Agenda and minutes

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The chair of the meeting has the discretion to terminate or suspend filming or recording, if in his or her opinion continuation of the filming, recording or reporting would disrupt or prejudice the proceedings, infringe the rights of any individual or may lead to the breach of a legal obligation by the Council.

The Chair referred to the notice of filming at meetings and this information was noted.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Dawn Barnes and Cressida Johnson.

Councillor Ibrahim Ali was present for Councillor Cressida Johnson.

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of Urgent Business. (Late items of Urgent Business will be considered under the agenda item where they appear. New items of Urgent Business will be dealt with under agenda item 9 below. New items of exempt Urgent Business will be dealt with at agenda item 12 below).

There were no items of urgent business.

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(i) must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest becomes apparent, and

(ii) may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter and must withdraw from the meeting room.

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Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal interests and prejudicial interests are defined at Paragraphs 5-7 and Appendix A of the Members’ Code of Conduct

There were no declarations of interest.

To consider any requests received in accordance with Part 4, Section B, paragraph 29 of the Council’s constitution.

There were no deputations / petitions / presentations / questions.

The report outlines the content of three HR policies:

·                    The Relocation Policy is new and is being introduced for the first time.

·                    The Capability Policy policy is a revision of existing Guidelines.

·                    There is an addition to the Annual Leave and Time Off Policy to make provision for Carers Leave.

Dan Paul, Chief People Officer, introduced the report as set in the agenda pack.

Relocation policy:

In response to questions from the Committee it was noted that:

• The policy involved new staff who would relocate from other parts of the country, or from another country.
• There were limits to the distance somebody could relocate to. Relocations needed to be within 35 miles from the Haringey offices in order to be eligible for relocation assistance.
• Only certain roles were eligible for this type of offer.
• This policy was applicable for new appointees. This would not be applied for existing staff working remotely.
• The policy would not apply for school-based employees. However, schools were free to adopt the policy. Following approval, this policy would be shared via the school’s forum, and the school could make their own decisions on their own employment policies.

Capability Policy:

In response to questions from the Committee it was noted that:

• Appeals against dismissal would be heard by a member panel, comprising of 2 Labour Members and 1 Liberal Democrat Member, from a pool of trained Members.
• The Dismissal Appeal Panel was for members of staff to appeal against dismissals. The Disciplinary, Grievance and Dismissal Panel was set up to deal with disciplinaries, grievances and dismissals of Deputy Chief Officers and Chief Officers.
• Cllr Adje suggested the following amendments to the policy:

1.    Section 9.5 to be clearer.

2.    Add a subheading for paragraph 21 to make the context clearer and easier to understand.

3.    The Chair should be consulted after the suggested amendments to the policy were made.

Annual leave and time off policy:

In response to questions from the Committee it was noted that:

• Staff could be dismissed while on annual leave.
• The updated policy would be published as this was an enhancement to the existing policy.

RESOLVED

To approve each of the attached policies, and delegates authority to the Chief People Officer to make such amendments as considered minor.

The People Report is designed to give officers and members relevant workforce data in an easy to understand format in order to support informed strategic decision making.

Dan Paul, Chief People Officer, introduced the report as set out.

In response to questions from the Committee it was noted that:

• Recruitment was difficult now and there were jobs that have been hard to recruit into for a long time.
• There were jobs that were becoming harder to recruit to on a permanent basis and the number of agency workers had increased.
• Agency workers were recruited for a variety of reasons including:

1.    Recruited into a role for specific or specialist skills.

2.    To fill temporary gaps.

3.     For projects that were not expected to continue for a long time.

• The numbers in the people report in section 6.1.5, were a mixture of people who were new employees on apprentice contracts, and existing employees who were increasing their skills through undertaking an apprentice levy funded qualification.
• There were a lot of people within the Council taking Apprentice Levy funded courses. There was work in progress with the regeneration team to look at transferring some of the levy to small and medium sized enterprises based in Haringey in order to upscale workforces, so there would also be a benefit to the Council and the wider community.
• Most apprentices moved into jobs either within the Council or elsewhere when their apprenticeship was completed.

• The Committee requested further information on the numbers of Haringey residents and non-residents in apprentice schemes. It was felt that this information could help to improve the programme. Dan Paul advised that a summary of the data would be produced on an annual basis.
• The apprenticeship programme was advertised on the Council's website, the internet and through appropriate local media. This was decided between the manager and the recruitment team. Information on the programme was also available through the job centre.

• Human Resources also worked closely with Haringey Works to source local employees.

RESOLVED

The Report is for information and for the Committee to note.

To provide the General Purposes Committee with a forward plan outlining the HR policies to be brought to Committee in the 2023 /24 municipal year

Dan Paul, Chief People Officer, introduced the report as set out.

• In response to questions from the Committee, it was noted that Appendix 2 provided the progress so far.

• It was difficult to move the order of the plan due to work processes and scheduling, as certain items must be taken at certain times of the year. However, where possible, policies would be brought forward in the meeting cycle.

RESOLVED

That the report be noted by the Committee

There were no new items of urgent business.

3 October 2023

8 January 2024

8 February 2024

3 October 2023

Item 12 is likely to be subject to a motion to exclude the press and public from the meeting as they contain exempt information as defined in Section 100a of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended by Section 12A of the Local Government Act 1985); paragraph 1-7

Not applicable as there were no items of exempt business to discuss.

There were no new items of exempt urgent business.