Agenda and minutes

Venue: Civic Centre, High Road, Wood Green, N22 8LE

Contact: Felicity Foley, Acting Committees Manager 

Items
No. Item

86.

FILMING AT MEETINGS

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.

Minutes:

Clerks note – the Chair varied the order of the agenda at the meeting.  The minutes follow the order of the agenda.

 

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.

87.

Apologies for absence and substitutions (if any)

To receive any apologies for absence.

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Dennison, and Councillor Rossetti attended as his substitute.

88.

Urgent Business

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 below. New items of exempt Urgent Business will be dealt with at agenda item 13 below).

Minutes:

The Chair advised of one item of urgent business – a late report advising on assimilations to the posts of Director of Customers, Transformation and Resources; Director of Adult Services and Public Health; and Director of Environment and Neighbourhoods

89.

Declarations of interest

A member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a prejudicial interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered:

 

(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.

 

A member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which is not registered in the Register of Members’ Interests or the subject of a pending notification must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28 days of the disclosure.

 

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

Minutes:

None.

90.

Deputations / petitions / presentations / questions

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

Minutes:

None.

91.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 130 KB

To confirm and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 26 March 2018.

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 26 March 2018 be approved as a correct record of the meeting.

92.

Gender Pay Gap Reporting pdf icon PDF 184 KB

As a public authority which has 250 or more employees, the Council is required by the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 to report publicly every year on the differences in aggregate pay and bonuses of men and women. This is known as Gender Pay Gap Reporting.

 

Gender Pay Gap is concerned with variances in the average earnings of men and women, regardless of role or seniority. It is a broader measure of capturing any pay inequalities resulting from variances in the sorts of jobs performed by men and women and the gender composition of our workforce by seniority.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Christiana Kyriacou, Rewards Manager, introduced the report as set out.  It was a requirement under the Equality Act 2010 that the differences in aggregate pay and bonuses of men and women be reported publically every year.  The data published in 2018 was data up to March 2017.  The figures showed that on average, women were paid 1% lower than men, which was lower than the London Borough average of 3.5%. 

 

RESOLVED that the results of the Council’s Gender Pay Gap report in the context of the analysis undertaken by London Councils be noted.

 

93.

People Report - March 2018 pdf icon PDF 164 KB

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.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Christiana Kyriacou, Rewards Manager, introduced the report as set out.  The main principle of the report was to combine key workforce data and analysis, including headcount, the cost of both the permanent workforce and off payroll arrangements, starters/leavers and sickness absence.  Since March 2015, the workforce had reduced by 20%, and agency use had decreased.

 

In response to questions from the Committee, officers advised that:

-           The jump in agency and consultancy use from December 2017 to March 2018 was a seasonal fluctuation, and when compared to September 2017, the figure had reduced.

-           When requests were made for agency use, managers had to follow a robust challenge to get approval.  HR had been monitoring interim and consultant posts, and challenging managers on the need for these posts.

-           All permanent jobs within the Council should go through the same recruitment process, and no appointments should be made without having been through the process.

-           Consultants were procured via a framework contract, which was owned and managed by London Borough of Waltham Forest, and there was no set or annual fee for the use of the framework – the Council only paid for hours worked by consultants.

-           The cost of sickness pay would depend on which members of staff were sick, as it was calculated using staff base rate of salary.  The overall reduction in staff would not necessarily affect the cost of sickness pay.

-           The last Pulse survey was carried out in 2017 and it was not known if another would be carried out.  The Chair commented that it would be a good idea to do so.

-           Work was being carried out with service areas to improve the use of the ‘My Conversation’ performance management tool, and an update would be provided at the next meeting.

Members requested further information on social worker roles, around recruitment and retention.  Mark Rudd advised that it may be worth producing a separate report on this due to the complexities of the roles.

ACTION: Mark Rudd

Post meeting note: this has been arranged for the Staffing & Remuneration Committee meeting in December

 

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

94.

Staffing and Remuneration Committee Terms of Reference pdf icon PDF 189 KB

Minutes:

Ed Jankowski, Lawyer, advised that the report was for noting, as the Terms of Reference had been adopted by Full Council in July 2017.

 

RESOLVED that the report and Terms of Reference of the Staffing and Remuneration Committee be noted.

95.

Human Resources Forward Plan 2018-19 pdf icon PDF 152 KB

The report is to inform the Committee of the process for agenda planning and to notify Members of the reports to be brought to Committee during the municipal year.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The following was noted during discussion of the Staffing & Remuneration Committee Forward Plan:

-           The Chair had had preliminary conversations with the Cabinet Member for Communities, Safety and Engagement in relation to apprenticeship levy.

-           The Transgender Policy was not a requirement, but had arisen as a recommendation following the work carried out for Stonewall.  The Chair suggested that it may be prudent to wait until the agreement of the Gender Recognition Act.

-           Whilst Hays managed the process for permanent and agency recruitment, the decision to appointment rested with the manager recruiting to a post.  Members raised concerns over the use of Hays, when the money spent on the contract could be used to fund a recruitment service in the Council.  Mark Rudd advised that he had instructed Internal Audit to look at the contract, and a report would be provided to the Committee once this had been done.

Post meeting note: Mark Rudd has agreed the terms of reference with Internal Audit for the review of the Hays Contract, and work is due to commence on 20 September.  A report on the findings will be presented at a later date.  (The overall spend on the contract per annum was £18m).

