Agenda and minutes

To appoint a Chair for the Municipal Year 2022/23.

RESOLVED that Councillor Lewanski be appointed Chair of the Employment Committee for the Municipal Year 2022/23 having been proposed by Councillor Tary and seconded by Councillor Bray.

To appoint a Vice-Chair for the Municipal Year 2022/23.

RESOLVED that Councillor Tary be appointed Vice-Chair of the Employment Committee for the Municipal Year 2022/23 having been proposed by Councillor Schofield and seconded by Councillor Lewanski.

To receive any apologies for absence.

There were no apologies for absence with all Members of the Committee in attendance.

To receive any declarations of interest.

The Head of Paid Service, the Interim Strategic Head of Corporate Resources, the Head of Finance & Assets, the Head of Legal & Governance, and the Director of Place all declared their interest in Agenda Item 11.

To approve the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 25 January 2022.

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the meeting held on 25 January 2022 be approved.

The Committee received and considered its Terms of Reference. Questions for clarification were asked regarding protected characteristics.

RESOLVED that Procedural Rule 9 be reviewed to provide clarity regarding the role of the Employment Committee in the process used to recruit the Head of Paid Service, Statutory Chief Officers, the Deputy Chief Executive and Direct Reports to the Chief Executive (as detailed in Annex 1).

RESOLVED that the Responsibility for Functions of the Employment Committee, set out in Part 3a of the Constitution, and Procedure Rule 9 – Officer Employment, set out in Part 4 of the Constitution, be noted.

For the Committee to consider its training needs and how these will be fulfilled.

The Committee considered it training requirements and how these would be fulfilled.

RESOLVED that the Head of Organisational Development & HR provide the Committee (both Members and Substitutes) with statutory training on the legal requirements involved in employee recruitment inclusive of:

·       safer recruitment training;

·       guidance on unconscious bias and protected characteristics; and

·       case studies including those arising from employment tribunals

To receive and consider the workforce and organisational development update.

The Head of Organisational Development & HR presented the report which provided a summary of workforce data, including employee demographics, sickness absence, turnover, recruitment advertising and apprenticeships.

The Committee requested that the clarity of the tables in the report be improved to make the data presented easier to understand and scrutinise.

The Head of Organisational Development & HR was asked to provide more detail on long term sickness figures including how many individuals were represented by the figures presented and what if any relationship these had with Long Covid. The increase in sickness following the lifting of lockdown measures was explored with it being explained that this was correlated with greater social mixing including on public transport when commuting. Being able to work from home during the pandemic also enabled more to continue working when unwell.

It was confirmed that summary workforce data was regularly reported to the Corporate Governance Group. This comprised all senior management and allowed for the ongoing monitoring of trends including the diversity of the Council’s workforce and community representation.

The Committee explored levels of staff turnover and how the full benefit of terms of service were being promoted. This included the rate of employer pension contributions (15% but reviewed every three years as part of the actuarial review). It was noted that the Council’s maternity and paternity policies were an enhancement on the statutory requirement and that the Local Government sick pay scheme increased with tenure.

RESOLVED to note the Workforce Data Summary and Organisational Development Update.

For the Committee to consider its draft 2022/23 Work Programme.

RESOLVED that the work programme as presented be accepted and implement for the 2022/23 municipal year with the addition of the following for consideration at the Committee’s meeting on 3 November 2022:

·       Hybrid working

·       The impact of financial sustainability on the resourcing implications of the organisational strategy.

To receive a verbal update on the pay award for 2022/23 from the Head of Paid Service.

RESOLVED to exclude members of the press and public from the meeting for this item of business under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the grounds that:

1.    It involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act; and

2.    the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.

The Head of Paid Service provided the Committee with an update on the 2022/23 pay award.

RESOLVED to note the verbal update provided by the Head of Paid Service on the 2022/23 pay award.

The Chair returned the meeting to public session.

To consider the title and remuneration of the Head of Paid Service and as well the appointment of a permanent Section 151 officer.

RESOLVED to exclude members of the press and public from the meeting for this item of business under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the grounds that:

1.             It involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act; and

2.             the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.

Senior management scoping and benchmarking

Those officers for whom the senior management scoping and benchmarking was directly relevant to their terms of employment left the meeting (the Interim Strategic Head of Corporate Resources, the Head of Finance & Assets, the Head of Legal & Governance, and the Director of Place) having previously declared their interest in this aspect of the item.

The Employment Committee received and considered an update on the senior management scoping and benchmarking from the Head of Paid Service. It was explained that an external benchmarking had been undertaken of senior management roles to achieve transparency following the adoption of a new management structure and redistribution of responsibilities in November 2021. The context for this work was a high level of movement amongst the senior management of authorities in London and a desire for Reigate and Banstead to attract and retain a high quality of senior managers, especially to statutory roles.

Committee Members questioned the Head of Paid Service on the details of the senior management scoping and benchmarking exercise and the resulting changes to senior management roles. It was noted by the Committee that those changes were for approval by the Head of Paid Service under delegated decision-making authority.

Appointment of permanent Chief Finance Officer and Section 151 Officer

The Head of Paid Service reminded the Employment Committee of the previous unsuccessful attempts to appoint a Section 151 Officer in 2019 since when the post had been filled by Pat Main in an interim capacity. It was proposed that the Employment Committee recommend to Council that Pat Main take on the role in a permanent capacity. All Members of the Committee endorsed the proposal, individually expressing their appreciation for the qualities Pat Main had brought to the role of Section 151 Officer.

Head of Paid Service terms and conditions

The Head of Paid Service left the meeting having already declared an interest in this aspect of the item.

The Interim Strategic Head of Corporate Resources and the Head of Legal & Governance returned to the meeting.

The Employment Committee received and considered the recommended changes to the terms and conditions of the Head of Paid Service. The Head of Organisational Development and Interim Strategic Head of Corporate Resources explained that the Head of Paid Service post had been subject to the same scoping and benchmarking exercise as other senior management posts. As a result, it was proposed that the Employment Committee recommend to Council that:

·       the job title of the Head of Paid Service be changed to Managing Director. This was to enable the role to be clearly differentiated  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

To consider any item(s) which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be considered as a matter of urgency – Local Government Act 1972, Section 100B(4)(b).

Note: Urgent business must be submitted in writing but may be supplemented by an oral report.

There was no other urgent business for the meeting to consider.