the UK or Europe to learn from at the time. So
it worked with the local branch of national
charity Women’s Aid.
“It’s not really about just putting a policy in
place – anybody can do that – it’s about the
implementation. So we linked in with South
Ayrshire Women’s Aid in developing it and in
developing guidance for managers,” explains
Gillian Farrell, service lead for organisational
development and customer services at the
council. “We wanted to make sure that
anything we were putting in was guidance
they’d approve of because they’re the experts.”
Once all of this research and initial work was
done the proposals were voted through by the
council’s leadership panel in February.
South Ayrshire Women’s Aid then came in
and trained the council’s HR team, its
equality champions and its managers. It
also produced videos and e-learning
content, such as a gender-based violence
course. These are available to all
employees on the staff intranet.
“We’re hoping if you’re an employee
and you’re working alongside a team
member you will now be able to recognise
signs of abuse that you can raise in
confidence,” says Farrell.
The policy allows all employees 10 days
of paid time off, which they can take in a
block or in chunks depending on what best
suits their circumstances. This ‘Safe Leave’
doesn’t come out of their annual leave
allowance. It can be used for anything,
including attending counselling, medical
appointments or legal proceedings, moving
house or reorganising childcare.
The leave is the flagship part of the policy,
but the aim is for the council to work with
individuals to provide a range of support.
“Every situation is different so it may be that
we change their pay arrangements; sometimes
it could be moving them to a different work
location, or changing their direct dial phone
number if they have one,” Farrell says.
“We can make referrals to
Women’s Aid and give people
time away during working hours.
We can even take them, so that
they can speak to an adviser and
their partner would have no idea
they had done that.”
The result
The policy, training and
supporting materials have been
well received by managers and
Case study Operational efficiency
The support may encourage more to come forward
employees, Farrell reports. Managers now feel
more confident having conversations about
domestic abuse as they can offer concrete
support, backed by the organisation.
Being so open about the topic may also
encourage more people to come forward, feels
Farrell. “Just knowing that support is there I
think people are more likely to disclose that
there’s an issue. I don’t think there’s anything
that’s a silver bullet as it’s a really complex area
and people are psychologically ground down
by it. But just having it there is really
meaningful,” she says.
One manager who received a Safe Leave
request says: “I recently became aware that a
member of my team was experiencing issues at
home. The Safe Leave awareness and training
made me feel more confident about speaking
to her about her situation and it really helped
that I could offer Safe Leave. She was really
appreciative of the support and it gave
her one less thing to worry about at such a
difficult time.”
Measuring the policy’s effectiveness is
difficult because everything is confidential,
so conversations between a manager and
employee may not make it as far as HR. But so
far there have been two recorded cases of
individuals taking the Safe Leave. In February
2020 the council plans to take stock of how else
it can promote the policy to its workforce.
Other councils and public sector
organisations have approached
South Ayrshire to learn from its
journey, and Farrell is happy that
more are showing interest. “It’s
something we’re really proud of
as an organisation, especially
when you sit with people who
have experienced domestic abuse
and they’re saying ‘if only I’d had
this when it was happening to
me’. It’s the right thing to do;
that’s the crux of the matter.” HR
Fact file
Locations
253
Number in HR
Nine
Number of employees
5,116 (4,339 full time)
Annual budget
£261.1 million
was developed in conjunction with Women’s Aid
support is organised on a case-by-case basis
hrmagazine.co.uk November 2019 HR 47
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