Agenda and minutes

Please note that this meeting may be filmed or recorded by the Council for live or subsequent broadcast via the Council’s internet site or by anyone attending the meeting using any communication method. Although we ask members of the public recording, filming or reporting on the meeting not to include the public seating areas, members of the public attending the meeting should be aware that we cannot guarantee that they will not be filmed or recorded by others attending the meeting. Members of the public participating in the meeting (e.g. making deputations, asking questions, making oral protests) should be aware that they are likely to be filmed, recorded or reported on.  By entering the meeting room and using the public seating area, you are consenting to being filmed and to the possible use of those images and sound recordings.

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 Members present to agenda Item 1 as shown on the agenda in respect of filming at this meeting, and Members noted the information contained therein’.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Arthur and Cllr Berryman.

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 12 below).

There were no new items of urgent business. Appendices C and D to agenda item 7 had been circulated prior to the meeting as late business to be considered under that agenda item. The reason for the lateness of these documents was to enable feedback from senior managers to be incorporated, and the reason for urgency was that delay of this report to the subsequent meeting of the Committee would have resulted in the delay of the implementation of the senior managers pay and grading arrangement.

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 such items.

To confirm and sign the minutes of the meetings held on 14 December 2015 and on 16 December 2014.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meetings held on 14 December 2015 and the 16 December 2014 be approved and signed by the Chair.

Report of the Chief Executive and Head of Paid Service to advise the Committee of the implementation of the new Senior Managers’ Pay and Grading arrangements and in particular the actions taken by the Chief Executive in addressing the anomalies encountered when confirming or appointing individuals in position and for the Committee to approve the parameters for the conduct of the Senior Manager Pay Review for 2016, the senior manager contract of employment and the Chief Executive’s contract of employment to take effect from 1 April 2016.

Appendices C and D – to follow.

The Committee considered the report on the implementation of new senior pay and grading arrangements, including pay review and employment contract, presented by Ian Morgan, Reward Strategy Manager. Mr Morgan outlined to the Committee the content of each of the appendices to the report, comprising details of the implementation of senior managers’ pay and grading arrangements, conduct of the senior managers’ pay review for 2016, final senior manager contract, final Chief Executive contract and equalities impact assessment. In respect of the pay review exercise for 2016, it was proposed that a flat 1% increase on senior manager pay be budgeted for, the pay review to take place in April 2016 with a supplementary pay review in October 2016 for those starting later in the year.

In response to a question from the Committee, Mr Morgan advised that the new arrangements were in line with the national position. The Committee also asked about the equalities impact assessment and whether there were any significant issues arising from this. Mr Morgan advised that it would be when the pay review itself was conducted that any issues requiring consideration by the Committee were more likely to arise.

RESOLVED

That the Committee:

i)             Note the outcome of the implementation of the new Senior Managers’ Pay and Grading arrangements detailed in Appendix A and in particular the actions taken by the Chief Executive in addressing the anomalies encountered when confirming or appointing individuals in position.

ii)            Approve the parameters for the conduct of the Senior Manager Pay Review for 2016 as outlined in Appendix B.

iii)           Approve the Senior Manager contract of employment set out in Appendix C, to be issued to all senior managers apart from the Chief Executive to take effect from 1^st April 2016.

iv)           Approve the Chief Executive’s contract of employment set out in Appendix D, to be issued to the Chief Executive to take effect from 1^st April 2016.

Report of the Assistant Director, Human Resources, for the Committee to approve an update to the Council’s Pay Policy Statement for publication in April 2016.

The Committee considered the report on the Pay Policy Statement 2016-17, introduced by Ian Morgan, Reward Strategy Manager. Mr Morgan advised the Committee that the Council approved its last Pay Policy Statement in March 2015, and that the Pay Policy Statement appended to the report was an updated version for publication in April 2016, subject to approval by Full Council in March 2016.

The Committee asked whether the trade unions had been consulted on the updated Pay Policy Statement, in response to which Mr Morgan advised that discussions had been held with the trade unions and there were no issues arising from this. It was noted that the main content of the Pay Policy Statement remained broadly the same as previously, with the exception of the new arrangements relating to Senior Manager Pay.

RESOLVED

i)             That the Committee approve the draft Pay Policy Statement 2016/17, attached at Appendix A, on the assumptions that:

a)    The Committee has approved at its meeting on 26^th January 2016 final versions of employment contracts to be issued to the Chief Executive and to other Chief Officers / Senior Managers, to take effect from 1^st April 2016, such contracts containing a clause that there are no collective agreements relating to the terms and conditions of the employee’s employment with the Council; and

b)    That by 1^st April 2016 all the Chief Officers and Senior Managers whose current contracts incorporate a collective agreement or collective agreements have accepted them.

ii)            If either assumption a) or b) above proves to be incorrect then the Assistant Director of Human Resources is authorised in consultation with the Chair of the Committee to make such amendments to the Pay Policy Statement as she considers appropriate to reflect the correct factual position.

iii)           The Assistant Director of Human Resources is also authorised in consultation with the Chair of the Committee to make such amendments to the Pay Policy Statement as she considers minor.

iv)           That the Committee remits the Pay Policy Statement (as amended if applicable) for endorsement by Full Council on 17^th March 2016.  

