some of the HR processes leave a lot to be desired”, and what was needed now was “something very concrete that we can take forward and really sort of drive home as an improvement, not just in this department, but across the whole council”.
He added: “I do think maybe there’s an opportunity here to try something different, try something new, try and do some creative problem-solving around this and let’s try and find a path forward.”
The head of recreation said he appreciated that councillors were being contacted by constituents across the board and said complaints should be forwarded to officers for response as they come in.
In terms of staffing numbers, he explained that cover was looked at in terms of hours as opposed to posts filled.
Providing an update on the current situation, Mr Causby explained: “In the last week, 118 hours of contracts have been filled and those people have now started with us. We are in the process of completing out the last of the pre-employment checks for 242 hours. That will conclude out on Thursday, with occupational health assessments for all of those that have been offered those hours.
“In addition, the last of the pre-employment checks for a further 307 hours should be concluded out in the next two weeks. That is things from references, Access NI, and all of the relevant documentation that we require from candidates. We haven’t just had all of that back in the time that we would like either, so that does cause some delays from a candidate perspective.
“So the sooner those outstanding issues are clarified and submitted to us, we can action those as quickly as we possibly can.
“We are working at pace, as a department, to try and support colleagues in HR, who have processed and progressed quite a significant number of candidates through pre-employment checks and out to job offer on getting start dates and things like that. So we are trying, where we can, to move that ahead.”
Mr Causby also acknowledged – and once again apologised for – the disruption that was being caused, but outlined the departmental dilemma in that regard.
“We are very conscious that we have paying members on a monthly basis who use our service as well,” he added. “But what we have tried to do as a team of officers is to minimise the disruption to the range of groups that we have. For us, we might be able to provide more public swimming, but that would come at the expense of either swimming lessons or a club. Or we could provide club swimming, but that would come at the expense of the public.
“What we have tried to do where possible is to minimise the disruption to each of those individual groups, to try and strike a balance in the service that we offer. We want to run our pools and our service safely and we can only do that with the appropriate staffing level.
“We do hope over the next number of weeks that a number of our staff, who may be doing exams or assessments at university or on placements, will also then start filtering back in and picking up overtime and casuals. That certainly helps us immensely.
“The process over the last week or 10 days has been very difficult for staff and management, particularly within South Lake and Orchard Leisure Centre, to keep them going. We are working to try and mitigate as much of that as we possibly can and we will continue to do so.”
Sinn Fein Councillor Catherine Nelson highlighted the fact that some people were going outside the borough for swimming facilities and believed a different approach may be necessary.
She said: “We have to realise that we have put three pools into one. Personally, I think that needs now reviewed. I don’t think it’s worked. I think it’s caused us more hassle. I do think we need to look at that in real terms, because either we let clubs down, or we let families down, and there are many families currently going to Lisburn for swim lessons, because they can’t get into that pool. That’s not where our people should be going. They should be able to stay in our borough.
“Obviously, huge sympathy for the clubs who are facing competitions and this will impact on them. We’re trying to walk a really fine line here. Whilst I will be interested to see what broke perhaps, HR-wise, I will be interested in exploring a realistic conversation. Is this pool enough? If it’s not, well, let’s own it and let’s sort it.”
