Agenda and draft 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.

There were no Urgent Items of Business.

To approve the minutes of the last meeting.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on the 8 July 2020 were approved as a correct record.

To seek approval to the organisation change policy for schools.

The programme of review for Schools HR policies and procedures was ongoing with

updates to the Organisation Change Policy for Schools being brought to the Committee.

The last update to the Policy has been made in 2021, which had been mirror changes. This review was to ensure all employment responsibilities were included within the policy.

No significant changes had been made to the policy, and the policy had been through the relevant consultation process with Schools and the Schools Trade Unions. Any comments received had been included within the updated policy.

Arising from the Committees comments and questions, the following points were made:

·       The previous update was in regard to wording rather than significant policy changes.

·       It would be useful to have a track change document for policies going forward.

·       The policy changes included changes to the steps of consultation, clarity of roles and responsibly and clearer on steps should the Council need to go through a redundancy process in schools.

·       Going forward there would be a listing of the changes within the policy, or a tracked change document.

·       There was nothing specific that had triggered requirement to make the changes to this policy. HR had asked for some clarification on points when going through the process in schools.

·       The second policy on the agenda was a brand-new policy.

·       HR support was provided to Local Authority maintained schools and a number of Academy Schools in Bracknell. HR support was not provided to Greenshaw Academy Schools or Kings Group Academy Schools as there was an HR function within these Trusts.

·       The School’s HR Services was often at the top of list of services to schools and scored very highly.

RESOLVEDthat the Committee review and agree the updated procedures for Organisation Change Policy for Schools.

To seek approval to the Low Level Concerns Policy for Schools.

The programme of review for Schools HR policies and procedures was ongoing with

the Low Level Concerns Policy for Schools being brought to the Committee.

This was a brand-new policy and was a statutory duty under the 2021 Keeping Children in Education guidance.

This wasn’t an investigation or formal process but set out what schools needed to do where low level concerns were raised. It set out how to record, report and investigate these concerns, and where necessary report the concerns to the designated Local Authority Officer.

Arising from the Committees comments and questions, the following points were raised:

·       Members were pleased to see policy

·       When multiple low level concerns were raised, trends and frequencies would be monitored. Each concern would be recorded and investigated. The onus was on schools, to undertake monitor, the investigation and report any issues to the designated officer.

·       This policy was not a procedure, it was how to record low level concerns and use as evidence to proceed to a formal disciplinary or the designated officer.

·       It was raised that there needed to be a point where multiple low level concerns should be raised as a disciplinary matter and that there should be a link between this policy and the disciplinary policy.

·       There was a list of examples of low level concerns within the report.

·       It was emphasised that there was a clear link between the Low Level Concerns Policy and the Disciplinary Polices and would stand alongside the Disciplinary Policy, and would supplement the policy.

·       It was raised that the Disciplinary Policy needed to make reference to this new policy.

·       As part of the policy review, the procedures were being updated and amended.

·       This policy formalised and ensured all low level concerns were documented which currently didn’t always happen.

·       The policy would be shared with schools for adoption following agreement of this Committee.

RESOLVED that the Committee review and agree the procedures for Low Level Concerns Policy for Schools.