Workforce Report AB IJB September 2025
Argyll and Bute Council · 17 September 2025
Back to Argyll and Bute HSCP Integration Joint Board (IJB) — 17 September 2025 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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WORKFORCE REPORT Argyll & Bute IJB September 2025
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CONTENT •Introduction •Headcount and WTE •Workforce Profile •Vacancies •Sickness Absence •Employee Relations •Redeployment •Mandatory Training •Appraisals 20XX 2
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INTRODUCTION The Workforce Report considers the workforce position as of 30th June 2025, providing high level information for A&B HSCP. Some sections may represent an alternative timeline and will be highlighted. The report has been developed in partnership and aims to shows the current position, trends and highlights where there have been changes and progress from previous periods as well as actions that are being taken to address some of the areas of concern. The Workforce Systems Teams proactively assesses data quality based on agreed data quality principles that are part of the data quality framework and addresses data quality issues at source to ensure that our workforce data is of high quality, reliable, and valuable to NHS Highland, and its stakeholders. Work continues on developing integrated (NHS and Council) data sets where possible. NHS Workforce dashboards are available at Operational levels as well as Job Families and continue to be developed. Council Health of the Organisation (HOO) reports are distributed to each service lead on a quarterly basis and Absence summaries are distributed monthly. 20XX 3
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NHS HEADCOUNT AND WTE NHS Key points: Increase in total employed of 2 (0.12%) in the last 3 months June 2025 in post figure of 1,648 (headcount) of substantive staff is an increase of 24 (1.48%) in the last 12 months. 96.9% of contracts are permanent. 4
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NHS WORKFORCE PROFILE SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 5 June 2025 Key points (NHS): • 833 employees (50.6% of the workforce) are over 50, 307 (18.6%) over 60 years, 70 (4.3%) over 65 • 43 (2.6%) employees are under 25 • 1397 (84.8%) employees are female • 855 (51.9%) employees are part time • 51 (3.1%) contracts are fixed term • Monthly Turnover is 0.5%, 0.9% lower than March figure and is the same as the current Board figure • Annual Turnover is 8.37% for the 12 months to June • Leavers number for June 2025 is 18, the main reason for leaving is ‘Other’ (55.6%).
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COUNCIL WORKFORCE PROFILE SAMPLE FOOTER TEXT 6 Key points: • 50% of the workforce remain over 50 years old with 5% over 65 years (increased by 1% this FQ) • 83% of the workforce is female. • 46% of the workforce are part time • 5% of the workforce are temporary (44) • Voluntary Turnover rate has increased this FQ from 3% to 6% • No temporary employees left prior to end of contract • Modern apprenticeship retention remains higher than the council wide figure at 82% vs 70%
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TIME TO FILL Time to fill presents a count of days between post added to the recruitment system and the start date of the candidate. The fill period is therefore reliant on timely and accurate data input. The council posts take an average of 73 days, a reduction from 79 in March to fill while the NHS Argyll & Bute average iss 100.8 days in June compared to 116.1 for March. The average time to fill has been reducing for NHS Highland posts to just over 100 days. The NHS Scotland Time to Fill KPI is 116 days. Council time to fill has decreased slightly during FQ1, from 79 days in the last Quarter to 73 days this quarter. There has been a significant increase in the numbers of vacancies advertised from 65 during FQ4 to 99 during FQ1. At the end of June 2025, there were 11 positions that remained unfilled. Both recruitment systems have the capability of reporting at each stage of the recruitment process and Recruitment Metrics is being finalised for future reporting. This will assist in identifying the source of delays. 7 Council NHS Status Posts at 30/06/2025 Conditional 95 Generic/Cohort 2 Interview 20 Live Advert 25 Redeployment 2 Shortlisting 10 Shortlisting Complete 8 Unconditional 25 Total 187 Average time to Fill (days) 116.8
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HSCP CURRENT VACANCIES 8 NHS Vacancies (Jobtrain) 30/06/2025 This slide provides a breakdown of the vacant posts. Information relating to re- advertising and posts vacant for a long period of time is being further developed and will be provided when available. Division Number of Vacancies A&B Children Families & Justice 12 Administrative Services 1 Allied Health Professions 6 Nursing and Midwifery 5 A&B MH LD & Addiction Services 19 Administrative Services 2 Allied Health Professions 3 Medical and Dental 3 Nursing and Midwifery 10 Other Therapeutic 1 A&B Older Adults & Hospital Services 128 Administrative Services 11 Allied Health Professions 19 Dental Support 1 Healthcare Sciences 3 Medical and Dental 12 Nursing and Midwifery 58 Other Therapeutic 1 Support Services 23 A&B Primary Care 20 Administrative Services 7 Dental Support 3 Medical and Dental 3 Nursing and Midwifery 4 Other Therapeutic 3 Argyll & Bute Central 8 Administrative Services 3 Allied Health Professions 2 Nursing and Midwifery 0 Personal and Social Care 2 Support Services 1 Total 187 Council Vacancies This table has a total of 99 posts during FQ1 – which includes all internal/Ring Fenced as well as Casual posts, hence the difference of 3 from the previous slide.
