HQ virtually empty but council spent £5.7 million on new offices

by OUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT STAFF

Less than twenty per cent of the office space at Scottish Borders Council headquarters is in use at any given time, a situation causing critics to wonder why the authority needed to spend £5.7 million on a state-of-the-art administration suite for IT contractors who moved out of HQ last November.

Councillors will decide next week whether to sanction a proposed new 'vision' for the 1960s office block in Newtown St Boswells which has been the region's main local government hub for decades. The transformation could include community spaces, sections of the building being used by other public agencies, and even gardens and food growing facilities in the grounds.

Although there is space for 400 council office workers in the complex, a report prepared for the SBC Executive confirms that only between 60 and 70 members of staff are in the HQ on any given day. Since the pandemic, many council employees have been working from home.

The report from John Curry, Director Infrastructure & Environment, says the purpose is to set out the proposed approach for how Scottish Borders Council intends to utilise its office accommodation, post pandemic, to realise best value and support communities effectively. 

"A programme of work, commenced during the pandemic, is in progress and remains to be completed. There are some key areas within Council Headquarters that are the current area of focus which, once complete, will offer flexible solutions to office accommodation and enable improved opportunities for inter-agency and third party collaborative working."

In 2016 SBC signed a £92 million contract which out-sourced its IT services to global business CGI, a deal which was later extended until 2040, costing the authority another £99 million. Part of the contract involved the development of an IT centre in Tweedbank at local authority expense where CGI staff, including those transferred from SBC would be housed.

Originally, it was announced that CGI would provide 200 well-paid jobs. But recruitment has been much slower than anticipated, and part of the new Tweedbank suite is now occupied by SBC's own Inspire Academy. 

Current CGI job adverts for their Borders centre offer applicants the opportunity to work in a "purpose-built, state-of-the-art office". 

Mr Curry's report explains that following the lockdown caused by the Covid pandemic, the Council has allowed those who are able to work in an "agile" way, either working from home or booking desks in Council offices if that is their preference, providing the option of hybrid working has assisted the Council in meeting a range of recruitment challenges in its central functions. 

"This flexibility is one of the key benefits employees are now looking for when looking for a new role and considering which organisations they wish to work for in an increasingly competitive labour market."

Mr Curry points out the vast majority of Council staff work in frontline roles, 4,168 Full Time Equivalent staff work in Schools, Social Work Centres, Care Homes, and other front line functions such as Care at Homes, Waste, Roads and Parks. These are critical, face to face client-focussed, locality specific services being provided to the public. The hybrid working policy applies to approximately 1,500 staff of whom approximately 400 were previously based in Council HQ.

"The vision is to reimagine HQ as a Civic Hub, to optimise use of the building, increasing occupancy and utilisation. This provides opportunities to support public and third sector partners by working more closely and collaboratively, pooling resources whilst also helping to share/ reduce operational costs and maximise investment that SBC have already committed. SBC is in active discussions with NHS Borders, Live Borders and Borders Community Action about co-location opportunities at HQ.  Preliminary, exploratory discussions have been arranged with Police Scotland and SFT [Scottish Futures Trust] about opportunities for co-location and greater collaborative working in the Scottish Borders."

The report also claims there is an opportunity to create community gardens and community food growing areas in and around the building so that HQ becomes more than just the administrative office for the neighbouring community.

"SBC and partners provide grant support to many local businesses, often these grants are used by businesses to help cover their building operating costs. There is an opportunity to create a business hub/ incubator space which could be enhanced by enabling direct access to officers and our partners to help support businesses as they emerge, grow and/ or sustain."

According to the report the ground floor of the main building and extension building has been arranged to provide bookable desk space and has been in use by a large number of staff since February 2022. The impact of the Hybrid Working policy is that there are a reduced number of staff working in HQ compared with pre-pandemic levels. Occupancy varies and is increasing but typically there are between 60-70 staff working at HQ each working day.

The first floor of the main building has been refurbished as a shell space and is intended to be completed to provide collaborative/ group working. 

"This will be particularly suited to colleagues who need to have drop-in sessions or for wider inter-disciplinary working. To complete this space ready for use some new furniture remains to be purchased for this area to make it suitable for the intended use. This will accommodate up to 77 staff plus 18 spaces in 3 meeting rooms. It is envisaged that this space could be made available to external organisations to generate an income and benefit from collaborative working. 

"NHS Borders have already relocated approximately 60 staff from the Learning Disability service from Earlston to HQ occupying space on the first floor of the extension building, generating a rental income for SBC. The remaining accommodation on the first floor will be retained for the Council’s Management Team without any investment."

The report says the first phase relocation of CGI to Tweedbank allowed a portion of their former accommodation to be remodelled in order to create a new Emergency Planning Control Centre and to co-locate the Communications Team to this area. 

"This has offered a fit for purpose space and facility that allows direct access to/ from the outside without the requirement to open the wider building. It has built-in audio visual capabilities that are significantly greater than the former windowless area housed in the Council HQ basement and known as “the Bunker”. This new facility which allows the co-location of emergency services and council staff during an incident or event requiring planning and co-ordination of a multi-agency response has received very positive feedback from partner agencies who have used it."

The proposed new vision will require additional estimated expenditure of £480,000 including £230,000 for a meeting/civic zone, and £150,000 for a training suite. In recent times over £2 million has been spent at HQ, principally on reception/canteen (£1.042 million) and office improvements (£848,000).