One in 10 of DCC vacancies are for ‘hybrid’ roles, two weeks after a Reform leader call for an end to working from home

Derbyshire County Council headquarters at County Hall in Matlock. Image from Eddie Bisknell.

By Eddie Bisknell – Local Democracy Reporting Service

One in 10 of the vacancies at the Reform-run Derbyshire County Council are for ‘hybrid’ roles, two weeks after Nigel Farage called for an end to working from home.

Mr Farage, national leader for Reform UK, said on his visit to Derbyshire weeks before the 2024 local elections that there would be “no more work from home”.

He had told supporters outside the Denby Lodge pub in Denby that Reform county councillors in Derbyshire, should they gain control, would be telling staff “you turn up, do your job or you are fired”.

Nearly a year into Reform’s administration at the county council more than 10 per cent (12.6 per cent) of current vacancies are listed as ‘hybrid’ – 24 roles out of 191 vacancies.

A number of these roles are for jobs which require visiting a number of locations across the county – such as for a social worker – which are prone to not be a typical office or desk job.

Plans from the former Conservative administration to turn the county council’s HQ, County Hall in Matlock, into a hotel, and to build a new HQ and homes in its grounds, are proceeding under Reform rule, with a decision expected from Derbyshire Dales District Council later this year.

If it proceeds, the 2,000 staff who are able to attend County Hall for work would have their office facilities replaced with a £34 million building with a capacity for 500 staff, restricting the number who can reduce their hybrid or home-working roles.

Cllr Stephen Reed, Reform’s county council cabinet member for business services, said the authority was actively working to increase in-person attendance, saying the administration had inherited an authority with a one day per week in-office policy.

He said: “I fully agree with the comments made by Nigel Farage on the importance of rebuilding an office-based public sector culture. Face-to-face teamwork and visible public service matter.

“At the same time, it is important to recognise the practical reality of running a large and diverse council.

“Many of our frontline services—including gritting, highways maintenance, social care visits and other operational work—simply cannot be done from behind a desk, and those staff are out every day delivering essential services to residents.

“When our team took over, we inherited a minimum benchmark for office attendance: just one day per week, or 46 days per year.

“This legacy arrangement has shaped our starting point and presents real challenges, especially given the limited capacity of our current office estate.

“Recognising these constraints, we are actively working to increase in-person attendance for office-based roles, and as we reconfigure our facilities, we will continue to move towards this goal.

“This transition is essential for rebuilding a strong office-based culture and ensuring uninterrupted service delivery to residents.“

Here are the 24 ‘hybrid’ job vacancies currently being advertised by the county council:

• Senior adult social care practitioner
• Social worker in the mental health hospital team
• Business analyst
• Services transition analyst
• Senior pensions assistant
• Senior development officer
• Social worker in the mental health team
• Data architect
• Executive support and governance administrator
• Principal data architect
• Principal security architect
• Senior safeguarding practitioner
• Health improvement practitioner
• Assistant director – strategic lead for Derbyshire’s integrated care and support services
• Social care practitioner
• Social worker
• Solution architect
• Senior practitioner in mental health team
• Senior engineer for asset management – flooding and drainage
• Health improvement advisor – healthier weight
• Senior engineer for delivery management – flooding and drainage
• Senior officer for organisational management
• Service development assistant for social connection
• Lawyer – commercial