Pas resource survey 2019
- 1. Resources Survey 2019 Summary of findings Richard Crawley August 2019 www.local.gov.uk/pas
- 2. Base report 1. Recap 2. Who took part ? 3. Planning and your council 4. Spending the additional fee 5. Fees generally 6. Team size and composition 7. Recruitment 8. Skills
- 3. Recap Survey was to understand two things the impact of the recent 20% fee increase what longer term resource pressure remains
- 4. Who took part ? 123 surveys returned out of a possible 357 Excellent coverage of the different types of LPA
- 5. Planning and your council How well is planning represented at your council ? What is the job title of the most senior planner ? How useful was the ring fence ?
- 8. How helpful ? It highlighted the FD that there was additional income to come in Although the money was ring-fenced, there were no additional resources as a result of the fee increase Overall this was helpful to protect the monies for planning only. Main isuse was we have been below the projected budget for 18-19 and therefore in reality the 20% fee increase has just made up the shortfall in fee revenue need Govt support to maintain our control over the ‘ring fenced’ 20%. It is always under attack from corporate centre particularly when brining in £1.2m income this year
- 9. Qualitative questions In addition to the number-crunching, we asked two open questions: G09 (Resources, Recruitment, Retention) … your thoughts on your longer term recruitment and retention issues… your worries and what might be done to provide solutions ? G10 (Quality) Monitoring quality (service and outcomes) beyond national indicators… not easy to monitor and control. Do you do anything particularly well/innovative?
- 10. Resources - issues Resilient and successful councils are surviving (not thriving) Capacity (skills & experience) as big an issue as resources (bums on seats) Public Sector Planning – (not) valued / an attractive career Competing with private sector in a small pool / ‘cannibalisation’ (e.g. HE/PINS) and in London Agencies plug gaps, at a cost (£ and quality) More retiring than entering the profession Fees (heavily subsidised); ring-fencing matched by budget reductions
- 11. Resources - solutions “Growing their own” planners (grad/apprentice schemes) Fast-tracking experience - risk-based approaches Recruiting outside the planning discipline Paying more; market supplements / career grades Sharing resources Maximising discretionary income
- 12. Quality Still largely understood as speed, appeals, building design Mostly seen from the council’s perspective (improvement work normally focused on making OUR lives easier, and demonstrating WE added value) Emerging sense that quality is also about the ‘customer experience’ – very few, but very good examples
- 17. Fee Income How did fees received change ? What sort of fees are received ? Did every council see an increase ?
- 18. Fees up £10.2m = 12.1%
- 20. 25 LPAs saw income decrease
- 25. Planning teams How many people do each task* ? Are they directly employed ? * Note that some LPAs submitted DM only data, so policy is under counted
- 35. How are posts filled ? vacant_l = long-term vacant vacant_s = short-term vacant
- 37. Recruitment How much recruitment is there ? How much of it is successful ? Are there hotspots ?
- 38. Note that churn is measured over two years - not annually
- 39. Green is total recruitment; Red is fail Posts recruited
- 41. Skills* Which inputs really matter ? Who provides them ? How tricky are they to find now ? What is going to get trickier ? *note that districts out-number other sorts of LPAs, so these results are skewed towards their views
- 45. Top 10 worries for the future
- 46. Which categories will worsen* ? * Subtract current difficulty from future difficulty
- 47. Reflections Lots here Autumn events to share, discuss Don't do surveys at year-end, especially if they have financial questions Refine guide, and acknowledge grey areas Many thanks to everyone who took part bespoke reports going out in September
- 48. We are at local.gov.uk/pas
- 49. Email pas@local.gov.uk Web www.local.gov.uk/pas Phone 020 7664 3000 Twitter @Pas_Team