Sunderland council staff may be asked to volunteer for school crossing patrols amid recruitment 'struggles'

At a recent meeting of Sunderland City Council, councillors agreed a motion looking at recruitment issues across the city’s school crossing patrol workforce.

The role involves uniformed wardens helping children to safely cross the road during busy school term-time periods.

However it was noted that the council “continues to struggle to recruit a sufficient number of school crossing patrol wardens to meet the needs of local children and parents”.

Councillors heard this was linked to several issues, including the length of time required to acquire enhanced DBS checks and the limited hours offered.

An original motion from the council’s opposition Conservative Group suggested the possibility of “seconding” existing members of council staff to undertake one crossing patrol per week.

It was argued this would be a “short-term solution to fill gaps whilst full-time staff are recruited”, with the Conservative motion also calling for existing crossing patrol staff to be paid a “market supplement premium”.

However Sunderland City Council’s ruling Labour Group amended the motion, which was later agreed by a majority of councillors.

The amended motion removed reference to the market supplement premium and asked the council’s chief executive to “explore the possibility of seeking volunteers from existing members of staff”.

This would include staff, especially with enhanced DBS checks, undertaking one crossing patrol a week as a short-term solution while permanent staff are recruited.

Councillor Kevin Johnston, Labour cabinet member for Dynamic City, introduced the amended motion and referenced the backdrop of reduced council budgets and public sector pay.

Cllr Johnston said: “Nine in ten councils now experience staffing issues not just in important roles like school crossing patrols but through our other vital local services which are needed.

“13 years of austerity, which cut the members of this council, the workforce of this council went down by nearly 6,000 due to TUPE transfers and people leaving and the ones that were left had to do more.

“After that they had to go through a public sector pay freeze and after that, it became an [increase] of 1% a year […] [Conservatives] wonder why we’re struggling to recruit staff, scratching their heads going £10.98 an hour.

“Well of course because they should be on £16 plus an hour if they had been keeping up with the inflation increase every year”.

Cllr Johnston added: “We want to work with our existing staff, we know we want more people to come and help us and volunteer.

“But it will be working with staff and asking volunteers to come forward, it won’t be imposed on them in a secondment way.

“We will work with our existing members of staff to see if we can plug any gaps while we still continue to recruit the necessary staff levels that we need.”

Councillor Martin Haswell, Liberal Democrat member, said the party had been raising concerns about vacancies in school crossing patrols for years.

This included pushing for improvements to the recruitment procedure and application form which, despite being simplified, is still around 10 pages long.

Cllr Haswell acknowledged that school crossing patrol recruitment issues were a “national problem” but said the council had to be “innovative” to solve the issue.

He added that he was “uncomfortable” with the proposed solution of secondments proposed by the Conservatives which, he said, could “create another recruitment problem by creating a barrier for retention”.

Cllr Haswell told the meeting: “If I’m in a role and my career here was at Sunderland City Council and suddenly I’m seconded one day a week to go out in all weathers to hold up a lollipop I may question whether I remain.

“That’s not to denigrate that role, it’s just a reality”.

Councillor Gregory Peacock, the Conservative councillor who launched the initial motion, noted there were around 27 vacant posts for school crossing patrol wardens.

He said the motion was about trying to address these vacant posts and to “make them more attractive to potential applicants, rather than trying to blame Labour or the council for the issue”.

Cllr Peacock added: “We’re trying to fill that gap and get people standing outside those schools helping children across the road.

“That was the aim of the original motion and with that in mind, I think the Labour amendment takes away everything that we’re trying to do with this motion, everything to make that position attractive.

“So I don’t think we can support the amendment because it takes out the blood and guts of it and leaves a really wishy-washy alternative”.

After being put to the vote, the Labour-amended motion was passed with 44 votes in favour and 20 votes against.