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 Elliot 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 unrestricted Urgent Business will be dealt with under agenda item 15 below, new items of exempt urgent business will be dealt with under agenda item 18 below).

There were no new items of urgent business.

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 meeting held on 26 January 2016.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meetings held on 26 January 2016 be approved and signed by the Chair.

Verbal update from Martin Reddington.  

The Committee noted that Martin Reddington was due to attend the Committee to feed back on the initial findings from the Staff Survey, however officers advised that the findings were not yet available and advised that an update would be brought to a future Committee instead. Daksha Desai, Head of Workforce Programme, gave a verbal update to the committee on the Staff Survey and its current progress. 

In response to a question from the Committee, Ms Desai advised that Staff Survey would include a breakdown of results by several factors including ethnicity. The Chair requested that in addition to breaking results down by ethnicity that the report explored the reasons behind why one group of people might be more susceptible to management action than another. Officers agreed to feed back this request to Martin Reddington and for it to be included in the report to June Committee. 

Action: Daksha Desai

The Chair commented that the Committee could explore the factors behind why one demographic might be more susceptible to management action than another in more detail as a future agenda item.

The Committee also requested that that the report looked at how grievances were dealt with across particular groups and, for instance, what the determining factors were in similar situations where the issue did not escalate into a full blown grievance. Officers agreed to look at a further piece of work around disciplinaries and grievances, bringing back some different data sets. Officers advised that it may be most appropriate to pick this up as part of the equality and inclusion piece of work and that the staff results could provide signposting for correlating factors such as high levels of absence.

Action: Carole Engwell/Daksha Desai

Cllr Arthur requested a that breakdown of response rates to the Staff Survey by service area be presented to the Committee and that AD’s with low response rates were invited to a future committee to explain the reasons behind a low return rate.

Action: Daksha Desai

RESOLVED

i)     That a report outlining the initial findings from the Staff Survey be deferred to the June Committee.

Report of the Assistant Director, Environmental Services and Community Safety, to present a new Staff Parking Policy and Procedure aimed at staff utilising staff Council office car parks. The policy clarifies the eligibility criteria and priorities for allocation of spaces.

Jacquie McGeachie, AD Transformation & Resources introduced the report on the Staff Car Parking Policy and Procedure. The Committee were advised that since the report had been published on 21^st March, a number of queries had been raised by the trade unions. The AD Transformation & Resources proposed that the report would be brought back to the following meeting of the Committee in order to give officers adequate time to consider the representations made by trade union colleagues. It was also proposed that the report would come back with a full EQIA undertaken in order to consider concerns around treatment of staff with temporary disabilities. The Committee were invited to feedback any comments on the policy in its current format. 

The Committee enquired about allocated spaces for elected Members, as it was felt that Members had difficulty accessing their space particularly in and around River Park House. In response Brenda Brown, FM Services Manager advised that officers were aware of the frustrations felt by Members and were working with users and the Council’s contractors to ensure that spaces were correctly allocated and enforced. The Committee advised that the problem seemed to be getting more acute in recent months and urged officers to try and ensure that the spaces allocated to Members were available, as Members were often required to drive to meetings because of other time commitments. 

Action: Brenda Brown

The Committee considered the use of Oyster Cards and the Chair commented that a number of other boroughs issued their staff with allocated Oyster Cards for work purposes. The Committee requested that the report consider other ways of making staff mobile around the borough that did not extend to using their cars. Officers responded that the current policy made reference to Essential Parking Permits or Oyster Cards being allocated. The Chair urged that in most cases staff should be encouraged to use public transport and proposed that some further consideration should be given to the issue.

Action: Brenda Brown

The committee also enquired whether the Council provided staff with season ticket loans for Oyster Cards. Officers confirmed that the Council did offer season ticket loans. Officers also confirmed that the policy related to all car parks attached to its office locations but that a list of the car parks not included in the review was listed in page 13 of the agenda pack. The Committee enquired whether there should be a differentiation between those that lived inside and those outside of London. Officers responded that they would look at referring to this in the policy and that any undue impact should be picked up as part of the EQIA.

