Agenda and minutes

To note the attendance at this meeting of any duly appointed Reserve Members.

Reserve Members may attend meetings:-

(i)                 to take the place of an ordinary Member for whom they are a reserve;

(ii)               where the ordinary Member will be absent for the whole of the meeting; and

(iii)             the meeting notes at the start of the meeting at the item ‘Reserves’ that the Reserve Member is or will be attending as a reserve;

(iv)              if a Reserve Member whose intention to attend has been noted arrives after the commencement of the meeting, then that Reserve Member can only act as a Member from the start of the next item of business on the agenda after his/her arrival.

RESOLVED:  To note the attendance at this meeting of the following duly appointed Reserve Member:-

To receive declarations of personal or prejudicial interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from:

(a)               all Members of the Committee, Sub Committee, Panel or Forum;

(b)               all other Members present in any part of the room or chamber.

RESOLVED:  To note that the following interests were declared:

Agenda Item 7 – Information Report – Annual Equality in Employment Monitoring from 1 April 2010 – 31 March 2011, Agenda Item 8 – Information Report – Contractual Status of Employment Policies and Procedures, Agenda Item 9 – Information Report – Policies and Procedures Application, Agenda Item 10 – Information Report – Employee Procedure Appeals, Agenda Item 11 – Information Report – Follow Up Actions, Agenda Item 12 – Information Report – Annual Health and Safety Report 2010/11

Councillor Bob Currie declared a personal interest in that he was a retired Unison member and his son worked for the Council.  He would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon.

Councillor Graham Henson declared a personal interest in that he was a member of the Communication Workers Union and he had a relative employed by the Council.  He would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon.

Agenda Item 7 – Information Report – Annual Equality in Employment Monitoring from 1 April 2010 – 31 March 2011

Councillor Jean Lammiman declared a personal interest in that she was a member of the Harrow Equalities Centre.  She would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon.

Councillor Paul Osborn declared a personal interest in that he had received hospitality from Capita which was declared on his Register of Gifts and Hospitality.  He would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon.

Agenda Item 8 – Information Report – Contractual Status of Employment Policies and Procedures

Councillor Paul Osborn declared a personal interest in that he was the former Portfolio Holder who had made an original decision on the status of employment policies being contractual and the associated Best Practice notes and Toolkits being non-contractual.  He would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon.

That the minutes of the meeting held on 6 July 2011 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

A Trade Union Member of the Forum commented that he believed there were inaccuracies within the minutes.  He proposed three amendments which were as follows:

·                     to add a further bullet point at the end of page 5 to read “As a large organisation and employer, there was an onus on the Council to follow the relevant ACAS guidelines to ensure that the relevant ‘checks and balances’ had been conducted.  It was Unison’s view that this should have been conducted by the Business Support Project Team”;

·                     to add a sixth bullet point on page 6 to read “Unison had raised during their consultation that they considered this to be a redundancy exercise as there were less posts and more employees, therefore fulfilling the redundancy definition”;

·                     to add an extra resolution to page 7 to read “That data be provided to the unions on how checks and balances were conducted by the Business Support Project Team”.

Upon consideration, the Forum agreed that only the first two amendments would be accepted.

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 6 July 2011, be taken as read and signed as a correct record subject to the following amendments:

·                     to add a further bullet point at the end of page 5 to read “As a large organisation and employer, there was an onus on the Council to follow the relevant ACAS guidelines to ensure that the relevant ‘checks and balances’ had been conducted. It was Unison’s view that this should have been conducted by the Business Support Project Team”;

·                     to add a sixth bullet point on page 6 to read “Unison had raised during their consultation that they considered this to be a redundancy exercise as there were less posts and more employees, therefore fulfilling the redundancy definition”.

To receive petitions (if any) submitted by members of the public/Councillors under the provisions of Executive Procedure Rule 49 (Part 4D of the Constitution).

RESOLVED:  To note that no petitions were received at this meeting under the provisions of the Executive Procedure Rule 49 (Part 4D of the Constitution).

To receive deputations (if any) under the provisions of Executive Procedure Rule 50 (Part 4D of the Constitution).

RESOLVED:  To note that no deputations were received at this meeting under the provisions of Executive Procedure Rule 50 (Part 4D of the Constitution).

To receive questions (if any) from local residents or organisations under the provisions of Executive Procedure Rule 51 (Part 4D of the Constitution).

The public questioners were not present at the meeting.  The Chairman agreed that written responses would be provided to the questioners as set out below.

RESOLVED:  To note that the following public questions were received:

1.

2.

Report of the Assistant Chief Executive.

An officer introduced a report which provided information on recruitment applicant monitoring, workforce profile, take up of corporately organised training courses and application of employment procedures.

The officer explained that the report had been presented in a new format and provided headline information in relation on equalities in relation to employment issues relating to age, disability, race, sex and for pregnancy and maternity.  Data relating to schools had been shown separately.

The officer addressed a number of issues as follows:

BAME

·                     There was a modest increase in the Black and Ethnic Minority (BAME) representation in the whole Council workforce increasing to 34.92%. Excluding schools this figure was 37.79%;

·                     in terms of recruitment, there was a slight increase in the number of BAME external applicants appointed to 42.9%.  There was a substantial increase in the proportion of BAME internal applicants appointed;

·                     44% of capability cases and 40% of conduct cases involved BAME staff;

·                     in terms of leavers, 30% were from BAME background. In the Voluntary Severance Scheme (VSS), 28% leaving were from a BAME background.