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NHS SICKNESS ABSENCE 9 The graph presents absence rates across Argyll & Bute Divisions and the HSCP. All areas are under 6%. The NHS Highland sickness absence rate for June 2025 was 6% The NHS Scotland KPI for sickness absence rate is 4% 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00 Jun-24 Jul-24 Aug-24 Sep-24 Oct-24 Nov-24 Dec-24 Jan-25 Feb-25 Mar-25 Apr-25 May-25 Jun-25 Children Families & Justice 5.61 4.74 3.46 4.04 3.14 4.93 6.64 4.09 3.54 3.09 3.38 3.07 4.74 MH LD & Addiction Services 5.83 6.70 6.12 6.78 5.87 6.04 3.53 4.64 3.14 2.99 3.40 3.23 3.37 Older Adults & Hospital Services 6.57 5.51 5.24 6.28 6.14 6.94 6.37 7.18 6.40 6.44 5.97 5.81 5.79 Primary Care 6.04 4.74 5.12 4.25 5.95 6.63 5.94 5.67 4.83 3.84 3.04 3.18 4.42 A&B Central 3.64 2.14 3.70 4.80 5.77 4.17 3.56 3.82 3.44 3.65 3.05 5.68 4.41 Argyll & Bute HSCP 6.01 5.14 4.99 5.75 5.72 6.30 5.73 6.02 5.21 5.08 4.77 4.91 5.10 % Absence Rate Children Families & Justice MH LD & Addiction Services Older Adults & Hospital Services Primary Care A&B Central Argyll & Bute HSCP
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NHS SICKNESS ABSENCE REASONS 10 Top 20 Absence reasons presented for the 12 months to June 2025 across NHS Highland. Absences with an unknown cause/not specified remaining high (24.5%). Managers continue to be asked to ensure that an appropriate reason is recorded and continuously updated. System solutions and prompts are also being investigated. For committee purposes absence reason is reported at HSCP level. Heads of Services receive their own divisional information. The top 3 reasons for absence are: • Cold, cough, flu - influenza • Gastro-intestinal problems • Anxiety/stress/depression/other psychiatric illnesses Top 20 Absence Reasons % for 12 months to June 2025 24.5% 19.0% 14.9% 6.5% 5.3% 4.5% 4.0% 3.3% 2.7% 2.7% 2.1% 2.1% 1.7% 1.2% 1.2% 0.8% 0.7% 0.6% 0.4% 0.4% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% % of Total Absences
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COUNCIL SICKNESS ABSENCE 11 The costs for sickness absences for FQ1 are shown below. Overall the HSCP has spent BELOW the Council average during this quarter with 3.4% compared to 4.2% (and last quarter it was 7.8% compared to 5.2% ) The days lost per FTE per month has shown a significant decrease from last FQ4, from 2.35 in March 2025 to 0.97 in June 2025.
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COUNCIL SICKNESS REASONS & RTWD 12 Council Sickness Reasons & RTWD Absence Reasons ‘Mental Health’ reasons have remained as the top reason in the short-term and long-term absence categories for FQ1 – which was the same for FQ4. Managers have access to the Council’s Wellbeing team for assistance in following the Supporting Attendances procedures. Return to Work Discussion (RTWD) The RTW Discussions remain an extremely important part of the absence management process, and there is a commitment for them to take place within 3 days of an employee’s return to work after a period of absence. Unfortunately the average length of time to complete them for FQ1 is 5 days.
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From 1st April 2024 cases include early resolution where known. In June 2025, 1 new Bullying and Harassment case was raised in Argyll & Bute with 12 remaining active, 2 new conduct cases were opened with 3 cases remaining active and 0 new grievance cases were opened in A&B with 8 cases active 0 2 4 6 Jun-24 Jun-25 Bullying and Harassment (new cases open per month) 0 5 10 15 20 Jun-24 Jun-25 Bullying and Harassment (active cases at end of month) 0 2 4 6 Jun-24 Jun-25 Conduct (new cases open per month) 0 2 4 6 8 Jun-24 Jun-25 Conduct (active cases at end of month) 0 2 4 6 Jun-24 Jun-25 Grievance (new cases open per month) 0 5 10 15 Jun-24 Jun-25 Grievance (active cases at end of month)
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COUNCIL EMPLOYEE RELATIONS 14 Council HSCP Disciplinary and Grievance cases continue to remain relatively low. During FQ1 one Disciplinary investigation and one Grievance was concluded. There were 4 new Grievances initiated during FQ1 which is most unusual.
