Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Fitzgerald and Lamb. Councillor C Burton attended as substitute for Councillor Fitzgerald and Councillor M Dalton attended as substitute for Councillor Lamb.

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the meeting held on 19 June 2008 were approved as an accurate record.

As a consequence of changes to the Local Government Pension Scheme an audit of the council’s employment policies had been carried out and this had necessitated changes to three policies:

·            The Retirement policy had been amended to state that the age at which flexible retirement benefits were payable changed to age 55 years from age 50 years.

·            The Grievance procedure had been amended to state that it was not the relevant procedure to use for appeals against pension decisions. 

·            The Attendance policy had been amended to take account of the revised ill health retirement rules for those employees who were members of the local government pension scheme. 

          The Adoption policy and the Maternity policy had been amended as a result of changes to the Sex Discrimination Act.  The employee was now entitled to receive all the contractual benefits (excluding salary) throughout the entire Adoption leave and Maternity leave periods respectively.

An amendment to the employee code of conduct reinforced the legal position whereby employees who were Qualified Social Workers must be registered with the General Social Care Council (Care Standards Act 2000) and that teachers / those with Qualified Teacher Status must be registered with the General Teaching Council for England (Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998). 

Some areas had been identified where the process and practice when managing Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) disclosure checks could be improved even further.  The main changes were:-

·           Introduction of a formal risk assessment process to be followed in the event that a person commenced work pending return of their CRB disclosure results.

·           Further explanation regarding offences which were declared as high risk for employment with children and vulnerable adults.

·           Further confirmation of the role of the manager in ensuring the correct level of check was undertaken and the forms completed correctly.

·           Definition of volunteer stated to ensure compliance with the Police Act 1997 (Criminal Records) (Fees) Order 2004. 

Members stressed the need to ensure timescales for CRB checks were improved. Officers            advised that the issues were improving as on-line checking was now available and      recruitment processes were being revamped and streamlined. The prime concern however             was to ensure that safeguarding remained top of the agenda. In the case of agency workers working with children or vulnerable people the council would ask for a CRB checked person       and could ask for evidence that the check had been done. Members asked how often proof    of CRB checks were requested of agency staff and officers agreed to investigate and send a         response. 

The Managing Change Policy had been amended to state that the age at which redundancy benefits were payable had changed to age 55 years from age 50 years. A review of the current discretionary compensation payments in place had resulted in the proposal that there should be no change to our existing position.  However, an additional statement had been included to explain the statutory position explicitly. It had also been amended to make clear the discretionary powers allowing an employee to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Committee received a consultation document which had been published on 6 August 2008 and explained the background to the proposal for changes in the Council’s senior management structure.  In the light of the challenges the council faced, the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council had asked the Chief Executive to review the fitness for purpose of the current management arrangements, giving due consideration to the Council’s ambitions for the city and the areas where the Council needs to focus its improvement efforts in service provision.

The Committee considered the consultation responses received from directors and heads of service.  The level and detail of the consultation responses reflected the strong engagement and commitment of the directors and heads of service to the review.  Most senior managers recognised the need to focus on customer management, service and care and the need to further break down silos within departments to ensure good customer service.  There was also strong support for the case made to move away from an operational focus at the corporate management team, allowing heads of service to focus not only on their own service area but also to work across functions using their capabilities more effectively within the organisation.  Finally, there was strong support for the case made that members should be better supported.

         The consultation document identified a number of changes to the management structure as well as ways of working which the consultees were asked to comment on.  There was good support and general welcoming of the proposals, with massive support for the Leadership Programme and Workforce Development initiative. There was strong support for the proposals on senior management arrangements and the redefinition of the roles between the corporate management team and the broader senior management teams of heads of service and assistant directors. 

         Having considered all of the consultation, the Chief Executive planned to make a number of changes to the proposals set out in Annex 1 to the report.

         In response to a query from members it was stressed that there were no proposals at this stage to amend the Cabinet portfolio structures.

RESOLVED:

The Committee approved the changes to the senior management structure proposed by the Chief Executive.

Chairman

15.00 to 15.25