Adherence to the Welsh Government’s Collections Blueprint will require more training for frontline staff in participating councils, a Welsh Government-commissioned study into municipal waste sector employment has found.
The findings were published today (3 February) in a Welsh Government commissioned report into ‘employment in the municipal waste sector in Wales’ over the past 12 months.
Councils which have adopted the Welsh Blueprint for collections are facing increased staff training requirements
Drafted by the Welsh Local Government Association, the report highlights how waste services in Wales have ‘changed significantly’ with the sector supporting an estimated 4,423 full and part time employment opportunities.
Partners including CIWM, Local Government Data Unit, Cardiff University business school, Ricardo and Richard Thomas all contributed to the report.
In addition, the report suggests the municipal waste sector directly supported an estimated £465 million of output and £104 million of gross value added in 2015/16.
The report also claims that each £1 million of output in the sector supports a further £520,000 of output in other parts of the Welsh economy, while each municipal waste job supports a further 0.62 jobs as a result of ‘local purchasing of goods and services and spending of staff’.
Blueprint
However, Welsh councils responding to the survey have claimed that the sorting of collected materials at the kerbside – as recommended in the Welsh Collections Blueprint – means that additional training is required of frontline staff.
The Blueprint, which is backed by the Welsh Government, aims to encourage a single collection system across Wales’ 22 councils with weekly kerbside sort recycling and food waste rounds as well as the ‘use of modern resource recovery vehicles’ (see letsrecycle.com story).
According to the report, councils enforcing the Blueprint believe further training is required to ensure collection crews sort the materials more efficiently, as well as participating in engagement activity which ‘appears to occur more at the front line and therefore reduces the staffing for this activity at a more strategic level’.
Recruitment
General comments by all Welsh councils responding to the study found that the sector has an ‘aging workforce’ with authority budget cuts placing restrictions on recruitment and training of new staff.
The councils added that the lack of training is compounded by using agency staff, who are ‘generally trained to a lesser standard and have little or no experience’.
All responding authorities reported having used agency workers in the last 12 months, though they still only account for 5% of all full time employment posts.
“The workforce needs to have the skills to develop, promote and monitor efficient schemes for the collection and sorting of these materials.”
Welsh Local Government Association
Around a quarter of Welsh authorities reported having ‘no vacancies’ during the last 12 months – accounting for around 140 full time employment posts in the authorities that responded. Vacancies, the report adds, were being deliberately held open to avoid staffing issues following restructure ‘due either to austerity measures or to changes resulting from adhering to the Blueprint’.
Target
The report concludes: “In order to reach the recycling target of 70% by 2025 there must be a drive to separate more recyclable materials from the waste stream and maintain their quality to ensure a market. The workforce needs to have the skills to develop, promote and monitor efficient schemes for the collection and sorting of these materials.
“The provision of training on markets for recyclates is limited to one course that was set up by WRAP in 2000. There is a potential need here to develop more training for the industry, especially for workers in local authorities.”
The post ‘Training required’ for councils to meet Welsh Blueprint appeared first on letsrecycle.com.
Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
