Council leader says he wants staff back in office

The leader of Leicestershire County Council has said he wants more council staff "back in work" and has committed to getting more employees to return to the office "when it's feasible".

Reform councillor Dan Harrison said a return to office working would help build a "sense of community" for staff.

His comments come after the Labour government launched a consultation on flexible working including a "reasonableness test" on hybrid working which would potentially allow employees to take their employer to court if a request was "unreasonably rejected".

Harrison said he believed working from home affected an employee's productivity, mental health and the council's value for money.

The authority said there were 3,000 staff who have County Hall, in Glenfield, registered as their usual base.

A spokesperson said the number of staff members attending on a daily basis varied but a recent snapshot showed it averaged at about 1,000 working in the building each day.

The council currently has 26 hybrid working jobs advertised on its website, with roles also offering "flexible working", according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Harrison said: "I'm not responsible for the staff but I'm responsible to make sure we're getting value for money.

"I come from management and if you're not managing, you're not managing. If you can't see [employees], how can you manage?

"You can't be a manager if you don't see who and how you're managing and what levels of work they are doing. Is that a day's work or is that a week's work?

"We're paying hundreds of millions of pounds to staff, and we've got to be responsible with it."

Harrison added he hoped to get staff back into the office when it was "feasible to make it work correctly".

Independent county councillor Michael Charlesworth, who sits on the authority's employment committee, said: "Applying a broad brush to this [working from home] would be a mistake.

"There has to be a balance.

"Managers need to look at each individual role rather than have a blanket approach.

"For some staff, they can be effective at home."

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