-           The Chair requested that Transgender Policy be moved to a future date, and the Apprenticeship Levy be moved to October. 

 

RESOLVED that the Forward Plan be noted.

 

 

96.

Domestic Violence and Violence Against Women and Girls Policy pdf icon PDF 173 KB

This report seeks the approval of the Staffing & Remuneration Committee to implement a human resources policy which aims to better support the workforce around domestic violence and violence against women and girls (VAWG).

 

Subject to approval being granted, a suite of training will be developed for managers to support them to better manage the health and wellbeing of their employees.         

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Fiona Dwyer, Violence Against Women & Girls Strategic Lead, introduced the report as set out.  The idea for producing the policy had arisen following two homicide reviews involving staff who had worked for Haringey, and the team had since looked at what policies currently existed in order to provide simple guidance for managers on how to deal with disclosures made by employees.

 

In response to questions from the Committee, Ms Dwyer advised that:

-           She was working with Homes for Haringey (HfH) to redesign the housing pathways for women who need support, if they were HfH tenants.  She was also looking at how to deal with situations where the perpetrators were HfH tenants or employees of HfH / the Council.

-           The policy would generally be suitable for other areas of the authority, but may need some tweaking to ensure it would work for Haringey schools and academies.  Julie Amory advised that she would work with Fiona Dwyer through the process of rolling the policy out to schools.  The Chair requested that be done by the next meeting of the Committee in October, Ms Amory advised that whilst a draft may be available for the meeting, she could not guarantee that it would have been considered by the Schools Consultative Group by this point.

ACTION: Fiona Dwyer / Julie Amory

 

RESOLVED that

 

i.          the Domestic Violence and Violence Against Women and Girls Policy be approved by the Staffing & Remuneration Committee, and the implementation of the policy be supported; and

ii.         further updates to be provided at the next meeting of the Staffing & Remuneration Committee in relation to the implementation of the policies in Haringey Schools.

97.

Schools HR Policies pdf icon PDF 125 KB

This report presents a number of model policies to be recommended by the Council for adoption by the governing bodies of the community, voluntary controlled, community special and maintained nursery schools, which the Council maintains, and to be implemented by the Council in respect of any unattached teachers that it employs.  The recommended policies are:

 

-           Annual Leave and Special Leave;

-           Flexible Working;

-           Whistleblowing;

-           General Data Protection Policy;

-           GDPR Privacy Notices.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Julie Amory, HR Business Partner, introduced the report as set out.  The report presented a number of model policies to be recommended by the Council for adoption by the governing bodies of the community, voluntary controlled, community special and maintained nursery schools, which are maintained by the Council, and to be implemented by the Council in respect of any unattached teachers employed by the Council. 

 

Three of the policies – Annual Leave and Special Leave; Flexible Working; and Whistleblowing – were last updated in 2009, and the changes were mainly legislative.  The policies for General Data Protection and GDPR Privacy Notices were now required following changes in May 2018.

 

The policies had already been approved by the Schools Consultative Group, and would be circulated to schools for adoption from September.  The reason for the exemption of the policies was to protect the intellectual property of the service.

 

In response to questions from the Committee, Ms Amory advised that:

-           All maintained schools would be using these policies, and academies would be encouraged to do the same.

-           The service was exploring how to implement an operating model to meet the needs of all schools, whether they wanted to buy the whole suite of policies, templates and support, or certain aspects of the package.

-           Schools who had signed up to receive templates and policies from other agencies had been advised to carry out due diligence.

 

RESOLVED that

 

i.          The model policies for:

Haringey Schools Model Annual and Special Leave Policy

Haringey Schools Model Flexible Working Policy

Haringey Schools Model Whistleblowing Policy

Haringey Schools Model General Data Protection Policy and Practices

 

a.    be approved for adoption by the governing bodies of the community, voluntary controlled, community special and maintained nursery schools which the Council maintains;

b.    be implemented by the Council in respect of any attached teachers it employs from 23 July 2018;

 

ii.         these new policies will replace any existing policies and guidance that are currently in place; and

iii.           the Assistant Director Corporate Resources, in consultation with the Chair of the Staffing & Remuneration Committee, be authorised to make such amendment to the policies as he considers minor, and any such amendments shall be reported back to the Committee following the making of said amendments.

98.

New items of urgent business pdf icon PDF 125 KB

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

Minutes:

Mark Rudd introduced the late report which advised on assimilations to the posts of Director of Customers, Transformation and Resources; Director of Adult Services and Public Health; and Director of Environment and Neighbourhoods.  The assimilations dated back to the Chief Executive’s management restructure, and proposals for interim arrangements had previously been reported to the Staffing & Remuneration Committee at the last meeting on 26 March 2018.  Since this time, assimilation interviews had been carried out and the interim staff members had been appointed as permanent members of staff.

 

The Chair commented that since no promotion was involved, this seemed to be a straightforward process, but advised that the Staffing & Remuneration Committee would ensure that they were involved in the process for any future appointments.

 

Councillor Brabazon asked for an update on the roles within Regeneration, and Mark Rudd advised that he would provide a written update, as he did not have the information to hand.

Post meeting note: The Chief Executive and Head of Paid Service is currently reviewing the structure of the directorate with a view to a formal restructure commencing in September 2018.

 

RESOLVED that the contents of the report be noted.

 

99.

Dates of future meetings

1 October 2018

17 December 2018

11 February 2019

25 March 2019