Agenda and minutes

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

Contact: Hannah Stevenson  01344 352308

Items
No. Item

29.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Councillor Mrs Temperton was substituting for Councillor Neil.

30.

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 declartions of interest.

31.

Minutes from previous meeting pdf icon PDF 132 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 18 December 2019.

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 18 December 2019 be approved

as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

32.

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.

33.

Update from the Chairman of the Local Joint Committee

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

Minutes:

The Chairman update the Committee that Local Joint Committee had been cancelled in the interest of for attendee as there was only the Market Premia report on the agenda and UNISON had nothing to put forward. UNISONS only comment was in relation to the Market Premia report which was that UNISON hoped that premia payments be kept to a minimum.

 

Trish Barnard, Head of HR and Employee Experience reported that Local Joint Committee members had all be emailed to request that any if they had any comments on the reports they feedback and virtual minutes will be created if required.

 

34.

Minutes of Sub Groups pdf icon PDF 229 KB

The Committee is asked to note the minutes of the Local Joint Committee held on 18 December 2019.

Minutes:

The Committee noted the minutes of the Local Joint Committee held on 18 December 2019.

35.

Workforce Monitoring Report update pdf icon PDF 197 KB

To confirm the data requirements to comply with the Council’s responsibility to publish workforce monitoring statistics annually. 

Minutes:

The Committee received a Workforce Monitoring Report update. Trish Barnard, Head of HR and Employee Experience reported that this report had been requested by the Chairman following the Committee on 18 December.  It was reported that the workforce monitoring data would be submitted directly to the central government portal and published to the public website annually. However, the annual workforce monitoring report to the Employment Committee would cease to prevent duplication of data and instead all relevant information would be captured within the council plans annual report and Equality and Diversity working group reports and updates to the Employment Committee.

 

Resulting from the Member’s comments and questions, the following points were made:

 

·        The alternatives reporting made sense and would also save officer time.

·        The Committee were assured that updates and reports from the Equality and Diversity working group would be brought to the Employment Committee when relevant.

·        Retention was also a key aspect of workforce monitoring and Overview and Scrutiny had previously held workshops on this issue. Members were concerned that nothing had been brought forward since these workshops, and that there was nothing on the 4-year Overview and Scrutiny Plan. Members felt that this was a really important issue and further clarity needed to be sought.

·        The Head of HR and Employee Experience confirmed that workforce planning was being undertaken and would discuss bringing an update to the Committee as the workshops previously held, predated her. A proposal would be put to CMT that an update be brought to the Committee including what the changes were, what was working and work still needed to be done.

·        It was suggested that the Head of HR and Employee Experience speak to the Overview and Scrutiny Officers who would have the minutes from the workshop.

 

RESOLVED that

 

       i.          workforce monitoring data should be submitted directly to the central government portal and published factually to the public website

annually, as per the Council’s public sector employer obligation.

 

      ii.          the annual workforce monitoring report to the Employment Committee is ceased and ensure all relevant information is captured within the council plans annual report and Equality and Diversity working group reports and updates when applicable.

36.

Exclusion of Public and Press

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 item 9 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.

Minutes:

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 9).

37.

Market Premia Review 2020

 

To provide the Employmnet Committee with a bi-annual review of market premiums.

Minutes:

The Committee received a Market Premia Report which provided bi-annual review information. The review ensured that market premiums are applied to support the

Councils recruitment challenges whilst keeping pay competitive within the current financial environment both internally, and externally across the local labour market.

 

The Head of HR and Employee Experience reported that the review of all Market Premia’s was a priority for CMT and would allow for cross directorate challenge.

 

Arising from the Member’s comments and questions, the following points were made:

 

·         Market Premia’s came about through a mixture of demand and supply led roles.

·         Market Premia’s had not been removed from roles historically.

·         The Council did hold a Relocation and mortgage policy that was underused.

·         Centralised HR had left Managers who had limited recruitment expertise, writing job adverts, this was being refocused.

·         Staff should be able to build up skills to work across departments, and in-house talent developed to its full potential.

·         A more formal mentoring structure was being considered .

·         The recruitment adverts needed to be attractive and targeted.

·         It was unlikely that the Council would get to a point of having no Market Premia’s across the workforce.

 

RESOLVED that

 

      i.        the rates set which ensure that the Council; can retain key staff and attract new staff to vacancies, as outlined in Section 5.2 of the report, are noted.

 

     ii.        an update report will be brought to the Employment Committee in March 2022.

 

 

 

Contact Information

Democratic services

Email: committee@bracknell-forest.gov.uk