FINANCIAL PLANNING AND BUDGET SETTING PROCESS 2025/26 & 2026/27

Managers have a critical role in ensuring that the workforce is effectively informed of the financial planning and budget setting process and are required to engage with teams to raise awareness of the major issues facing the council and put these into context within services and day to day working. A series of reports will be presented to Council over the coming months. The savings delivery paper to be considered by Council on 25 September 2024 sets the context of the £11.2 m of savings required over the next two years and introduces timescales for decisions to be made. Further reports will be presented to Council on 22 October and in the following months, ahead of the budget setting meeting in February/March 2025. It is important to have an ongoing conversation and dialogue with employees, which started last year, will continue this year and in future and there will be a range of opportunities for employees and the public to engage with the process.

AUTUMN HOLIDAY – MANAGEMENT COVER ARRANGEMENTS

The ‘Tattie’ holiday period is nearly upon us and as Managers you will be busy making sure that services still operating during the holiday are appropriately covered, to ensure smooth delivery for our customers and service users.

This is just a reminder to make sure that the appropriate management cover arrangements are also in place and have been notified to those colleagues working over the holiday period to ensure that they feel appropriately supported and know who to turn to should a situation arise.

ERDP REMINDER

Thank you to all managers that have already completed their team ERDP’s.

If you haven’t yet commenced or completed your Employee Review and Development Process (ERDP) discussions for 2024/25, please remember to schedule them for your teams. ERDP’s are an important opportunity to pause, reflect over the last year, and to look forwards to what is coming in the months ahead. An ERDP complements regular performance review through supervision, workload meetings and just checking in with your teams.

TALENTLINK INTERVIEW SCHEDULER

An issue has been reported of interview details being able to be viewed by sharers of calendars on Outlook.

Interview confirmation template emails have been amended so when syncing to your Outlook Calendar this event should now appear as Private, and therefore details are hidden from others with access to your calendar.

Going forwards, if you have any examples where this is not happening, please email karen.baker@moray.gov.uk with full details including a screenshot showing the calendar event.

CORE HOURS

Just a polite reminder of the application of core hours within your service. As per the Flexible Working Policy, each Head of Service will set the core hours of work for their service, and it is important that these are applied to your staff’s working arrangement to ensure smooth delivery of service. Each service may operate under different core hours dependant on service needs. It is important that staff are aware of any requirements for core hours in their service, limits on accrued hours and flexi arrangements to ensure that service delivery is not compromised e.g. where you have core hours in place, not everyone can start late or finish early on the same day as service delivery will be impacted. Office opening hours are 8:45 to 17:00 and services are expected to provide a service during these hours. Services that are not front facing may be able to operate different hours following discussion and agreement with manager.

Standard: 08:45 – 17:00 (office based)

07:00 – 15:00 (depots)

Please make sure your staff are aware of the parameters and arrangements in place across your service.

HR ADMIN DOCUMENT SUBMISSIONS

Unfortunately, errors on documents sent to HR Admin are on the increase and are causing additional delays to processing times and additional workload.

Please remember when submitting any documentation to HR admin that they should be complete, timely and accurate. If you have any queries on document submissions please contact HR@moray.gov.uk

VACANCY MANAGEMENT FORM

The Scottish National Plan for Gaelic aims to encourage people to learn and use the Gaelic language. Under the plan Local Authorities have a statutory duty to develop Gaelic in a reasonable and proportionate manner, taking account of the existing number of Gaelic speakers in their area and their potential to develop the use of the language. Furthermore, the Education (Scotland) Act 2016 places a statutory duty on Local Authorities with regards to the assessment of need for Gaelic language in schools.

As part of the Council’s plan to ensure compliance with these duties, the vacancy management form has been amended to include whether it is essential or desirable for people applying for posts to speak Gaelic. Where it is identified that Gaelic language is an essential criterion, the advert for the post will be in Gaelic, with the English wording underneath. If it is a desirable criterion, the post will be advertised in English, with the Gaelic wording underneath.

The new version of the form can be found here HR Forms and Recruitment & Shortleeting Guidance.

JOB & CAREER FAIRS

There are a number of job & career fairs occurring in the upcoming year and the council will have a stand at these events to promote all the different services and the various career paths that the council provides.

If you would like to speak to potential employees or students and promote the council and your service at any of the events, please email karen.baker@moray.gov.uk to register your interest.

LEARNPRO

Following its unplanned absence, CLIVE (Learnpro) is now live again!

Please check to see if you or your team have missed any refreshers. If you need a reminder of your password please email organisational.development@moray.gov.uk

TRAINING RESOURCES

To help support the corporate training plan, we’re pulling together a list of free training resources that you can access at any time.

These resources will cover a wide range of topics; everything from ICT skills to Lean Organisation Management techniques. The methods of delivery will range from remote learning, webinars, TED talks, to courses being available on CLIVE.