Report of the Assistant Director, Human Resources and Shared Services, to provide the Committee with a progress update on the Shared Business Support Review.

The Committee considered the report and presentation on Shared Business Support, introduced by Tracie Evans, Chief Operating Officer, and presented by Caroline Humphrey, Head of Shared Business Support. The presentation to the Committee covered the organisational context to the project to set up a new shared business service, best practice, feedback from other authorities, progress to date, the activities covered by business support, target operating model and design principles, benefits and next steps.

In response to a question from the Committee regarding the implications for Councillors, Ms Humphrey advised that Member support work was within the scope of the project and was therefore one of the areas that was being looked at with an aim to identifying the best way of delivering the support required.

The Committee asked for more information on areas of work that the Council might no longer do, as this had been identified in the presentation as an important issue to consider. Producing paper copies of document was identified as an example of something that the organisation could cease to do; the Chief Operating Officer noted that there needed to be an initial identification of areas of activity that it might be possible to cease, and that the practical implications and whether it was in fact possible to cease any of these would then be reviewed. With regard to the example of ceasing to produce paper copies of reports and other documents, Members noted that issues such as IT confidence would have an impact on whether this was deliverable and that there would be a need to facilitate, for example, improvements in IT literacy before there could be any reliance on documentation in electronic form. The Chief Operating Officer noted that IT literacy had been identified as a general area for improvement throughout the Council, including both officers and Members, and that there was therefore a range of issues to address including the provision of good, easy to use IT, identifying training needs and delivering appropriate training and facilitating culture change.

Minute-taking was also identified as an example of business support activity to be reviewed – analysis needed to be undertaken of what meetings needed to be minuted and the level of minutes required for each type of meeting, and different options and possible technology solutions that might support this area of activity would then be considered, along with the practical implications of these.

In response to a question from the Committee regarding examples of functional admin, as covered in the section of the presentation on how the new model might work in practice, it was noted that the model was still in the process of being designed in order to deliver support functions in the most efficient way.

Ms Humphrey advised that it was anticipated that a target operating model would have been identified by the end of March 2016, with a projected launch in October or November 2016, with quick wins identified and delivered sooner. The Committee noted the importance of getting this work  ...  view the full minutes text for item 146.

Report of the Assistant Director, Human Resources, to inform the Staffing and Remuneration Committee of the reports detailed on the Forward Plan until the end of the municipal year.

The Committee considered the report on the forward plan for the Staffing and Remuneration Committee to March 2016, presented by Daksha Desai, Head of Workforce Programme.

In addition to the reports set out in the forward plan appended to the report, it was noted that the update on the Shared Business Support programme needed to be added to the plan for one of the meetings before October 2016 and that there would also be reports arising from the implementation of the new senior pay and grading arrangements throughout the year as this work progressed.

RESOLVED

That the content of the report be noted.  

Report of the Assistant Director, Human Resources and SSC, to provide the Staffing and Remuneration Committee with a progress report which will include achievements to date, planned activities for the next quarter, and draft proposals for year two.

The Committee considered the report and presentation on the Workforce Plan, summary of Year One achievements and proposals for Year Two, as presented by Daksha Desai, Head of Workforce Programme. The presentation gave an introduction to the workforce plan, a review of year 1 deliverables, outputs delivered since April 2015, progress against each of the work stream areas, plans for the remainder of year 1 and thoughts about years 2 and 3, and early learning points and challenges.

The Committee asked about My Conversation and whether all staff fully understood  this process; Ms Desai advised that the matrix had been trialled in four services since October and that there were challenges for the organisation in adopting the new process, as this was a completely new way of doing things. Some of the conversations arising out of the assessment of individuals in respect of certain behaviours had the potential to be very challenging and managers would require support from HR to do this. It was noted, however, that this work was needed in order to achieve the culture change that was required.

The Committee expressed concern that at the moment not all staff understood why change was needed and the vision for the future direction of the organisation, and asked what work was being done to convey to everyone where the organisation was aiming to get to and why. Ms Desai agreed that there was a need for further work to engage the whole workforce around these issues and that this would be the key focus of work for the next 18 month period. It was noted that it was essential that all staff understood what was happening and that previous reliance on information being cascaded down from managers had been proven to be ineffective. The data from the staff survey would be used to target those areas of the organisation where greater engagement was needed and the most effective means of reaching people, as a one size fits all approach would not work. Staff induction would also be used to support this. The Committee emphasised that it would only be possible to deliver what the workforce plan aimed to deliver if everyone fully understood the vision for the organisation and how it was going to get to that point.

The Committee noted that there was a particular challenge in engaging with those staff who did not work in one of the central Council buildings, such as frontline staff working in children’s centres, parks, etc. These staff could feel quite isolated from the corporate centre due to the physical distance from the rest of the organisation and because they often had a reduced capacity to attend meetings or respond to consultation emails, etc, due to the requirements of service delivery. Ms Desai agreed that there was a need to make a particular effort to enable frontline staff to participate in events during their working hours and that this covered things like making arrangements to allow staff to take time to attend  ...  view the full minutes text for item 148.

To consider any new items of urgent business admitted by the Chair under agenda item 3 above.

There were no new items of urgent business.

The meeting closed at 8.40pm.