Action: Brenda Brown

Report of the Assistant Director, Human Resources, to provide the Committee with data regarding the workforce including non-employed workers, sickness absence and equalities data for the period October to December 2015. 

Carole Engwell, Quality Assurance Manager, introduced the report on Shared People Management which provided the Committee with workforce data including non-employed workers, sickness absence and equalities data for the period October to December 2015. The Committee considered the headlines from the report, including a reduction in the number of consultants. The Committee was also advised that the gross quarterly spend had increased over quarter 3 but this was largely as a result of how the spend was calculated over quarter 2, as it was project as a year end figure as appose to an average over 200 days as usual. The Committee noted that although numbers of agency staff had been on a general downward trend, agency spend had remained stable over the course of January-December 2015 at around £1.4m per month. The main reason for the increased cost in relation to lower numbers of agency staff was an increase in hourly rates of around 7% over the year, especially for social workers were there was an increased demand across the market for experienced social workers.

In response to a question from the Committee regarding why the level of agency spend was so high in Environmental Services, Ms McGeachie advised that HR would ask the relevant Assistant Director to feed back on the reasons for the high level of agency spend and would respond back the Committee at the next meeting.

Action: Carole Engwell

Officers advised the Committee that staff numbers were reduced by 78.7 FTE over quarter 3, with the total number of staff at 2301 FTE at the end of December 2015. This represented at reduction of 160 FTE since April 2015. The MTFS identified a reduction of 235 by end of March 2016. The Committee requested a breakdown of the reasons behind the discrepancy of 75 FTE identified and those posts that were deleted, given the potential savings implications. The AD HR advised that in addition, they would also be asking priority leads to identify the next tranche of headcount reduction, which would be the largest tranche of the three year financial plan and so there may be some scope for consolidation. 

Action: Jacquie McGeachie/Carole Engwell

Officers confirmed that the target figure for average number of sickness days per employee was 6 for 2016/17. The Committee requested a breakdown of sickness performance by service area for the next committee meeting.

Action: Carole Engwell

The Committee enquired what could be done to provide support for senior managers to ensure that they had a robust understanding of the local environment, despite not necessarily living in the borough. Officers responded that the re-induct programme was being developed for staff and as part of this programme staff would be required to understand Haringey and the the transition from where it was in 2011, to where it was today and where it would be in the future. The Committee suggested that there may also be an opportunity to develop the capacity for senior managers to devote a couple of half days  ...  view the full minutes text for item 158.

Report of the Assistant Director, Human Resources to provide an update to the S&R Committee regarding the proposal to extend the Principles of the Modern Reward Strategy which were agreed at S&R Committee on 14th September 2015 to the rest of the workforce.

The Committee considered the report the implementation of the Modern Reward Strategy for the rest of the workforce, as presented by Ian Morgan, Modern Reward Strategy Manager. Mr Morgan advised that Phase 1 of the strategy was due to go live with effect from the 1^st April and that officers would come back to committee in due course to evaluate the implementation of Phase 1. It was proposed that this would take the form of a joint report with both HR and trade union colleagues in attendance.

Action: Ian Morgan

Officers advised that the report did not undertake a detailed assessment of the Equalities impact as the assumption was this would be neutral, given that the strategy was a reemphasis of what had been agreed under the Equal Pay & Conditions Review (Single Status).The Committee raised concerns about the proposal in the report to extend the pay structure to the rest of the work force. Officers clarified that this related to the principles outlined in the senior managers review, as opposed to comparable levels of remuneration. In response to a further question from the committee, officers advised that trade union colleagues had been consulted and that weekly update meetings had been and would continue to be scheduled with the unions. Officers also advised that one of the key areas of interest would be around the specific pay structure and what the implications would be for their members, but that this had not taken place yet. Although the unions had been engaged in the process, their agreement for the Modern Reward Strategy would likely heavily be dependent upon an assessment of the perceived winners and losers of the strategy. Officers added that another key consideration for both the Council and the unions was finding a solution to Single Status. The Committee requested that the unions be invited to the next meeting of the S&R Committee.

