People and Culture Strategy 2024-2028 Annual Update
Perth and Kinross Council · 24 June 2026
Back to Finance and Resources Committee — 24 June 2026 and its agenda
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Our vision is a Perth and Kinross where everyone can live life well, free from poverty and inequality Committee or Board: Finance and Resources Committee Date of Meeting: 24 June 2026 Report Title: People and Culture Strategy 2024–2028 Annual Update Report Number: 26/185 Report Author: Pauline Johnstone, People and Culture Manager Organisational Lead: Greg Boland, Strategic Lead - Strategic Planning, People and Performance 1. Purpose 1.1 This report provides the Finance and Resources Committee with the annual update on progress in 2025/26 in implementing the People and Culture Strategy 2024–2028 (the Strategy), approved by the Committee on 12 June 2024 (Report No 24/180). It fulfils the commitment to report annually on People and Culture outcomes. 1.2 Sections 1. Purpose 2. Recommendation(s) 3. Background/Context 4. Main Issues 5. Proposals 6. Conclusion 7. Impact and Value Assessment 8. Appendices 2. Recommendation(s) 2.1 The Committee is asked to note progress to date and agree the recommended actions for the coming year to support continued implementation of the People and Culture Strategy. 3. Background/Context 3.1 The People and Culture Strategy 2024–2028 was approved by the Finance and Resources Committee on 12 June 2024 Report No 24/180 followed by an update on 25 June 2025 Annual Update Report No 25/174.
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It sets out the Council’s long-term approach to ensuring a sustainable, skilled, flexible and values-led workforce capable of meeting current and future service demands. The Strategy’s core objective is: “To enable the delivery of a sustainable approach to workforce development, and a flexible and agile workforce with the right skills, values and attitudes to meet the needs of our communities now and into the future.” This objective aligns with the Council’s transformation agenda and recognises the critical role of our workforce in delivering services for the people of Perth and Kinross. 3.2 The Strategy was developed in response to skills shortages, an ageing workforce demographic, increased competition in the labour market, and changing employee expectations around flexibility, wellbeing and development. These challenges continued to shape workforce priorities in 2025/26, and the action plan was designed to address them through targeted initiatives structured around the Council’s core values of Ambition, Compassion and Integrity. 3.3 The first annual update (Year 1) was reported to the Committee in June 2025. It established baseline measures for key workforce indicators and confirmed that workforce-related Best Value Audit recommendations had been built into the Strategy and action plan, including annual progress reporting, stronger workforce planning and measurable outcomes. 3.4 This is the second annual update (Year 2), covering progress from July 2025 to April 2026. It summarises the main issues and achievements, supported by Appendix 1, which provides a detailed update on delivery of the Strategy action plan and success measures to April 2026. 4. Main Issues 4.1 This section summarises Year 2 (2025/26) progress against the People and Culture Strategy action plan, highlighting key outcomes and areas requiring further evidence or development. 4.2 Workforce Planning and Resourcing Strategic workforce planning to improve organisational capacity to meet future demand remained a major focus in 2025/26, with progress in embedding this approach across the organisation. The Workforce Planning Board has ensured each Strategic Lead area has a three- to five-year workforce plan, which have been brought together to inform Council-wide priorities. This has helped identify common resourcing challenges and opportunities, including the need to: • Transition to a recruitment approach for entry-level roles that prioritises attitude, and behaviours, combined with robust internal development to build skills. • Expand and enhance career pathways, incorporating apprenticeships and trainee programmes to “grow our own” talent.
