Items
No. |
Item |
53. |
Councillor Resignation
Minutes:
Following the publication of the West Suffolk
Joint Staff Consultative Panel agenda for the meeting on 29 January
2018, Councillor Bob Cockle (St Edmundsbury Borough Council -
Employers’ Side) had tendered his resignation as a Borough
Councillor and therefore did not attend the meeting.
|
54. |
Apologies for Absence
Minutes:
Apologies for absence were received from
Councillors’ Ruth Bowman (Forest Heath District Council
– Employer’s Side), Clive Springett (St Edmundsbury
Borough Council – Employer’s Side), Lizzi Cocker and
Jane Orton (Staff Representatives – Employees’
Side).
|
55. |
Substitutes
Minutes:
Councillor Brian Harvey attended the meeting
as substitute for Councillor Ruth Bowman (Forest Heath District
Council – Employer’s Side).
|
56. |
Minutes PDF 177 KB
To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on
25 September 2017 (copy attached).
Minutes:
The minutes of the meeting held on 25
September 2017 were accepted as a correct record and signed by the
Chairman.
|
57. |
Update on Anglia Revenues Partnership HR Progress
The HR Business Partner to give a verbal
report.
Minutes:
The HR Business Partner updated the Panel on
the HR progress that had been made at Anglia Revenues Partnership
(ARP) from October 2015 to present. The Panel were informed that
there had been a large focus on developing the skills and knowledge
of existing staff and this was being achieved by offering
specialist training courses as well as encouraging staff to take up
secondment opportunities, apprenticeships, job shadowing and job
rotation. Flexible working arrangements had also been introduced
whereby staff had the option to apply to work from a variety of
work bases suitable for them. The feedback from staff in relation
to these initiatives had been positive.
In response to queries raised by the Panel,
the HR Business Partner explained that the HR processes for all of
the host Councils at ARP were managed by herself. In addition, the
HR Business Partner ensured that each host Council retained their
original establishment of numbers and type of job posts, and any
new posts would be appropriately allocated to each Council.
There being no decision required, the Panel
noted the update.
|
58. |
Update on the Suffolk Workplace Wellbeing Charter PDF 214 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Service Manager (Human Resources and
Organisational Development) presented Report No: JSP/JT/18/001
which updated the Panel on the progress towards achieving the
Suffolk Workplace Wellbeing Charter.
The Council was assessed by a Panel of
representatives from Suffolk County Council Public Health, Norfolk
County Council Public Health and Public Health England on 25
October 2017. The assessment process was explained to the Panel by
the Service Manager, and on 10 November 2017 the Council was
advised that it had successfully achieved accreditation to the
Charter. The Council achieved the standard of excellence in four of
the eight categories and achievement with recommendations to reach
excellence in the next six to nine months for the remaining four
categories.
The Service Manager explained that the various
health and wellbeing initiatives that had been offered to staff up
until the point of achieving accreditation to the Charter would
continue to be offered for the foreseeable future.
There being no decision required, the Panel
noted the report.
|
59. |
Update on Assistant Director Recruitment Programme
The Service Manager (Human Resources and
Organisational Development) to give a verbal report.
Minutes:
The Panel received an update from the Service
Manager (Human Resources and Organisational Development) on the
Recruitment Programme for the Assistant Director (HR, Legal and
Democratic Services) post. The advert had been posted on the
Council’s website as well as other specialist publications on
15 January 2018 and would close on 12 February 2018 with an
assessment centre arranged for 1 March 2018.
The Panel thanked the current Assistant
Director for all her hard work during the 15 years employed by St
Edmundsbury Borough Council, and more recently as part of the
shared services arrangements for West Suffolk.
There being no decision required, the Panel
noted the update.
|
60. |
West Suffolk Workforce Data PDF 212 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Service Manager (Human Resources and
Organisational Development) presented Report No: JSP/JT/18/002
which set out the West Suffolk Workforce data for the period up to
31 December 2017. The report also provided a comparison between the
data as it stood now and with that reported to previous meetings of
the Panel from 2015 to 2017.
Overall there were no significant changes to
the data since the previous reporting period; however, the
Assistant Director (HR, Legal and Democratic Services) highlighted
that the number of permanent, full time equivalent (FTE) employees
had increased since 2015 and was forecasted to continue
increasing. Councillor Stephen Edwards
(Portfolio Holder for Resources and Performance, Forest Heath
District Council) confirmed that the costs associated with the
increase in FTE had been covered by the West Suffolk Councils
without having to seek additional funding.
The Service Manager reported that the current
sickness absence figures were the lowest they had been within the
last two years.
There being no decision required, the Panel
noted the report.
|
61. |
Any Other Business
Minutes:
The Assistant Director (HR, Legal and
Democratic Services) briefly updated the Panel on the current
National Local Government Pay Negotiations that had been offered to
Unison that would cover the period April 2018 to March 2020. The
Panel were informed that Unison members would be voting on the
offer during February 2018.
The Chairman of the Panel suggested that in
the future it would not be necessary to hold pre-briefing meetings
for either the Employer or Employees sides unless there were any
items of particular significance on the agenda. This was agreed to
by the rest of the Panel.
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