This programme will support and enhance what is being delivering through the corporate training calendar. Once this quarters calendar is finalised this will be circulated and promoted with a banner article on interchange.

SKILLS NETWORK LAUNCH - Unlock Your Potential

Moray Council has partnered with The Skills Network to promote external training opportunities giving colleagues access to a wide range of free, fully accredited and externally provided courses.

The Skills Network provides a range of online courses and qualifications via their distance learning platform which enables a way of learning remotely without needing to attend classroom workshops.

Thanks to the Scottish Funding Council and in partnership with West College Scotland and North East Scotland College, The Skills Network can offer these distance learning courses free of charge.

This allows learners to study at their own pace, in their own home at a time that fits around their busy lives. Learners have the freedom to revisit areas of the course as little or as much as they need without having to keep the same pace as others and there is also full support from Skills Network tutors via email. If your chosen topic will add value to the performance of your role, please liaise with your manager to discuss the possibility of scheduling some study time into your working week.

There are 36 fully funded courses to choose from including:

• Level 2 Certificate in Understanding Environmental Sustainability
• Level 2 Certificate in Awareness of Bullying in Children and Young People
• Level 2 Certificate in Principles of Team Leading
• Level 2 Certificate in Awareness of Mental Health Problems

To find out more about what courses are available and how you can sign up to start your online learning journey click here to view the Moray Council microsite.

TIME FOR TALKING

If you feel that you need someone to talk to or need a bit of extra support, either via private individual counselling, couples counselling, family & parent support, or relationship mediation, then Time for Talking may be able to help.

Time for Talking (TfT) the Councils Employee Assistance Provider, can offer counselling services for adults, families and children, for a wide range of issues including alcohol, drug and gambling abuse, stress, bereavement, harassment, family and relationship problems.

They offer counselling, psychological, mediation and legal support, through a 24 hour helpline, a digital app, online resources and self-help programmes. Stress and mood management, social anxiety, healthy thinking and optimising your wellbeing are some of their training and webinars.

Podcasts are a new addition with topics including depression, anxiety, anger, low mood, bullying & harassment, getting your mojo going and work life balance.

You can contact them 365 days a year, via their website www.timefortalking.co.uk, by phone on 0800 970 3980, by app (downloaded from the app store or google play) or chat online to a counsellor through their Live Chat using the password TfTnow

All chats are totally confidential, people don’t need to give their name or email address unless they want to.

More information can be found at Time for Talking

TALENTLINK

In order to ensure that applications automatically archive in line with the ‘Privacy and Cookies’ statements on myjobscotland website and with GDPR regulations, you must close jobs down at the end of the recruitment process.

You can find guidance on Talentlink processes HERE including how to close jobs, resetting your password, how to set up interviews, etc.

NOMINATIONS FOR 2024 ARE NOW CLOSED!

Thank you for the great response to this year’s STAR awards.

Judging has now taken place. All nominations will receive a letter of thanks and awards will be presented to the winners in due course. Watch out for the results which will be announced on the interchange soon!

EQUALITY DATA

The Council collects data on ethnicity, race, religion, marital status, disability, sex, sexuality and gender reassignment status - these are all protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 and the data is collected during the recruitment process.

This information is utilised to make sure that its recruitment processes and employment practices are fair, nobody is put at a disadvantage because of any protected characteristic, and that the Council considers how its employees can do their jobs effectively.

One of the challenges for the Council is that a large number of employees do not fill in the equality data. Although people don’t have to share information about their protected characteristics, it is very important that the Council is able to collect and collate diversity data across the Council to ensure the best and most appropriate data on the workforce to enable effective decision making and support any actions or interventions that may be needed to be taken forward.

We would like to encourage all employees to ensure their data is up to date, this can be done via the Employee Self-Serve Portal. Bank details, address, phone number can be updated and payslips can also be viewed here. All information given is held confidentially.

Information on how to launch the ESS portal is available on Interchange including how to access the portal and navigate round it.

To read more about Equality Data please visit Interchange HERE

THE DIGITAL CHAMPIONS NETWORK – HERE TO HELP

Struggling with Excel? Baffled by PowerPoint?

Digital Champions are here to help. They are an engaged group of passionate employees, who recognise the benefits of technology, and are committed to helping colleagues across the organisation improve their confidence, motivation and digital skills for work. Through peer-to-peer learning, Digital Champions are supporting colleagues with a range of digital tasks from helping someone get to grips with making a video call on Microsoft Teams, accessing eLearning or getting the most from Excel.

It is very easy to get help, just send requests to DigitalChampions@moray.gov.uk and a member of the network will be in touch.

PRE-RETIREMENT COURSES

Are your retirement savings on track? Do you know how much income your pension savings may provide? And have you thought about how much income you might need when you retire?

Financial education specialists ‘Affinity Connect’ would like to personally invite you to attend an interactive full day course around the key aspects of planning for a financially secure future.