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• Strengthen leadership development and succession planning to ensure a pipeline of future leaders. • Continue promoting a positive culture and transferable skills across the workforce, enabling staff to adapt to new roles and challenges. • Maximise opportunities for cross-service working and collaboration (both internally and with external partners) to share knowledge, improve service delivery and broaden development opportunities. These themes have informed a range of actions now underway, including the “grow our own” initiatives described in section 4.3. The Board reports key findings and decisions to the Executive Leadership Team regularly, ensuring ongoing oversight. Early workforce planning has supported proactive reskilling and redeployment, mitigating workforce risk and reducing potential redundancy costs. Every effort is made to mitigate the impact of resource decisions on employees and in 2024/25, most of those supported through the internal skills register secured suitable alternative roles. 4.3 Attraction, Recruitment and Early Careers During 2025/26, the Council has continued to strengthen its employer brand and widen its talent pipeline, with a particular focus on attracting younger people to support long-term workforce sustainability. The Employer of Choice Working Group continues to drive this agenda. The branding strapline “More than a job” is now consistently used in recruitment advertising and communications. Supporting materials and channels have been developed, including refreshed recruitment advert templates highlighting our benefits, a dedicated social media presence for Council vacancies, and staff encouragement to promote opportunities through their own networks. These measures are intended to widen the candidate pool and reduce the number of posts that remain unfilled after the first advertisement. In 2025/26, around 22% of advertised posts required re-advertisement, which was broadly unchanged from the previous year. This indicates that recruitment remains a challenge in some areas. In June 2026, the Council expanded its early careers offer through a Summer Placement Programme. The programme provides structured, paid work experience for young people, primarily school leavers, across a range of Council services. Placements are targeted at areas with known or emerging workforce need and are designed to give participants meaningful workplace experience, develop core employability skills, and increase awareness of careers in local government. To maximise the value of the programme, participants can apply for internally advertised Modern Apprenticeship vacancies during their placement and for six months afterwards, recognising that vacancy timing may not align with the placement period.
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This approach supports workforce planning by creating clearer entry routes into employment for people under 30 and strengthening a sustainable “grow our own” talent pipeline. By linking work experience directly to apprenticeship opportunities, the Council can improve retention of local talent, target investment towards hard-to-fill roles, and reduce reliance on external recruitment. The programme also supports the strategic objective of increasing the proportion of employees under 30, while enabling better tracking of outcomes and stronger alignment between early-career activity and longer-term workforce demand. Career Grade Structure guidance has also been implemented to provide clearer progression routes from entry-level grades to promoted posts. Taken together, these initiatives create a more structured pathway for younger employees to enter and progress within the Council, with the aim of improving both recruitment and retention. Early indicators are encouraging. The proportion of employees under 30 increased from an average of 10.9% in 2023/24 to 12.2% in 2024/25 and has remained around 12% in 2025/26, equivalent to approximately 730 employees. First-year retention has also improved, reducing service disruption and vacancy risk. Staff turnover within the first year of service fell from 23% in 2023/24 to 16% in 2024/25 and has remained around 17% in 2025/26. Retention among younger employees has strengthened in particular: in 2025/26, leavers under age 30 represented 15% of that age group’s headcount, down from 22% in the previous year. Taken together, these trends suggest that the Council’s focus on early careers and strengthening the overall employment offer is beginning to have a positive effect supporting workforce sustainability and reducing recruitment costs. 4.4 Leadership Development and Culture Supporting and developing leaders at all levels remains central to building an agile, high-performing workforce culture. During 2025/26, the Council continued to invest in leadership development by delivering Year 2 of the Evolving Leaders in Practice senior leadership programme and extending key elements to a wider cohort beyond Strategic Leads. A new Leadership Strategy has also been developed and approved. Delivery will begin in autumn 2026 and continue through to 2028, supported by a Leadership Experience offer designed to build awareness of the five foundations of leadership and reinforce the competencies, values and behaviours expected of all leaders.
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A new Leadership Hub is also being developed as an online resource and community for managers, providing clearer development pathways, access to learning opportunities, and peer support. Collaboration has also extended beyond the Council. In 2025/26, a Tayside Leadership Development Collaborative was established between Perth & Kinross Council, NHS Tayside, Dundee City Council and Angus Council. The partnership enables participating organisations to share resources and good practice, improving efficiency and promoting greater regional consistency. As part of this work, the Council joined NHS Tayside’s Essentials of Leadership and Management (ELM) programme, with 160 new or aspiring managers from across the partner organisations taking part in the first cohort. The Council has also delivered a second cohort of its Forging Influence and Responsibility (FIR) programme for middle managers. 40 managers completed the first cohort, with a further 18 currently participating. Together, these programmes are strengthening the internal leadership pipeline, modernising management practice, and reinforcing the Council’s values across leadership culture. This is reflected in the 2025 Employee Survey, where 97% of respondents agreed that their team embodies the Council’s values and behaviours, up from 91% in 2024. This suggests strong cultural alignment, effective leadership and strong collaboration at team level. 4.5 Flexible Working and Wellbeing The Council’s Flexible Working Framework, including hybrid working arrangements, was reviewed and relaunched in January 2025 to reflect service needs and changes to the Council estate. During 2025/26, the refreshed framework was embedded and monitored. The 2025 Employee Engagement Survey highlights the wider employment offer: 42% of employees cited making a positive difference as a main reason for working for the Council, 21% cited their team or colleagues, and 8% included flexible working among their top reasons.
