Agenda and minutes
Venue: Via Microsoft Teams Meeting Platform
Contact: Sharon Turner: Democratic Services Officer
Email: sharon.turner@westsuffolk.gov.uk
Items
No. |
Item |
36. |
Substitutes
Any member (which includes councillors and
staff representatives) who is substituting for another member
should so indicate, together with the name of the relevant absent
member.
Minutes:
The following substitution was declared:
Councillor Sara Mildmay-White substituting for
Councillor John Griffiths (Employer’s Side).
|
37. |
Election of Chair: 2021/2022
The approved Terms of Reference for the Staff
Consultative Panel requires that the Chair of the Panel shall be
rotated between the Employer’s and Employees’
Sides. When the Chair is a Member of
one side of the Panel, the Vice Chair shall be a Member of the
other side.
In 2021/2022, the Chair is required to be
elected from the Employees’ Side.
Therefore, the Panel is requested to
ELECT a Chair in accordance with this arrangement.
Minutes:
The approved Terms of Reference for the Staff
Consultative Panel required that the Chair of the Panel be rotated
between the Employer’s and Employees’
Sides. When the Chair was a Member of one side of the
Panel, the Vice Chair shall be a Member of the other
side.
In 2021/2022, the Chair was required to be elected
from the Employees’ Side and therefore, it was proposed,
seconded and
Resolved:
That Paul Davison be elected as Chair of
the Staff Consultative Panel for the year 2021/2022.
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38. |
Election of Vice Chair: 2021/2022
The approved Terms of Reference for the Staff
Consultative Panel requires that the Vice Chair shall alternate
between the Employer’s and the Employees’ Sides.
As the Chair of the Panel shall be from the
Employees’ Side in 2021/2022, the Vice Chair is required to
be elected from the Employer’s Side.
The Panel is requested to ELECT a Vice
Chair in accordance with this arrangement.
Minutes:
The approved Terms of Reference for the Staff
Consultative Panel required that the Vice Chair shall alternate
between the Employer’s and Employees’ Sides.
As the Chair of the Panel was from the
Employees’ Side in 2021/2022, the Vice Chair was required to
be elected from the Employer’s Side and therefore, it was
proposed, seconded and
Resolved:
That Councillor Birgitte Mager be elected
as Vice Chair of the Staff Consultative Panel for the year
2021/2022.
|
39. |
Apologies for absence
Minutes:
Apologies for absence were received from
Councillor John Griffiths (Employer’s Side).
|
40. |
Minutes PDF 192 KB
To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on
29 March 2021 (attached).
Minutes:
The minutes of the meeting held on 29 March
2021 confirmed as a correct record.
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41. |
Workforce Data Overview (Presentation) PDF 64 KB
To receive an overview of the Council’s
workforce data.
Minutes:
The Service Manager (Human Resources and
Organisational Development) presented this item which provided a
‘snapshot’ of the West Suffolk Workforce Data as at 31
December 2020 and at 30 September 2021.
The Panel discussed the data
presented. Since the last update to the
Panel, it was noted that the staff turnover had increased to 10.46%
(from 6.11%). This increase raised some
concerns with the Panel, but the Service Manager acknowledged that
the rise was not unexpected. The Panel
asked whether it would be possible to break-down the staff turnover
data to also show age and service area.
Officers agreed to show this breakdown within future reporting.
The Service Manager also explained that during
the last year, staff had ‘stepped-up’ their work levels
within their service areas. However,
there were concerns that this level of working was not sustainable
over the longer term. Therefore,
organisational restructures had been undertaken within some service
areas, to provide for additional staff resources, along with the
use of further creative ways of working.
With there being no decision required, the
Panel noted the updates provided.
(Councillor
Birgitte Mager joined the meeting at 3.15 pm, during the discussion
on this item)
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42. |
COVID-19 Update (Presentation) PDF 98 KB
To receive an update on managing data,
managing the Offices and the ending of the Government’s
Furlough Scheme
Minutes:
The Service Manager (Human Resources and
Organisational Development) provided the Panel with an update on
how the Council was continuing to manage the effect of COVID-19 on
its own workforce. The update covered
the following specific areas:
-
Managing COVID-19 Data
The Council’s
Staff Tracker system continued to be updated on
a daily basis with information from managers who were
reporting staff who were unwell, self-isolating/received positive
Lateral Flow/PCR Tests, along with information provided by staff on
their vaccination status.
