The Department for Infrastructure’s (DfI) Southern Division are currently operating at a 27% vacancy rate for staff… which is undoubtedly exacerbating delays in remedial and maintenance works across the borough.
The statistic was provided by DfI officials to elected representatives at a full meeting of ABC Council on October 27.
At the outset of the meeting, Cindy Noble, Acting Divisional Roads Manager for the Southern Division, provided key findings from the Department’s Annual Report.
Among budgetary restrictions, Ms Noble explained that “significant staffing pressures” factored into the Department’s decision to prioritise public safety and essential works above all else.
Addressing Ms Noble, Alderman Paul Berry said he had recently attended clinics led by the Department and joked about having given them an “earful” about things he would like to see done. However, the Alderman acknowledged that he did think delays are down to the “staffing issues” faced by the Southern Division of the Department.
Explaining, Alderman Berry said: “There are many times we report issues, nearly on a daily basis, and the message is coming back, ‘We don’t have the staff, we don’t have the staff!’
“Now, I’m over 20 years in local government and I must say, over the last number of years this has probably been the worst time in public life for reporting issues to Roads Service… and it’s not a personal thing, it’s more something we have experienced and I would just maybe like you to outline the current staffing problems that are there.”
Highlighting the issue, the Alderman added: “It used to be, whenever we would have reported potholes or road defects, within a short period of time those would have been dealt with and treated.
“But now, the general public are coming back to us nearly questioning us, have we even reported the potholes, have we even reported the defects, because of the long period of time that it’s taking or the potholes are getting bigger and more cars are getting damaged.”
Ms Noble obliged to the Alderman’s request by explaining that the Southern Division have approximately 170 staff members and approximately 40 vacancies.
She added: “We are currently sitting at a vacancy rate of about 27% which aligns right across the Department.. which I think, currently, the Department is at about 30-31% vacancy rate.
“Obviously, that vacancy rate, it goes in line – hand-in-hand – with a very aged workforce as well so we are looking ahead and seeing the situation isn’t an improving situation, so really its a two-fold approach in terms of capacity and capability.”
Elaborating on the Department’s “two-fold approach”, Ms Noble said: “One of the things that you will see is that the DfI have a policy workforce plan and it’s looking at measures in which we can recruit more, train our workforce and the other thing we are also looking at – and you will see will be coming on board probably within the next 12 months – is we are looking at reorganising an operational delivery project that will look at how we deliver and what we deliver and how best we can deliver and that’s looking in branch looking at all the functions.
“Unfortunately for roads, essentially a lot of the stuff we do is embedded in legislation; we have a statutory responsibility to do a lot of these things. Traditionally we would have used a lot of professional and tactical staff. A lot of our staff are very highly qualified which means we are competing in a market where those skills are well needed and we can’t compete maybe on that level of things.
“But what we are looking at is our recruitment processes, can they be prioritised, so we targeted those vacancies that we need those skills, looking at skilling people up so that we can see ahead so that if we need somebody who has a particular skill for traffic signals, or even looking at collision remedial type work, how we can have a sustainable workforce that is developed and can tackle all of those skills that we need.”
Alluding to a visible change within the structure of the Southern Division in the coming months, Ms Noble added: “There are projects ongoing right up to a very high level within the Department right up to the Deputy Secretary and the Permanent Secretary looking at the vacancy levels and how we can restructure and how can we give our staff tools and develop our staff to be able to do those things that we need.
“As I said, I think you will see within the next 12 months an operational model that is very, very different from traditionally what we had which is currently based within Southern Division, four area-based model. It may look like something completely different in the next 12 – 18 months.”