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This work is being supported by the development of a short pulse survey to assess the impact of flexible working on productivity, wellbeing and service performance. Findings from that survey will inform any further refinements and help address the remaining Best Value audit recommendation on measuring flexible working outcomes. Employee health, safety and wellbeing remain a core element of the People and Culture Strategy. During 2025/26, monthly health and wellbeing briefings for staff and managers continued, covering topics ranging from mental health to physical safety. Promotion of the Employee Assistance Programme also continued, with significant uptake of access to self-help workbooks, podcasts and other wellbeing resources increasing from 238 in 2024/25 to 3263 in the 25/26 period. Use of the helpline and counselling services also increased, demonstrating raised awareness of the service and immediate accessible self-directed support. Work is also continuing to develop a comprehensive Health and Wellbeing Pathway involving Council, Education and Learning, and Health and Social Care Partnership colleagues. This will define what a healthy workforce looks like, and the practical steps needed to support it. Engagement across services is helping shape the pathway and align policies and support arrangements. Efforts to support attendance and increased service capacity through improved absence management tools are also beginning to show results. Managers now have access to a People Analytics dashboard providing real-time attendance and absence data for their teams. Training and drop-in sessions have helped managers use the dashboard effectively, enabling earlier and more proactive intervention. As a result, sickness absence among teachers has fallen from an average of 9.1 days lost per teacher in 2023/24 to 7.2 days in 2025/26. Absence among other staff groups (SJC, Craft and Chief Officers) increased slightly in 2025/26 to 12.7 days, compared with 12.6 days in 2024/25, but remains below the 2023/24 level of 13.1 days. This suggests that the overall absence position is still improved from the baseline, although some services may require continued attention. Managers report that the dashboard is a useful tool, and further benefits are expected as its use becomes routine, including earlier intervention, more targeted support and lower absence costs over time. In addition, ERICA, the Council’s virtual HR assistant, continues to provide managers with quick guidance on employee relations and wellbeing queries, with a booking function for more complex support. Planned AI enhancements are expected to improve its effectiveness further in the coming year. Safety at work has also remained a priority within the Council’s culture and wellbeing actions. A Reducing Challenging Behaviour Working Group, including trade union representation, continues to meet regularly to address violence and aggression incidents, initially focusing on education settings. A new incident reporting process has also been developed for non-education settings to strengthen reporting and prevention. Reported violence and aggression incidents fell from 1,771 in 2023/24 to 1,595 in 2024/25 and 1,585 2025/26 and further analysis is needed to understand
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trends fully and identify any additional action required. The Council has committed in principle to UNISON’s End Violence at Work Charter and is operationally aligned with all 10 Charter standards. Evidence has been prepared to show how existing policies, reporting arrangements, training and support meet the requirements, supported by ongoing improvement activity, including the Reducing Challenging Behaviour Working Group. The EJCC previously agreed a position of working towards full compliance within 12 months. However, formal sign-up and public confirmation have not yet been completed, as the Council is awaiting confirmation from UNISON that the evidence submitted is sufficient to complete the signatory process. 4.6 Workforce Engagement and Inclusion The transfer of employee engagement responsibilities to the Strategic Communications and Engagement Team, implemented in 2024/25, has started to deliver a more coordinated approach to internal communications. A Communications and Engagement Strategy is now in place, with a clear focus on plain English and accessibility across all channels, including subtitles on staff videos and accessible document formats. Work has also continued to improve communication with employees who do not routinely use the intranet or email, through alternative methods and team cascades. Team meetings remain the communication channel most valued by employees, suggesting strong direct engagement. In the 2025 survey, ratings for the intranet as an information source fell slightly, while Managers’ Weekly Briefings and other channels increased in perceived value. This is helping shape the Council’s communications approach. The Employee Engagement Survey 2025 took place in late autumn 2025. While survey participation reduced from 47% to 38%, results show stable overall engagement and strong cultural alignment, suggesting continued effectiveness of engagement initiatives, with a need to improve participation and consistency of local action planning. Although the response was lower last year, it is still a significant increase from the 27% in 2021 and provides valuable feedback. Key corporate indicators remained broadly stable. The average score for likelihood to recommend Perth & Kinross Council as an employer was 7.11 out of 10 in 2025, compared with 7.2 in 2024. As noted in section 4.4, positive responses on team values increased. The top three reasons employees gave for working for the Council were broadly unchanged: 42% cited making a positive difference for people in our communities, 21% cited their team or colleagues, and 16% cited job security. These findings will continue to inform retention and engagement actions. Managers have continued to develop local action plans in response to the 2024 survey and have provided updates on “You Said, We Did” at both team and corporate level, including a Council-wide communication in May 2025. Action plans for the 2025 survey have been developed. The working group is now preparing for the next staff survey in late 2026, with a focus on improving participation and tracking progress on key themes.