Staff working in the
Offices continued to be encouraged to undertake lateral flow
testing twice a week. The twice-weekly
lateral flow testing provision also remained in place at the West
Suffolk Operational Hub.
-
Managing the Offices
The Council was now
operating its agile working practices (see item later on the agenda).
Those activities which needed to be undertaken within the Offices,
required staff to continue to maintain social distancing and mask
wearing. Consideration was also being
given to the pace of re-introducing further staff back to the
Office. A number
of desks still remained ‘out-of-use’ and a desk
booking system had also been introduced to manage staff numbers
within the Offices. There was also a
small number of fixed desks, primarily for use by staff who were
unable to work from home or other locations (for example, those
roles which were office based; to support health and wellbeing; for
those who had no suitable workspace at home). The proposed collaborative open space had not yet
been introduced within the Offices, at this stage, to avoid large
groups of staff/teams working in close
proximity.
The Panel referred
to the desk booking system and asked whether feedback would be
received from staff as to its effectiveness. The Service Manager referred to the Annual Staff
Survey, where there would be a section on returning back to the Offices and where that
question could be particularly captured.
-
Furlough Job Retention Scheme (Coronavirus)
It was noted that
the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme had ended
on 30 September 2021.
With there being no decision required, the
Panel noted the updates provided.
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43. |
West Suffolk Workforce Strategy Update (Presentation/attached) PDF 144 KB
To receive an update on Learning and
Development, Agile Working, the Intern Programme and the supporting
of the Council’s workforce.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Service Manager (Human Resources and
Organisational Development) reported on the following actions
within the strategic priorities of the West Suffolk Workforce
Strategy:
-
Learning and Development
The Council had
continued with the sessions that had been offered since last year,
facilitated by Bailey & French.
There continued to be excellent attendance at these online
sessions, with good participation and feedback. There had been three Autumn workshops, with Module
1 (Building Resilience), Module 2 (Building Team Cohesion) and
Module 3 (Building Connectivity). These
three areas were key to supporting agile ways of working, to ensure
that we took care of ourselves and that we continued with a strong
team ethic and the maintaining of relationships across the Council,
something which became more challenging when working in different
locations.
The Council had also
introduced a new programme called ‘Leading Together’
which focused on its commitment to develop its managers,
leaders and supervisors at all levels,
supporting them to build their knowledge and skills. The Council needed its managers to help continue
to build an engaged and energised workforce, where different ideas
were valued, empowering and trusting in
staff to deliver and being inclusive in all it did.
In early November
2021, the Council held its first Manager Peer Support Group (with
55 managers in attendance). This was a
network set up for managers at all levels across the whole of the
Council, up to Service Manager, to come together and form a
networking group who could support each other. It also provided an opportunity to support good
communication from the top down to a large
number of managers, team leaders and supervisors.
In the
Council’s approach to embedding a learning culture, it had
introduced ‘Take time to Learn’. This approach focussed on continuous learning,
encouraging staff to take responsibility and accountability for
their own learning, as well as the corporate offer of
training. All staff were required to
commit a minimum of one hour learning per month to new skills,
updating current skills, sharing knowledge and experience with
others. This would be further embedded
by discussion through the Personal Development Review (PDR) process
and regular 1-2-1s to support staff on what training they had
undertaken during the review period.
-
Agile Working
Information relating
to the introduction of the Council’s agile working practices
were circulated with the agenda papers (Staff Guide and Full
Guidance documents). Like most public
sector organisations, the Council had gone through a period of
significant change. COVID-19 had
enabled the Council to consider new ways of working and to take
every opportunity to assess how agile working could be at the heart
of transforming the way in which the Council delivered its services
in the future. The aim was to improve service delivery by changing
the way and where we worked (‘Work is an activity we do,
rather than a place we go’).
The Panel discussed
the Council’s agile working practices and asked for the views
of staff. The Service Manager
acknowledged that it was early in its ...
view the full minutes text for item 43.
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44. |
Dates of future meetings
The following dates for future meetings of the
Panel are listed below. All dates are Mondays starting at
3pm. The venue will be determined
nearer the time of each meeting:
·
Monday 31 January 2022
·
Monday 28 March 2022
Minutes:
The Panel noted the dates for future meetings,
as listed below. All dates were Mondays starting at
3pm. The venues would be determined
nearer to each meeting:
·
Monday 31 January 2022
·
Monday 28 March 2022
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