Social Partnership - Annual Report (2024/25)

4. Working In Social Partnership 2024/25

Throughout the year the Council has maintained its commitment to working in partnership with the Trade Unions by maintaining its established frameworks for regular communication and consultation but has also strived to engage on a range of strategic matters affecting the workforce.

These have included discussions on the Council’s financial management outlook with a presentation made to Trade Unions, in January 2025, by the Director of Corporate Services and Head of Finance, in relation to the setting of the 2025/26 Council budget.

The Transformation Manager has provided the (non-schools) Trade Unions with an insight into the support that is being provided to corporate departments to effect change programmes that can result in efficiency gains. It is hoped that working collaboratively on an ongoing basis with the Trade Unions can lead to further efficiencies being identified, there being an acknowledgement that the Trade Unions are able to bring forward “hands-on” experiences of working practices from those operating within operational settings.

The Chief Digital Officer has endeavoured to appraise the Trade Unions of the Council’s approach, through its Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy, to maximising the potential of AI and allaying concerns about any negative effect on employees.

In this respect, demonstrable productivity gains have already been achieved for the benefit of Social Care practitioners in being able to produce case notes in a significantly shorter timescale. Repetitive and time-consuming tasks associated with recruitment and selection have also required a much-reduced level of input from staff enabling them to focus on more qualitative aspects of the process. The Trade Unions are being kept updated as services identify opportunities to embrace AI solutions.

As is part of the requirements of the Local Government & Elections Act formal consultation with the Trade Unions was undertaken in June 2024, on the degree to which CCC is meeting its performance requirements as an organisation. The Trade Unions were asked to respond to several questions with the evidence gathered enabling CCC to build on the intelligence gained through similar consultation activity which has taken place on an annual basis since 2022. 

Furthermore, during 2025, CCC has been subject to a Panel Performance Assessment (PPA) to develop its understanding of how it is operating and how it can ensure the delivery of effective services long-term. As part of the assessment, the Panel requested a meeting with Trade Union representatives, with the contribution of the Trade Unions considered as being very valuable as part of the overall assessment.

Looking forward to 2025/26 it is intended that existing communication processes will be further developed to allow for the earliest consultation with Trade Unions on the Council’s well-being objectives. It is fully acknowledged that early and meaningful communication is essential to work successfully in partnership and so meet the expectations and requirements of the Social Partnership Duty.