Action: Ian Morgan/Clerk

The AD Transformation & Resources advised that, going forward, some thought would need to given to how officers liaised with the Committee in an informal way so that officers could share details without compromising their negotiations with the unions.

RESOLVED

I). To apply the principles of the Modern Reward Strategy to the rest of the workforce.

II). To note the contents of the Equal Pay and Conditions Review – ‘Single Status’ 2008 and the proposals for incorporating each element into the Modern Reward Strategy.

III). To approve the proposal to commence negotiations with trade unions in relation to the implementation of the Modern Reward Strategy.

Report of the Assistant Director, Human Resources, presenting a new policy and procedure aimed at implementing a scheme to allow employees to purchase additional annual leave. 

The Committee considered a report which presented a new policy and procedure aimed at implementing a scheme to allow employees to purchase up to 5 days additional leave (pro rata), presented by Julie Amory, HR Policy Manager. Ms Amory advised the Committee that that any additional leave applied for under the scheme would not remove the right for staff to claim compassionate leave and that other forms of unpaid leave would also be available, depending on the circumstances.

The Committee queried the savings benefit of the proposal and advocated that its main selling point was around the potential health and wellbeing impact on staff. Officers advised that they would be working with colleagues in Public Health and Communications around how best to promote the new policy. Officers acknowledged it was difficult to project savings as these would be dependent upon the level of staff take up.

The Committee also asked for clarification on what the difference was between staff requesting unpaid leave and staff requesting additional annual leave under the scheme. Officers responded that a key difference was that unpaid leave was a one off reduction at the point that the leave was requested which could have a significant financial impact, particularly for low paid members of staff. Purchasing additional annual leave, however, would allow the person in question spread the reduction in pay across a number of pay months. Additional annual leave also provided staff the opportunity to plan and have a choice over when the time off was taken, where as unpaid leave was generally for more unforeseeable events. In response to a further question from the Committee, officers advised that mangers would have a right to refuse an application for additional unpaid leave and that a key factor in approving any application would be that the business did not incur any additional costs; through hiring of additional agency staff for example.

RESOLVED

I). That the Committee approves the draft Purchasing Additional Annual Leave Policy and Procedure, attached at Appendix A of the report, to take effect from 1^st April 2016.

II). That the Committee agrees to amend the Leave and Time Off Policy by deleting paragraph 8.5 of the report with effect from 1^st April 2016, the amended Policy being at Appendix B of the report, to reflect the new Purchasing Additional Annual Leave Policy and Procedure

III). That the Committee authorises the Assistant Director of Human Resources in consultation with the Chair of the Committee to make such amendments to the Purchasing Additional Annual Leave Policy and Procedure as she considers minor, any such amendments to be reported back to the meeting of the Committee immediately following the making of the amendments.

Report of the Assistant Director, Human Resources, looking at the legislation planned to become law in 2016 that may affect the Council as an employer. 

The Committee considered the report which outlined the legislation due to come into law in 2016 that may affect the Council as an employer, presented by Julie Amory, HR Policy Manager.

In relation to the proposed cap of £95k on exit payments in 2016, officers advised that if a person went over the threshold they would have a deficit and may, for example, result in that person having a reduction in their pension pot. The Committee queried whether the staff member in question was able to decide how their deficit was paid off i.e. through a reduced redundancy payment and leave their pension unaffected. Officers responded that details such as this were still to be decided. In response to a question from the Committee, officers advised that they were working with colleagues in the Shared Service Centre to do some modelling around how many staff the cap would effect in the coming years and to better understand the likely impact on retention of affected staff.  Officers agreed to bring an update on the exit payment cap and some of the results of the modelling to the next meeting of the Committee.

Action: Julie Amory

Officers confirmed that they would be looking to update staff on the relevant legislation changes and how it would affect them. Officers proposed that they could even target briefings to those staff, once they had an idea of those affected.

