People First

The ‘People First’ strategy adopted in June 2023, outlines how we will ensure we have appropriately skilled and talented people needed to deliver services to communities.

It will ensure that we are fit for the future. It helps staff to understand and embody the values of care and kindness, along with a responsibility to strive for better outcomes and good value for the people of Devon.

There is a focus on the quality of relationships and engagement with key stakeholders and partners to ensure that by working together and adopting a collective approach the best outcomes are achieved for the people of Devon.

The strategy is designed based around a focus on the six themes of:

These themes were shaped by feedback from previous staff surveys, findings from the Race Equality Audit, benchmarking against other organisations, research of the recruitment market, themes identified through interviews with staff leaving DCC, and feedback from staff reference groups.

People First also highlights the Council’s collective role as corporate parents and its responsibility to children in care and care leavers.

The actions taking since the adoption of People First include:

Actions

• Voice

  • The development and implementation of a Council-wide engagement strategy including a structured annual calendar of activities.
  • Holding a series of corporate engagement activities for staff, both in person and online.
  • Undertaking a corporate wide annual People Survey (see results on next page)

• Recruitment

  • Creation & implementation of a Recruitment and Retention strategy for the Children, Young People’s Futures Directorate which was undertaken as a priority with the corporate wide strategy to follow.
  • Roll out of Workforce planning within each Directorate to understand key challenges and workforce needs.
  • Improving the experience of new starters to the organisation with a new onboarding portal on iTrent, our HR management system.

• Reward

  • Procurement and implementation of a new Staff benefits platform (called Vivup)
  • Development of a celebration framework for staff including peer to peer, long service, and other celebration events to recognise achievements.
  • Corporate wide review of allowances.

• Wellbeing

  • A ‘Wellbeing Hub’ created to support personal wellbeing and provide guidance for managers.
  • Introduction of Annual Leave purchase scheme to enable greater flexibility as part of the new Benefits Platform
  • New Employee Assistance Provider procured.
  • Review and refresh of guidance for appraisal conversations.

• Belonging

  • Undertaking exit surveys corporately and ensuring learning is shared with the relevant directorate.
  • Relaunch of equality, diversity and inclusion e-learning modules.
  • Development of a range of staff forums to enable more engagement with staff.

• Learning

  • Creating a new corporate wide learning strategy.
  • Developing senior leaders with learning around a more relational based approach including undertaking ‘Insights’ & an ‘Outward Mindsets’. This is being further rolled out across the organisation.
  • Delivery across the Council of courses on managing change and resilience.

As part of the Learning Strategy, the Council is actively focusing on developing a ‘grow your own’ approach, within which a focus on learning is key to ensure a sustainable workforce for the future with minimal reliance on agency or consultants.

Enabling greater workforce agility is another area that is currently being focused on to support long term sustainability. A ‘One Council’ approach is fundamental to ensure delivery of best value and better outcomes for our communities, by avoiding silo working and utilising transferable skills and expertise of staff where is it most needed, rather than being restricted to specific specialists in service areas.

In practical terms, this has been demonstrated in the approach deployed for the five key change programmes for the Council 2024/25, with Change Champions leading cross organisational working groups to supportively but robustly lead change and challenge existing approaches.Greater agility and the upskilling of staff, combined with an enhanced focus on performance, will enable a more sustainable approach to the Council’s workforce.