Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - Time Square, Market Street, Bracknell, RG12 1JD. View directions

Contact: Hannah Harding  01344 352308

Link: This meeting will be a Hybrid meeting

Media

Items
No. Item

26.

Declarations of Interest

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.  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.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

27.

Minutes from previous meeting pdf icon PDF 97 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 14 December 2022.

Minutes:

Councillor Heydon attended the meeting of the 14 December 2022 virtually, and the minutes would be amended accordingly.

 

RESOLVED, with the addition of the above amendment, the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 14 December 2022 were approved.

28.

Urgent Items of Business

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

Minutes:

There were no urgent items of business.

29.

Update from the Chairman of the Local Joint Committee

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

Minutes:

The Committee was advised that the Local Joint Committee had discussed items 7 and 8 on the agenda. There had been some complimentary comments but no

requests for amendments or adverse comments.

30.

Minutes of Sub Groups pdf icon PDF 123 KB

The Committee is asked to note the minutes of the Local Joint Committee held on 14 December 2022.

Minutes:

The Committee received and noted the minutes of the Local Joint Committee held on

14 December 2022.

31.

Annual Update of The Council's Pay Statement pdf icon PDF 230 KB

To review and agree the Pay Policy Statement for 2023/24.

 

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report to agree the 2023/24 Pay Policy Statement.

 

Since 2012, and in accordance with the 2011 Localism Act, the Council has been

required to publish an annual Pay Statement which is also aligned with the

requirements of the Transparency Regulations.

 

The annual pay statement had previously been produced towards the end of the

financial year in which it applied. As the statement confirms how the Council will

apply the pay arrangements, it should be produced prior to the financial year in

which it applies.

 

Employment Committee had received the pay statement for the current financial year (2022/23) in July 2022 before it proceeded through to Council. The production of the statement would enable the 2023/24 statement to be applied for the beginning of the new financial year.

 

Once agreed through Employment Committee, the statement would be taken to

Council for agreement.

 

RESOLVED that having reviewed, the Employment Committee agree the Pay Policy Statement for 2023/24.

32.

HR Policy Review - Substance Misuse Policy pdf icon PDF 70 KB

To review and agree the revised policy for Substance Misuse.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received therevised policy for Substance Misuse for consideration. The Human Resources team are undertaking a review of the HR policies with a view

to updating and, where applicable, rationalising the number of policies required.

 

The process for reviewing the policies has included engagement with stakeholders

across the Council and trade unions. The future development for this activity would

include establishing a sub-group of the Workforce Board to facilitate engagement

across the Council so the pressures and challenges of each subject area could be

considered.

 

The following amendments had been made to the policy:

       Equality section amended

       Amendment to scope

       Addition of guidance for managers if an employee discloses a substance

misuse problem (Section 6.3)

       Addition of a section on Support available for employees (Section 6.5)

 

It was recognised that the policy and procedure alone did not provide the confidence

and competence to manage workforce situations. The HR/OD Team would be

supporting the effective management of these procedures through a programme of

development for managers.

 

RESOLVED that having reviewed, Employment Committee agree the revised policy for Substance Misuse.

 

Contact Information

Democratic services

Email: committee@bracknell-forest.gov.uk