A government initiative called Public Service Temporary Assignment Scheme: Covid 19 Crisis
At the 5th May 2020 Skype Meeting, I will ask Mr Power CEO to explain, in full, how he implemented the above Government directive, on the staff at Leitrim Council. Particularly, what criteria were used in deciding which staff members would be nominated for transfer to other branches of the Public Service.
Minutes:
"A government initiative called Public Service Temporary Assignment Scheme : Covid 19 Crisis
At the 5th May 2020 Skype Meeting, I will ask Mr Power CEO to explain, in full, how he implemented the above Government directive, on the staff at Leitrim Council. Particularly, what criteria were used in deciding which staff members would be nominated for transfer to other branches of the Public Service."
Report by Director of Services, Housing and Community, Corporate Services, Cultural and Emergency Services
"While staffing matters are a matter for the Chief Executive and do not come within the Reserved Functions of the Elected Members, the following is the position in relation to the Temporary Assignment Scheme.
As part of the Government’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, a Temporary Assignment Scheme was developed to facilitate the temporary transfer of staff from all Departments and sectors, including the Local Government sector, to ensure the continuity of essential services to the public over the coming weeks and months. The primary focus in the Civil and Public Service is to support the health and wellbeing of all our citizens and to achieve this, and to keep delivering essential services to society, the Government has determined that we need to come together and work as a unified public service.
All Civil and Public Service bodies are required to identify employees who are deemed to be releasable in the context of their business continuity plan. All Civil and Public Service organisations are included in the scheme and may offer or request temporary assignees. Employees at all grades and work patterns/arrangements across the Public Service are included in the scheme.
The process nationally requires that each organisation’s senior management team determine which services are currently essential to critical business continuity in the context of its organisational Business Continuity Plan, and to identify employees (including contingency for COVID-19 illness/back up) required to manage the delivery of these services. The HR Department works with the senior leadership team to identify employees for release and will contact the employees in question to advise them of the process that should be followed. Support and assistance is provided by the HR Department.
The continuation of our own essential services in accordance with the nationally identified list for the sector and our Business Continuity Plan obviously remains our priority. We are required however to identify staff working in roles that have not been deemed essential at this particular time or where there are limited opportunities for remote working in an employee’s current role and are releasable for temporary assignment to other critical public services. Being identified as releasable simply means that during the present crisis, and the impact that this has had on the delivery of some of our normal services, we are in a position to temporarily release those staff to critical areas across the wider public service which are urgently needed to support the health and wellbeing of all our citizens.
Staff identified as releasable receive a notification from the HR Department which includes guidance and a link to the online Public Appointments Service (PAS) questionnaire for completion. Staff in the HR Department are available to provide support and will complete the questionnaire on behalf of a staff member as required. The questionnaire includes questions about location choice, current job category, experience and skills. On completion of the questionnaire, the staff member’s details are uploaded to the scheme database held by PAS. Public bodies who are seeking resources to support the delivery of essential services will also provide PAS with a list of roles and skills they require. The automated system will match the temporary assignee with the required role identified by location preference(s), job category, experience and skills. When a match is established, the staff member will receive an email outlining details of the temporary manager, organisation and location they are being assigned to. The temporary manager will contact the staff member directly regarding the details of the assignment.
Staff who have registered for the temporary assignment scheme may not be called immediately or, potentially, at all. In this regard all staff are required to continue to undertake any work assigned as normal and/or continue to work remotely and they must remain actively available for work, which may also include assignment to another role within Leitrim County Council as necessary. In this context Line Managers maintain ongoing contact with staff members pending any assignment being allocated to them under this scheme.
Assigned staff will remain employees of Leitrim County Council and will continue to be paid directly by us – direct management and supervision will be provided by the temporary Line Manager in the new organisation for the duration of any temporary assignment. Appropriate training and support will also be provided by the new organisation.
We fully appreciate that it may be daunting for a staff member to be temporarily assigned to another organisation. This however is an exceptional response to an exceptional situation which requires that we would work as a unified public service for the greater public good. Support throughout the process is available through Line Managers and the HR department and the ongoing cooperation and flexibility of staff in responding to this situation is acknowledged and very much appreciated."
Councillor Des Guckian expressed his satisfaction with this meeting taking place.
He expressed concern that some local authority employees may be temporally transferred to other duties which may hamper other services in the county and said the proposal was open ended and he can’t see much of an option available to Chief Executives in this regard but to enforce it and he didn’t believe this measure would be temporary. Cllr Guckian said that this is an excuse to close down Leitrim County Council and he called on the support of all Local Authorities to stand with Leitrim County Council on this issue.
Mr Lar Power, Chief Executive said we are currently in a National Crisis and the continuation of our own essential services in accordance with the nationally identified list for the sector and our Business Continuity Plan remains our priority. The HSE and the Department of Social Protection have some capacity issues and wrote to the Chief Executive, as this is an executive function, to identify staff working in roles that have not been deemed essential at this particular time or where there are limited opportunities for remote working in an employee’s current role and are releasable for temporary assignment to other critical public services. Being identified as releasable means that during the present crisis, and noting the impact that this has had on the delivery of some of our normal services, we are in a position to temporarily release those staff to critical areas across the wider public service which are urgently needed to support the health and wellbeing of all our citizens.
Cllr Des Guckian said he did not trust this Government or a new Government on this issue and feared that if staff are redeployed to other government services, the staff may not be returned very quickly to the local authority.