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4.7 Consolidation In summary, year 2 of the 4 year People and Culture Strategy has consolidated the initiatives begun in year 1 and delivered further tangible outcomes with increasing evidence of measurable impact in key areas including workforce sustainability, reduced early attrition, improved absence outcomes, strengthened redeployment success, and enhanced employee perceptions of safety and organisational culture. Governance structures are embedded, and workforce planning is now more integrated into business-as-usual processes, supporting better risk management and more strategic deployment of people resources. The Council has also strengthened its labour market offer for key groups, alongside leadership development and wellbeing support. Some benefits, particularly cultural and demographic shifts, will take longer to fully materialise and measure. The next section sets out how this progress will be taken forward and where remaining evidence gaps will be addressed. 5. Proposals 5.1 Continuation of Strategy Implementation: It is proposed that the current approach to delivering the People and Culture Strategy continues into year 3 (2026/27). The governance and action plan framework has proven effective, and maintaining this momentum will further embed a consistent, cross-Council approach to workforce development and planning. 5.2 Planned Actions for 2026/27: Priority themes for the coming year will be informed by workforce plan reviews, employee feedback and external factors. Key areas are expected to include: 1. Further enhancement of workforce plans (linked to service design and transformation projects) 2. Expansion of the young workforce pathway (with sustainable funding and evaluation of internships and apprenticeships) 3. Implementation of “grow our own” talent initiatives (e.g. additional career- grade posts, succession planning and development programmes) 4. Roll-out of a broader leadership development programme covering middle managers and aspiring leaders. 5. A refresh of our Health and Wellbeing approach (including finalising the Wellbeing Pathway and possibly new policy guidance) 6. Continued collaboration with external partners (through regional networks or shared service opportunities) to maximise the impact of our workforce initiatives. 7. Progress our Fair Work Agenda including ongoing work with the unions to consider pay and grading in the context of entry level pay rates and differentials at the lower end of our pay scales as part of our employment proposition to improve recruitment and retention for those on the lowest grades. 8. Teaching: National negotiations earlier this year resulted in an agreement to implement a reduction in class contact time (RCCT) for teachers, with
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primary and special schools being implemented by August 2027 and secondary by August 2029. The 90-minute reduction is to be fully funded by Scottish Government; however, this means all Scottish councils will be looking to recruit additional teachers at the same time. In Perth & Kinross Council, workforce planning is underway with consideration given in the first instance to school roll forecasting and how existing newly qualified teachers and those on fixed term contracts can contribute to the additional resources needed. It is anticipated an additional 20 teaching FTE be engaged through early recruitment for session 2026/27 and 70 in 2027/28 with consideration being given to where this additionality can add most value. These proposed year 3 actions build on year 2 achievements and remain aligned with the Strategy’s objectives. The Committee is asked to agree that this work should proceed, subject to any adjustments required by emerging circumstances. 5.3 Future Reporting: A further update on Year 3 progress (2026/27) will be reported to the Finance and Resources Committee in June 2027, in line with the commitment to transparency and oversight. 6. Conclusion 6.1 This report shows that delivery of the People and Culture Strategy 2024–2028 continued during year 2 (2025/26), with governance embedded and actions progressed across workforce planning, recruitment, leadership, wellbeing and engagement. 6.2 This work continues to support workforce sustainability, the Council’s transformation agenda and Best Value commitments. While a number of positive indicators are available, some measures remain in development and will be strengthened through improved data capture and evaluation during 2026/27. 6.3 The Committee is invited to note progress during 2025/26 and agree the proposed actions for year 3 (2026/27). 7. Impact and Value Assessment This is an operational report, and as such, no further assessment is required. 8. Appendices 8.1 Appendix 1 - Update on key activities undertaken as part of the People and Culture Strategy action plan (as at April 2026). 8.2 Appendix 2 - Update of the May 2024 workforce profile data provided in the Strategy document.
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AI tools have been used in the preparation of this document and any accompanying materials. All content has been reviewed by a Council officer for accuracy prior to publication.