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.  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 4 December 2024.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 4 December 2024 were approved.

There were no urgent items of business.

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

The Committee received an update from the Chair of the Local Joint Committee, who reported that the Local Joint Committee had discussed the Pay Statement for the financial year 2025/26 with the trade unions raising no objections.

The Committee is asked to note the minutes of the Local Joint Committee held on 4 December 2024.

The Committee noted the minutes of the Local Joint Committee held on 4 December 2024.

To recommend the Pay Policy Statement 2025/26 for approval at Full Council.

The Committee considered a report to agree the 2025/26 Pay Policy Statement. Since 2012, and in accordance with the 2011 Localism Act, the Council has been required to publish an annual Pay Statement. The Statement was also aligned with the requirements of the Transparency Regulations.

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

RESOLVED that subject to a correction to remove the typographical error under point 6.1 within the report, the Employment Committee agree the Pay Policy Statement for 2025/26.

Paul Young, Assistant Director of HR and OD notified the Committee that the trade unions had submitted their pay claim for 2025/26. This claim had been for:

·       An increase of at least £3,000 across all NJC spinal column points.

·       One extra day of annual leave for all staff

·       A reduction in the working week by two hours, with no loss of pay

·       The ability for school staff to take [at least] one day of their annual leave during term time, with no loss of pay

The Committee noted the update.