Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr David Jenkins and Cllr Baroness Scott of Bybrook OBE (who was substituted by Cllr Mike Hewitt).

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 1 March 2017.      (Copy attached)

Resolved:

To confirm and sign as a correct record the minutes of the previous meeting held on 1 March 2017.

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

There were no declarations of interest made at the meeting.

The Chairman made the following announcement:-

# EPIC impressions launch  The Chairman was pleased to announce that this new initiative had been launched that day with stands in the atriums of all three hubs, with members of the #EPIC team on hand to show staff how to send an impression.

Staff would now be able to thank colleagues and highlight their hard work by sending them an EPIC impression via grow.

EPIC impressions was a quick way to send thank you or well done messages to colleagues which would then appear on their grow profiles and could also be added to their annual appraisal form.

Further information and guidance about leaving EPIC impressions, was available at EPIC impressions workspace on grow.

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 Wednesday 28 June 2017 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 Friday 30 June 2017. 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 were no members of the public present or councillors’ questions.

The Committee is asked to:

(i)         agree the size, and

(ii)        appoint the members and substitute members (up to four for each Party Political Group) to each of the following Sub-Committees:

(a)       Senior Officers’ Employment Sub-Committee – previous members being Cllr Allison Bucknell, Cllr Bob Jones MBE & Cllr Stuart Wheeler.

(Substitute Members: Cllr Desna Allen, Cllr Fleur de Rhe-Philipe, Cllr Mike  Hewitt, Cllr David Jenkins, Cllr John Smale, Cllr Tony Trotman.)

(b)       Appeals Sub-Committee – previous members being Cllr Allison Bucknell, Cllr David Jenkins & Cllr Stuart Wheeler.

(Substitute Members: Cllr Fleur de Rhe-Philipe, Cllr Mike Hewitt, Cllr John Hubbard, Cllr Gordon King, Cllr Bill Moss, Cllr Mark Packard & Cllr Ian Thorn.)

(c)        Grievance Appeals Sub-Committee – previous members being Cllr Allison Bucknell, Cllr Mike Hewitt & Cllr Gordon King.

(Substitute Members: Cllr Peter Evans, Cllr Jon Hubbard, Cllr David Jenkins, Cllr Bill Moss, Cllr Mark Packard, Cllr Ian Thorn & Cllr Tony Trotman.)          

Under Paragraph 2.4.1 of Part 3 of the Council’s Constitution, it is a requirement that at least one member of the Senior Officers’ Employment Sub-Committee should be a member of the Cabinet when it discharges its function to dismiss and take disciplinary action against certain categories of officer in accordance with the officer employment procedure rules.  Accordingly, it is recommended that a second Cabinet member be appointed to this Sub-Committee either as a member or as a substitute member.

To appoint members to serve on the sub-committees of this Committee

for the ensuing year as set out below:-

(a)      Senior Officers Employment Sub-Committee

Cllr Allison Bucknell, Cllr Richard Clewer & Cllr Hayley Spencer.

(Substitute Members: Cllr Jon Hubbard, Cllr David Jenkins, Cllr Bob Jones MBE, Cllr Andy Phillips, Cllr Fleur de Rhe-Philipe, Cllr Baroness Scott of Bybrook OBE, Cllr Ian Thorn & Cllr Tony Trotman.)

(b)     Appeals Sub-Committee

Cllr Allison Bucknell, Cllr Richard Clewer & Cllr David Jenkins.

(Substitute Members: Cllr Mike Hewitt, Cllr Jon Hubbard, Cllr Gordon King, Cllr Fleur de Rhe-Philipe, Cllr Baroness Scott of Bybrook OBE, Cllr Hayley Spencer, Cllr Ian Thorn & Cllr Tony Trotman.)

(c)     Grievance Appeals Sub-Committee

Cllr Allison Bucknell, Cllr Tony Jackson & Cllr Hayley Spencer.

(Substitute Members: Cllr Peter Evans, Cllr David Halik, Cllr Jon Hubbard, Cllr David Jenkins, Cllr Gordon King, Cllr Andy Phillips, Cllr Ian Thorn & Cllr Tony Trotman.)

A report by the Associate Director, People & Business is attached.

The Committee considered a report by the Associate Director, People & Business which set out a new professional qualification learning loans policy and procedure to enable employees to access an interest-free learning loan to undertake a professional qualification that supported their career aspirations and development.

It was explained that this proposed new policy and procedure aimed to support employees who would be required to self-fund the cost of a qualification and may not have the means to pay all of the cost of the course upfront.  With the current budget constraints placed on service areas, this would enable employees to invest in their own development with support from the Council and still enable them to continue to gain qualifications and develop their career.

It was noted that the policy would require a short term outlay of funds from the Council to pay course providers but this would be recouped from an employee’s salary over the duration of the course. Should the employee leave and the Council was unable to recoup the loan, the outstanding amount would be invoiced to the employee. If the outstanding amount could not be recovered, then it would be charged to the service area budget.

After some discussion,

Resolved:

To approve the proposed Professional Qualification Learning Loans Policy and Procedure.

A report by the Associate Director, People & Business is attached.

The Committee received a workforce report, excluding fire, police and school staff, for the quarter ended 31 March 2017.

It was explained that this was a new format for the existing quarterly workforce report which aimed to raise awareness of the size and makeup of the workforce and of the issues that affected it.  When appropriate it would provide the opportunity to explore and discuss issues identified from analysis of the data arising from workforce transactions.

It was noted that the first section of the new report would provide key observations from the data that had been analysed for the quarter. This would be followed by a themed commentary which would provide a deeper analysis and insight into a specific topic that was current for the Council. The indicators at the end of the report would give an instant view of selected trends over the last year to see the wider picture of what was changing in the workforce. It was proposed that the following key themes be chosen when the most relevant and applicable:-

·         Sickness absence

·         Employee turnover

·         Resourcing and recruitment

·         Employee costings

·         Apprentices

·         Employee engagement

·         Under 25s/demographics

·         Agency

Attention was drawn to sickness absence during this quarter where it was noticed that 9,472 days were lost.  Over the previous four financial years on average there had been a 6% increase in absence days in this quarter due to seasonal factors. The highest absence across the council directorates continued to be in Waste and Environment where work was being carried out to establish reasons for this and if there were any preventive measures which could be undertaken.

Members enquired if there were any comparator statistics available from other local authorities from which this council could compare sickness rates especially in Waste and Environment.  It was explained that such benchmarking figures were not available as a significant number of councils outsourced these services. However, Members did wonder how the level of sickness affected service delivery but were pleased to note that the depots were being visited by health & safety and occupational health officers to help ascertain the causes of these problems.  It was also noted that workshops on mental health issues were being provided for managers.

The Chairman, on behalf of the Committee, thanked the officers for the new and helpful format for the quarterly workforce reports and asked Members to let her have details of any further changes or additional information they would like to see included which she would pass on to the officers.  

Resolved:

To note the contents of the report.     

To note that the next scheduled meeting of the Committee is due to be held on Wednesday 6 September 2017 at County Hall, Trowbridge, starting at 10.30am.

Resolved:

To note that the next scheduled meeting of the Committee was due to be held on Wednesday 6 September 2017 at County Hall, Trowbridge starting at 2.00pm, to be preceded by a further training session on staff engagement and workforce development starting at 1.00pm for all Members and substitute Members of this Committee.

There were no items of urgent business.