Agenda and minutes

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest or an Affected Interest in a matter should withdraw from the meeting when the matter is under consideration and should notify the Democratic Services Officer in attendance that they are withdrawing as they have such an interest. If the Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 17 December 2014.

RESOLVED that that minutes of the meeting held on 17 December 2014 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Any other items which, pursuant to Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972, the Chairman decides are urgent.

There were no urgent items of business.

To consider a report on the 2014 Staff Survey.

The Committee received a report on the Staff Survey 2014 produced by Qa Research which included the key findings, conclusions and potential areas for action. 

The results were generally positive with 61% of employees completing the survey which was a higher response rate than any previous year except 2011.  The response rate per department were Chief Executive’s 93%, Corporate Services 71%, Children, Young people & Learning 56%, Adult Social Care & Health 55% and Environment, Culture & Communities 53%.

In response to queries the Chief Officer: Human Resources confirmed that:

·         the main aim of the research could be made more explicit and robust in the future,

·         the figures of 61% of employees feeling well informed by the Council, was difficult to improve on as processes had already been undertaken in response to a similar response in the 2011 survey.  These included the CE Road Shows, monthly Forest Views and team briefings.  However this will be on the action plan for future consideration,

·         to enable managers to more effectively manage performance, the ‘Good to Great’ scheme has resulted in the development of an interactive Performance Management Tool kit which provides an accessible way to assist managers. This would be available in April 2015,

·         how a manager manages other employees performance was largely a perception issue,

·         the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) report was the most appropriate data for statistical comparison as there was little meaningful data available in relation to the public sector work force,

·         discrimination outputs would be addressed in the action plans,

·         it was sometimes difficult to obtain detailed out turn information because of the need to protect confidentiality.

The Director of Environment, Culture and Communities explained that the information was considered in detail and areas were considered for improvement.  An action plan would be drawn up to detail when and how improvements were being made which would be taken to Departmental Teams and then to CMT.

It was agreed that an update on the actions taken by departments in response to the Staff Survey be brought to the meeting in October 2015.

(Action: Chief Officer: Human Resources)

To consider the following motion:

That pursuant to Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, and having regard to the public interest, members of the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of the following item which involves the likely disclosure of exempt information under the following category of Schedule 12A of that Act:

(1)        Information relating to any individual  (Items 7 & 8).

RESOLVED that pursuant to Regulation 21 of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Access to Information) Regulations 2000 and having regard to the public interest, members of the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of item 6 which involves the likely disclosure of exempt information under the following category of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972:

(3)        Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person.

That the Committee consider a report identifying the staffing implications arising from the budget proposals for 2015/16. 

The Chief Officer: Human Resources reported that the staffing implications arising from the budget proposals for 2015/16 had been considered by the Corporate Management Team and by the Local Joint Committee.  The Committee was now asked to consider the employment implications of the proposals before they were recommended for approval at Council on 25 February 2015.

The budget proposals, as far as possible, focused on making savings and efficiencies in areas which would have the least direct impact on services to residents.  Inevitably in developing a package of budget proposals to deliver savings on the scale needed in 2015/16 there will be some impact on staff.  However the staffing implications in 2014/15 have been at a very low level compared to previous years and the proposals impact one area of the Council.

The Director of Environment, Culture and Communities informed the Committee that a robust process had been completed to look at areas for efficiencies and improving performance.  It was confirmed that the Executive Member for Planning and Transport, the Chairman of the Planning Committee and staff in the relevant section were all consulted on the proposals. 

RESOLVED that:

1          the deletion of the post identified in Exempt Appendix A with effect from the date indicated be approved.

2          the postholder be declared redundant in accordance with the terms set out in that Exempt Appendix with the costs being met from the Structural Changes Fund be agreed.

The purpose of this report is to seek approval to the redundancy of the post holder identified in the Exempt Appendix A which arises from a review of the Transport Development Section, within the Planning & Transport Division.

The Committee considered a report on a proposed redundancy which arose from a review of the Transport Development Section within the Planning & Transport Division.

The current service delivery model for the Transport Development Section required modification in light of changes in demand.  A review of the service undertaken in 2014 identified that this particular action would benefit from a revised management structure.

RESOLVED that:

1          the deletion of the post identified in the Exempt Appendix A with effect from the date indicated be approved:

2          the post holder be declared redundant in accordance with the terms set out in that Exempt Appendix with the costs being met from the Structural Changes Fund be agreed.

The next meeting will take place on 18 March 2015.

It was agreed by the Committee that as there were no items to consider that the meeting due to take place on 18 March 2015 be cancelled.