Agenda and minutes

Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary or affected interests in respect of any matter to be considered at this meeting.

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary 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 Disclosable Pecuniary Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

Any Member with an affected Interest in a matter must disclose the interest to the meeting and must not participate in discussion of the matter or vote on the matter unless granted a dispensation by the Monitoring officer or by the Governance and Audit Committee.  There is no requirement to withdraw from the meeting when the interest is only an affected interest, but the Monitoring Officer should be notified of the interest, if not previously notified of it, within 28 days of the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 5 July 2017.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Committee held on the 5 July 2017 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Arising from the minutes it was noted that the Chairman had consulted with the Leader and Chief Executive regarding Item 9, the proposed changes to redundancy authorisation, the proposals would be brought to the next Employment Committee in December.

There were no urgent items of business.

A verbal update from the Chairman of the Local Joint Committee.

Councillor Leake reported that the Local Joint Committee had been cancelled  after extensive enquiries had been made with the Union representatives, as none of them were able to attend the Committee on Wednesday 4 October 2017. The Union representatives were informed that they could submit written comments on the items going to Employment Committee, but none had been received.

The Chief Officer: Human Resources reported that the Unions had been fully engaged and consulted on item 10 of the Agenda,  Future Provision of Services – Bridgewell. The Facility Time item would be taken to the next Local Joint Committee. This report was inline with new regulations which had been introduced this year which required unions to provide a record of the time off that allowed for Trade Unions representatives to take up their Trade Union Duties.  It was also noted that Unions were also engaged early on in any proposed redundancies.

To consider whether to change the December pay date to the last working day of the month.

The Committee received a report to consider whether to change the December pay date to the last day of the working month. Traditionally the December pay date had been two weeks earlier, around the 20^th of the month rather than the last business day of the month.

The Chief Officer: Human Resources reported that the issue had arisen from an enquiry from UNISON who had reported that some members who were in receipt of Universal Credit were experiencing financial issues due to the early pay date in December.

The issue had been raised with the Schools Trade Union, who were not supportive of the proposal and wished for the December pay date to remain as it was. The Chief Officer: Human Resources reported that if the two Unions did not come to an agreement in the next two weeks, then the pay date would remain as it was for this December. It was very likely that an agreement would not be reached.

The Committee raised concerns that even if the Unions came to an agreement in the next two weeks that the lead in time to inform employees was too short. The Committee were also concerned that employees had not been directly consulted on the proposal, as the change affected all employees it was thought that their views should be sought.

As the Committee did not agree the recommendation set out in the report, the Committee proposed that the proposal be taken back to the Unions and be brought back to the Committee for the December pay date in 2018. The Committee requested that full staff engagement and communication be sought before the decision be taken.

To propose that employees who become Foster Carers are allowed up to ten days of paid foster carer leave, to demonstrate the Council’s commitment to fostering and to become a “Fostering Friendly Employer”.

The Committee received a report which proposed that employees who became Foster Carers are allowed up to ten days of paid foster carer leave, to demonstrate the Council’s commitment to fostering and to become a “Fostering Friendly Employer”.

The Chief Officer: Human Resources reported that there was no legal requirement by employers to offer this incentive, but the Council were offering this provision on a voluntary basis. This would be offered to all employees apart from those working in schools.

The 10 days leave were per foster child. Five days leave would be allocated to the application process and the other five days leave would be used for meetings and training that Foster Carers had to undertake once their application was successful.

The Committee commented that this would be a positive step for the Council to take and would provide good PR for the Council as well as shower that the Council values Foster Carers.  Long term it could assist in maintaining costs of children in care.

The Chief Officer confirmed that flexible working was available to all parents and that the second recommendation in the report would be amended to reflect this.

RESOLVED that:

      i)        employees who are foster carers or are in the process of becoming a foster carer are allowed up to 10 days total paid foster carer leave (excluding schools).

     ii)        requests for time off, leave and flexible working arrangements in relation to care of a looked after child are considered in accordance with other Council policies in relation to parents and carers responsible for looking after children,  where this is consistent with the operational demands of the organisation.

    iii)        the Council supports the annual Foster Care Fortnight awareness campaign.

The Committee is asked to note the minutes of the Local Joint Committee held on 5 July 2017.

The Committee noted the minutes of the Local Joint Committee held on 5 July 2017.

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:

(3)        Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person. (Items 10,11,12)

RESOLVED 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  (Item 26, 27 and 28 in the minutes).

To inform the Employment Committee of the outcome of the consultation held concerning the provision of services at The Bridgewell Centre and to note the proposed redundancies which may arise from it.

The Chief Officer: Commissioning & Resources reported the outcome of the consultation which had been held concerning the provision of services at The Bridgewell Centre. A number of staff could not be redeployed to a community based role as they were unable to drive.

RESOLVED that

      i)        the Committee noted the changes to provision of services outlined in the Director of Adult Social Care, Health & Housing’s report.

     ii)        the Committee noted the proposed redundancies that had arisen from the decision that the  Executive made at their meeting on 9^th May agreeing a model for future commissioning of Intermediate Care Services, which included the de-commissioning of The Bridgewell Centre.

To note 1 redundancy following an organisational restructuring of the Library Supervisors posts.

The Chief Officer: Human Resources reported this restructure has led to one redundancy. The restructure was in light of the management of existing vacant posts and the streamlining of processes. The savings made will go towards the 2018/19 target of £150k.

RESOLVED that

      i)        the Committee noted the post holder listed in Annex B to be made redundant, with effect from 31 December 2017, with the costs being met from the Structural Changes Fund (subject to any redeployment opportunities offered to those affected).

     ii)        the original and proposed structures detailed in Annex A are noted.

To seek Employment Committee consideration of a redundancy that has arisen from a restructure of the welfare and housing service.

The Chief Officer: Human Resources reported thatthe redundancy had arisen from the restructure of the welfare and housing service.

RESOLVED that the Committee noted that the post of Enabling Officer is redundant on the terms as set out in exempt Appendix A.