Retirement might be up to 10 years away but it’s never too soon to start planning. This course is perfect for anyone thinking about retirement or already at the planning stages.

During the course you’ll learn how to:

• Help you plan for the lifestyle changes ahead
• Maximise the benefits of your State and workplace pensions
• Make the most of your tax-free cash
• Understand the income options available from your pension
• Achieve your retirement goals

Affinity is also offering a new course ‘Your Financial Wellbeing’ on the following date:

This course is designed to help employees clearly identify the 4 steps towards becoming financially well that can support employees through working life and beyond.

Booking links for the above courses:

Face to Face Retirement Course Booking Link: https://affinityconnect.event-registration.co.uk/events/moray-council/pre-retirement/1-day-course

Online Retirement Booking Link: https://affinityconnect.event-registration.co.uk/events/moray-council/pre-retirement/2-hour-30-minute-course-online

Online Your Financial Wellbeing Link: https://affinityconnect.event-registration.co.uk/events/moray-council/your-financial-wellbeing/1-hour-30-minute-course-online

You can also find more information on how to join a course here - Planning for the Future

SCOTTISH MILITARY COMMUNITY PAGE

The latest edition of the Scottish Military Community Update has been published on Interchange: Latest Updates

This month there is information on the Unforgotten Forces 2024 Gathering, LGBT Armed Forces Community Memorial, Veterans Link Scotland, Winter Fuel Payments, as well as new funding opportunities, plus much more!

You can also find information on support for Armed Forces families in Moray and the Dandelion project.

HEALTH & SAFETY REMINDERS

RIDDOR REPORTING

A reminder has been issued to please ensure that all potential RIDDOR reports are discussed with the Health & Safety team before a report is submitted to the HSE. RIDDOR reporting figures are an important statistic used to measure the Council’s H&S performance and must be accurately reported.

NOISE AND VIBRATION

Please ensure that all noise and vibration procedures / related risk assessments are up to date within your service area. This has been discussed at the relevant departmental health and safety forums, and guidance is available on the interchange - NOISE

WINTER MAINTENANCE PLANS

Please ensure that your winter maintenance plans are up to date, and arrangements have been made for implementation. There is a generic Risk Assessment available for use by premises managers as well as guidance on Snow and Ice Clearing on the interchange.

The following information which appeared in the December 2023 edition of the HR Bulletin is repeated here for ease of reference.

ICY CONDITIONS AND WINTER WEATHER

Slip and trip accidents increase during the autumn and winter season for a number of reasons: there is less daylight, leaves fall onto paths and become wet and slippery and cold weather spells cause ice and snow to build up on paths. There are effective actions that you can take to reduce the risk of a slip or trip. Regardless of the size of your site, always ensure that regularly used walkways are promptly tackled.

Ice, frost and snow

To reduce the risk of slips on ice, frost or snow, you need to assess the risk and put in a system to manage it.

Identify the outdoor areas used by pedestrians most likely to be affected by ice, for example: - building entrances, car parks, pedestrian walkways, shortcuts, sloped areas and areas constantly in the shade or wet.

Monitor the temperature, as prevention is key.

You need to take action whenever freezing temperatures are forecast. Keep up to date by visiting a weather service site such as the Met Office.

Put a procedure in place to prevent an icy surface forming and/or keep pedestrians off the slippery surface.

Use grit or similar, on areas prone to be slippery in frosty, icy conditions.

Divert pedestrians to less slippery walkways and barrier off existing ones if hazardous.

If warning cones are used, remember to remove them once the hazard has passed or they will eventually be ignored.

Gritting

The most common method used to de-ice surfaces is gritting as it is relatively cheap, quick to apply and easy to spread. Rock salt (plain and treated) is the most commonly used 'grit'. It is the substance used on public roads by Roads Maintenance.

Salt can stop ice forming and cause existing ice or snow to melt. It is most effective when it is ground down, but this will take far longer on pedestrian areas than on roads.

Gritting should be carried out when frost, ice or snow is forecast or when walkways are likely to be damp or wet and the floor temperatures are at, or below freezing. The best times are early in evening before the frost settles and/or early in the morning before employees arrive. Salt doesn't work instantly; it needs sufficient time to dissolve into the moisture on the floor.

If you grit when it is raining heavily the salt will be washed away, causing a problem if the rain then turns to snow. Compacted snow, which turns to ice, is difficult to treat effectively with grit. Be aware that 'dawn frost' can occur on dry surfaces when early morning dew forms and freezes on impact with the cold surface. It can be difficult to predict when or where this condition will occur.

Lighting

Is there is enough lighting around your workplace for you and your workers to be able to see and avoid hazards that might be on the ground? The easiest way to find out is to ask your staff. Another way is to shadow your employees for a couple of days, walk the main internal and external routes that they use throughout their working day. It is important to do this both inside and outside of the workplace, as the effect of light changes during the day. If you can't see hazards on the ground you will need to improve the lighting (e.g., new lights or changing the type of bulb).