ONGOING concerns about staff morale at Christchurch council were raised at a recent council meeting.

The Daily Echo published the results of Christchurch council’s staff survey in March, which revealed plummeting levels of staff morale and motivation.

The confidential report detailed a decline in job satisfaction, with staff at both Christchurch and East Dorset Partnership, less motivated, compared to 2010 and 2011.

At a full council meeting on Tuesday, Independent councillor Colin Bungey asked deputy leader Colin Jamieson for an update on what progress had been made.

He said: “Following the recent staff survey that made uncomfortable and worrying reading for most members, we were assured that action would be taken to help resolve staff worries and issues that had been highlighted in the survey.

“Is the Deputy Leader able to bring members up to date on what progress if any has been made?”

Cllr Jamieson responded: “Feedback from staff is an important tool in ensuring the effectiveness and efficiency of our diverse organisation. It is right that we undertook this survey to ascertain the feeling of our dedicated workforce.

“The survey, as you may expect, highlighted a number of issues and as a result action is being taken to address those associated challenges. In particular, an action plan for addressing the issues raised from our survey is now in place and progress is being made by, in particular, the change agents’ group that has been formed comprising of staff across the organisation.

“It is worthy of note that participants in the change agents’ group are enthusiastic about having the opportunity to participate in this process. With the work taking place, I am confident that we will be in a position to demonstrate a significant improvement when we next undertake our staff survey.”

Cllr Bungey asked when the next survey would be taking place as he could see ‘no actual improvement in staff morale or anything else’.

He was told it would be at an ‘appropriate time’.