Best Innovation in retention

Hackney LBC, Library service

More than a library - retaining a skilled and motivated workforce

In 2023, Hackney Council set itself an ambitious new strategy to make its service provision more than a library and to accelerate footfall back into libraries. It put service innovation, staff development and training and retention at its core. To become the best library service in the UK meant engaging with, and serving, the most disadvantaged community groups in society. Career and skills training for young and old. The promotion of health and wellbeing. Places for entrepreneurs to thrive. The celebration of multiculturalism. All this could only be achieved with the most engaged, skilled and motivated workforce.

Hackney LBC, Parking enforcement

Hackney Parking Enforcement Insourcing and Staff Retention

Parking Civil Enforcement Officer is one of the most challenging and difficult job to carry out in the Local Government. It requires working in all-weather conditions and being subject to multiple unhappy customers as receiving a Penalty Charge Notice rarely brings out positive emotions in drivers. The Council has faced decades of high staff turnover, high training costs and low performance. The latest work has turned around this with staff turnover now at 1.8% the retention is the highest in the industry and staff are happier than ever along with record-breaking performance being delivered for the Council.

Lancashire CC

ASC Workforce Strategy Implementation

Lancashire County Council has implemented strategies to enhance recruitment for hard-to-fill Adult Services roles. They invested in initiatives funded by the Market Sustainability and Improvement Funds, including attending career fairs, redesigning the careers landing page, and acquiring high-quality visual assets. Recruitment processes were streamlined, and a values-based interview approach was adopted, resulting in a significant increase in candidate engagement and retention rates. Overcoming budget constraints, digital overhaul resistance, and ensuring consistent branding were key challenges. These initiatives have improved the candidate experience and set the council apart as an employer, leading to increased application rates and engagement.

Southampton City Council

Building the Southampton Family

Our story covers three years in Southampton’s Children’s Services journey. We are sharing it with humility and pride. The story begins with significant churn, high vacancy rates, low morale and poor outcomes for children. At its peak, vacancies were over 50% and we employed 92 agency workers. Today we have just three social worker and four manager vacancies in a workforce of over 300, and just 12 agency staff. We are blessed with a permanent, high-quality leadership team, and a workforce that is resilient, loyal and kind.There was no magic formula or single radical idea. Rather, with vision, creativity, co-production and relentless focus we found an approach that worked. If it worked for us it can work for others.

West Sussex CC

Inclusive recruitment in public health

In 2023, the West Sussex Public Health Team undertook a significant initiative to enhance the inclusion and diversity of its workforce by recruiting for two Graduate Public Health Practitioner posts with funding from NHS England. This aimed to provide more opportunities for local individuals from diverse backgrounds with qualifications in public health-related subjects to enter the public health workforce. The lessons learned from these innovations has helped us to nearly double the number of applications in the past year for our specialist roles rom 214 to 591 and also increase the number of people from racially marginalised communities within the team from 5.8% in 22/23 to 37% in 23/24. Also an increase in the number of people hired who have a disability from 3.73% in 22/23, to 7.3% in 23/24. We hope to continue this work to make improvements across the council.

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