Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Cllr Ashley O’Neill and Cllr Ricky Rogers.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 9 March 2022       (Copy attached)

Decision

·         That the minutes of the Staffing Policy Committee meeting held on Wednesday 9 March 2022 were confirmed as the correct record.

It was noted that the proposed SPC Sub-Committees agreed at the March 2022 Staffing Policy Committee meeting should have read as:

Senior Officers Employment Sub Committee

Cllr Stuart Wheeler, Cllr Richard Clewer, Cllr Helen Belcher                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Substitutes: Cllr Allison Bucknell, Cllr Carole King, Cllr Jacqui Lay, Cllr Ashley O’Neill, Cllr Antonio Piazza, Cllr Ricky Rogers

Appeals Sub-Committee

Cllr Stuart Wheeler, Cllr Richard Clewer, Cllr Carole King

Substitutes: Cllr Allison Bucknell, Cllr Helen Belcher, Cllr Jacqui Lay, Cllr Ashley O’Neill, Cllr Antonio Piazza, Cllr Ricky Rogers

Grievance Appeals Sub- Committee

Cllr Stuart Wheeler, Cllr Allison Bucknell, Cllr Carole King

Substitutes: Cllr Helen Belcher, Cllr Richard Clewer, Cllr Ashley O’Neill,

Cllr Jacqui Lay, Cllr Antonio Piazza, Cllr Ricky Rogers

To receive any declarations of disclosable interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no Chairman's Announcements.

The Council welcomes contributions from members of the public.

Statements

If you would like to make a statement at this meeting on any item on this agenda, please register to do so at least 10 minutes prior to the meeting. Up to 3 speakers are permitted to speak for up to 3 minutes each on any agenda item. Please contact the officer named on the front of the agenda for any further clarification.

Questions

To receive any questions from members of the public or members of the Council received in accordance with the constitution.

Those wishing to ask questions are required to give notice of any such questions in writing to the officer named on the front of this agenda no later than 5pm on (4 clear working days, e.g. Wednesday of week before a Wednesday meeting) in order to be guaranteed of a written response. In order to receive a verbal response questions must be submitted no later than 5pm on (2 clear working days, eg Friday of week before a Wednesday meeting). Please contact the officer named on the front of this agenda for further advice. Questions may be asked without notice if the Chairman decides that the matter is urgent.

Details of any questions received will be circulated to Committee members prior to the meeting and made available at the meeting and on the Council’s website.

There was no Public Participation.

Tamsin Kielb - Assistant Director, HR&OD

Tamsin Kielb - Assistant Director, HR & OD outlined the report.

Points made included:

That the purpose of the report was to update Staffing Policy Committee on the policy updates for the Overtime Policy.

That Since December 2021 the council had been in negotiations with its recognised Trade Unions (UNISON, Unite the Union and GMB) on proposed changes to terms and conditions. 

That the changes aimed to deliver savings of £2.1m as part of an overall savings target of £10.1m that needed to be found from staffing budgets over the next 2 years. 

That the proposed changes to the overtime policy had recently been approved following Trade Union negotiations and subsequent consultation with members. The proposals had now been included in an updated overtime policy.

That there would be savings to the councils’ wage bill in relation to overtime and additional hours.

That overtime and additional hours were primarily claimed by frontline related services.

That the council would monitor time being taken off as “Time in Lieu” to ensure the services were covered effectively.

Decision

• That the Staffing Policy Committee confirm their agreement to the update to the overtime policy with a proposed implementation date of 1 June 2022.

Michael Taylor - Workforce Insight Analyst strategic, HR & OD

Tamsin Kielb - Assistant Director, HR & OD outlined the report.

Points made included:

That during this quarter the ‘living with COVID-19’ guidance was introduced, which detailed the government’s plan for removing the remaining legal restrictions. Wiltshire Council buildings were also fully re-opened to all staff, however operating in line with our new ways of working. Utilising the new desk booking app integrated in Microsoft Teams, staff were able to book a desk in their allocated area with additional functionality to view which colleagues were in on the same day and on which desks, to enable interaction and collaboration and support wellbeing.

The impact of the Omicron variant was outlined in the previous October – December report with cases steadily increasing towards the end of the quarter; resulting in all adults being offered a booster jab to help mitigate the risks.

The spread of Omicron, and this increasing trend, continued into the January – March 22 quarter, with cases peaking in early January and experiencing another increasing trend in March, this trend broadly followed the national trend during the same period.

As mentioned in the report, cases of the Omicron variant continued to increase during the January – March 22 quarter, in line with a national trend. This resulted in absences related to COVID-19 increasing by 87% during the quarter and contributing the second highest number of absence days corporately (21% of all absence days lost). However despite this, COVID-19 never affected more than 1.7% of the workforce at any one time in the quarter.

During the same period, the ONS reported estimates of a high of 7.6% of the population testing positive for COVID-19 (an average of 5.3% during the period), meaning the council rates were significantly lower than national rates during the period and suggested the continued efforts to safeguard council staff had made an impact.

Over this quarter, employee costs (both permanent and casual) had increased, despite a reduction in headcount. This was due to the national pay award of 1.75% (and 2.75% for those on spinal point 1 of grade B) across all NJC (grades B – O) and HAY grades and backdated to April 2021. The council were likely to experience a slight reduction in salary costs next quarter (April – June 22) as the costs in this quarter were inflated by the additional cost to backdate to April 2021.

The pay award had also impacted casual costs. However casual costs were also driven by demand, which also appeared to have influenced casual costs this quarter, particularly in Leisure. Casuals were used effectively in this service to cover lost capacity through things like sickness, self isolation, leavers and annual leave and had likely led to this slight increase.

Significantly, agency costs had reduced, predominantly due to making a senior role covered through agency in Finance, permanent.

Disciplinary cases had increased corporately by 9 this quarter, predominantly due to six new cases in Families and Children’s Services, this was split across the directorate and not from  ...  view the full minutes text for item 50.

·         Wednesday 13 July 2022 – 10:30am, Kennet Room, County Hall

·         Wednesday 14 September 2022 – 10:30am, Kennet Room, County Hall

·         Wednesday 9 November 2022 – 10:30am, Kennet Room, County Hall

The future meeting dates for 2022 were noted:

·         Wednesday 13 July 2022 – 10:30am, Kennet Room, County Hall

·         Wednesday 14 September 2022 – 10:30am, Kennet Room, County Hall

·         Wednesday 9 November 2022 – 10:30am, Kennet Room, County Hall

There were no urgent items.