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NHS REDEPLOYMENT 15 All NHS Highland Band/Grade Reason TotalJob Family Band 1 Band 2 Band 3 Band 4 Band 5 Band 6 Band 7 Other Org Change Capability/ Attendance End of FTC Pay Protection Other Admin Services 1 1 6 0 3 3 0 0 2 0 5 6 0 13 Allied Health Services 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 3 Dental Support 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 Healthcare Sciences 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 Medical and Dental 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 Nursing and Midwifery 0 1 10 0 9 6 2 1 1 5 12 10 1 29 Other therapeutic 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 Personal and Social Care 0 0 2 1 1 0 0 0 2 1 0 1 0 4 Support Services 3 9 0 3 0 1 0 0 8 1 0 9 0 18 Total 4 13 20 5 16 11 2 2 14 8 19 30 1 72 As of the 30th June 2025 there were 33 employees on a redeployment process in Argyll & Bute. All NHS vacancies at any stage prior to appointment are considered for redeployment as they arise.
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MANDATORY TRAINING - NHS In June 2025, the Mandatory Training completion rate is 71.5% overall for eLearning modules, an increase of 1% since March. Over the course of the year there has been focused attention on statutory mandatory training resulting in incremental improvement across all statutory mandatory training course. The launch of a new Violence & Aggression course in July 2024 for all job families caused a dip in the figures but completion numbers are now improving. There remains lower levels of compliance in Public Protection and Staying Safe Online eLearning, but it is improving. 16 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Jun-24 Jul-24 Aug-24 Sep-24 Oct-24 Nov-24 Dec-24 Jan-25 Feb-25 Mar-25 Apr-25 May-25 Jun-25 Trajectory (% Completed) Equality and Diversity Fire Safety Hand Hygiene Information Governance Moving and Handling Module A Public Protection Staying Safe Online Violence and Aggression Why Infection Prevention Matters Target
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MANDATORY TRAINING (COUNCIL) The Council's LEON system Leon: Argyll and Bute Council is now able to produce reliable statistics. The table below gives a break down of the mandatory training required and the frequency. The tables opposite show the various mandatory courses completed during FQ1 25/26, by Service. 17
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OTHER / NON- MANDATORY TRAINING (COUNCIL) The table shown opposite gives a break down of the other / non-mandatory training courses/role specific training, completed during FQ1 25/26. LEON continues to notify employees when their training is due and sends reminders to the employee and line manager. Managers can now also go into LEON and run a report for their team to see who is up to date with their mandatory training. This way they can ensure all training is up to date. 18
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NHS APPRAISALS NHS - the table shows the appraisal completion percentage, recorded on the Turas Appraisal system for NHS employees as of 30/06/2025. The chart represents the overall appraisal completion percentage over the last 13 months recorded on the Turas Appraisal system for NHS employees. Improvement of appraisal rates and quality is a Board priority, and this will be an area of focus for the year ahead. Training for reviewees is available on the Turas Learn system 19 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Jun-24 Jun-25
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QUALITY CONVERSATIONS The Council has moved away from PDP/appraisals to a less formalised quality conversation approach. It was agreed that an Annual survey would be conducted to measure the success and impact of the quality conversation. The most recent survey was carried out in May 2025. The initial results for the HSCP are shown in the tables opposite, with a detailed report currently in draft. Although this is not a high response rate, it has improved on last year’s figures, which had an overall response rate of 8% for the employee survey and 6% for the line manager responses. The link below gives further details on MCW: Quality conversations – My Council Works 20
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SOCIAL WORK/CARE SUPERVISION The Chief Social Work Officer (CSWO) standards set clear expectations for professional leadership, accountability, and the delivery of high-quality social work and social care. These standards underpin the integrity, effectiveness, and continuous improvement of social work and social care practice within the HSCP. Whilst there has always been Social Work Supervision in place – it is recognised that the previous supervision procedure required to be updated. That is currently ongoing, and the proposed minimum frequency of Supervision is shown in the table opposite. Supervision plays a critical role in providing assurance that the standards are being met. And regular supervision sessions facilitate early identification of risks, promotes staff development and strengthen decision making, thereby upholding the standards expected by the CSWO and reinforcing our commitment to delivering safe, person centred, and accountable social work and social care services. It is expected that an annual audit of compliance will be carried out once the procedure is finalised and operational. 21