The Committee commented that in relation to the apprenticeship levy that future apprenticeship roles should spread out around the organisations and not confined largely to business administration roles. The Committee acknowledged that further discussions would be required with Finance to understand how the Council’s contribution to the levy would be funded.

RESOLVED

I). That the Committee notes the information provided.

II). That the strategic implications be considered as part of the Workforce Plan Year 2.

Report of the Assistant Director, Human Resources, providing a mid-point review of the Apprenticeship programme, implemented in 2015, in the light of Central Government’s decisions on:

-                        the National Living Wage

-                        the  implementation from 6^th April 2017 of the Apprenticeship Levy

The Committee considered a report which provided a mid-point review of the Apprenticeship programme, implemented in 2015, in the light of central Government’s decisions on the National Living Wage and the Apprenticeship Levy. The report was presented by Lorraine Smith, OD Consultant HR. At the meeting on the 26^th January, the Committee resolved that the wages of apprentices in year 1 would be paid at the level of the National Minimum Wage, then at year 2 at the London Living Wage. The committee was advised that this was due to come into effect as of 1^st April 2016.

The Committee enquired how Haringey’s apprenticeship programme pay rates compared to other boroughs. Officers responded that Haringey’s were the most generous and that a number of neighbouring authorities paid apprentices at the standard apprenticeship rate of around £3 per hour. The committee suggested that the authority should be promoting the generous apprenticeship pay rates more widely.

In response to a further question around the number of apprentices that were local, the committee were advised that 7 out of the current cohort of 16 were Haringey residents. Officers also advised that they would be looking into how to work more closely with local schools around advertising the apprenticeship programme. The latest apprenticeship programme vacancies were advertised on the website, along with Haringey Youth Space website and on the National Apprenticeship website.  The Committee proposed that 639 High Road would be a good place to advertise future vacancies and that Councillors should also be playing a greater role in advertising the programme through social media etcetera. 

Officers agreed to provide the Committee with a one page briefing note on the details of apprenticeship programme. 

Action: Lorraine Smith/Daksha Desai

RESOLVED

I). To approve the introduction of the National Living Wage at £7.20 per hour from 1^st April 2016 as the starting salary for all Council apprentices whose apprenticeship with the Council starts on or after 1^st April 2016, and as the salary for all other Council apprentices in the first six months of their apprenticeship.

II). To approve the London Living Wage at £9.40 per hour as the salary for all Council Apprentices (whenever their apprenticeship with the Council started) from the start of  the seventh month  of their  Apprenticeship, subject to the successful completion of their probationary period. 

III). To note that a full review of the Apprenticeship programme will be undertaken

after the first cohort of Apprenticeships is completed in May 2016. Agree that a

further report be presented to this Committee in September 2016 based on:

-   Findings of that review, and officers’ recommendations

-   The outcome of the Department for Business Innovation & Skills ‘consultation on Apprenticeship Targets for Public Sector Bodies.

Report of the Assistant Director, Human Resources, to inform the Committee of the reports detailed on the Forward Plan that are due to be submitted during the forthcoming municipal year. 

The Committee considered the report on the forward plan for the Staffing and Remuneration Committee to March 2017, presented by Carole Engwell, HR Quality Assurance Manager.

The Committee requested that updates be brought to an upcoming committee on My Conversation including  the pilot areas and also on Haringey Fuse. The Committee also requested a brief midyear update in relation to the review of Children’s Services recruitment and retention offer.

Action: Jacquie McGeachie/Carole Engwell.

RESOLVED

That the content of the report be noted. 

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 following item is likely to be the subject of a motion to exclude the press and public from the meeting as it contains exempt information as defined in section 100a of the Local Government Act 1972, namely information relating to an individual.

RESOLVED

That the press and public be excluded by virtue of Paragraph 1, Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

To approve the exempt minutes of the CEJCC held on 26 October 2015.

RESOLVED

That the Exempt minutes of the CEJCC meeting held on 26 October 2016 be approved by the Chair.

To consider any exempt items of urgent business admitted under agenda item 2 above.

There were no items of exempt urgent business.

The meeting closed at 8.45pm.