Gender

·                     In terms of gender profile, 75.93% of the workforce in the Council were women.  This was higher than the community profile;

·                     there was an increase in the proportion of external women appointed to 52.3%.  There had been a decrease internally;

·                     42.9% of conduct cases involved women with 57.1% involving males;

·                     66.7% of capability cases involved females and 32.1% involved males;

·                     in terms of Dignity at Work cases, 67.9% involved Females and 32.1% involved Males;

·                     72% of leavers from the Council were female and 28% were male. Under the VSS, 56% of leavers were female and 44% were male.

Disability

·                     There was a slight decrease in the representation of employees with a disability in the workforce.  This was 1.84% and excluding schools this figure was 3.63%;

·                     there was a slight increase in the proportion of applicants with a disability who had been appointed, up to 4.8%.  There had been a reduction in the proportion of applicants with a disability appointed internally to 14.3%;

·                     in relation to employment procedures, 7.1% of employees involved with conduct cases, 5.6% of employees involved with capability cases and 11% of staff involved with Dignity at Work cases had a disability;

·                     1% of leavers had a disability.  No employees who had left the Council under the VSS had a disability.

Age

·                     The highest concentration of employees was in the age range 45-54 years.  There were low numbers in relation to the number of staff between 16-24 years.  The Council were attempting to address this by introducing apprenticeships.  There was also a future predicted increase in the number of employees who would be 65 years and over;

·                     Conduct and Capability cases involved more staff in the 45-54 age range.  Dignity at Work cases involved more staff in the 55-64 age range;

·                     the highest proportion of leavers was in the 25-34 year age range.  The highest leavers on the VSS were in the 55-64 year age range;

·                     in relation to employees returning from pregnancy  ...  view the full minutes text for item 62.

Report of the Divisional Director Human Resources & Development and Shared Services.

The Forum received a report which set out progress made to achieving agreement with the unions on the decision that employment policies be contractual and the associated Best Practice Notes and Toolkits be non-contractual.

An officer explained that at the last meeting of the Forum, it had been reported that officers were confident of reaching an agreement with the unions on the employment policies.  However since then, officers had not had a formal response from either Unison or GMB.  The officer reported that the deadlines had been moved several times for a response, but as of the last deadline on 25 August 2011, no response had been received.  The GMB union had responded to officers in October 2011 and indicated that they were not in agreement with the Portfolio Holder’s decision as they required more information.  As there was no resolution achieved, it was now the intention of officers to refer the issue back to the Portfolio Holder for Performance, Customer Services and Corporate Services.

During the discussion on this item, Trade Union Members commented that they had concerns with the application of how employee procedures were working.  They claimed that this had been highlighted by another report due to be discussed at the meeting which supported their arguments.  Trade Union Members highlighted issues relating to timescales involved in relation to employment procedures which they claimed were poor.  They claimed that this placed their Trade Union members in a position where they were unable to make legal claims.  They believed the timescales were poor and had to re?consult with others within the union on the proposals.

The Chairman clarified that no employee procedures could negate an employee’s access to the Employment Tribunal.  Another Member of the Forum clarified that the issue was now being referred back to the Portfolio Holder.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

Report of the Divisional Director Human Resources & Development and Shared Services.

The Chairman advised the Forum that this Agenda Item and Agenda Item 10, Information Report – Employee Procedure Appeals, would be debated together as they considered similar issues.

An officer introduced the reports which set out the performance and outcomes of the application of employment procedures across the Council.  The officer reported that:

·                     the report had been prepared on the basis of concerns raised by the Trade Unions regarding what they perceived to be inequality of treatment between those staff on H grades and senior managers.  The report had demonstrated that there was no difference in treatment.  Indeed there had been more cases relating to conduct involving senior managers than those employees on H grades relative to the population size of each group;

·                     it had been recognised that there was an issue relating to timescales which would be addressed.

In response to questions raised by Members of the Forum, the officer reported that:

·                     an employee’s right to access an Employment Tribunal was not affected by the duration of internal Council processes.  The Council did run the risk of an additional award being made if relevant timescales had not reasonably been adhered to;

·                     the vast majority of cases brought to the Employment Tribunal in 2010/11 had been withdrawn by employees.  There had been only a few cases that had found against the Council and in only one of these was compensation awarded.  This demonstrated that the Council made the right decisions the vast majority of the time;

·                     the average time taken for Dignity at Work cases to be resolved had been skewed by one specific case which had taken approximately 14 months in its duration;

·                     Employment Procedures were not being conducted any slower than at any time in the past.  Cases were becoming increasingly complex with significant increases in the amount of paperwork.  It was important that managers did a thorough job when dealing with cases.

During the discussion on this item, Elected Members of the Forum made a number of comments which included:

·                     an Action Plan should be prepared and implemented to address issues relating to timescales and how this was monitored.  It would be useful for a report being presented to a future meeting of the Forum on this issue.  Information should be broken down by each relevant Directorate;

·                     there were sometimes mitigating factors as to why timescales were delayed.  Personnel Appeals were often complex and each case had different characteristics.  Rather than looking at average amount of time taken, it may be better to set a target for cases to be resolved or look at the lead in time for each appeal;

·                     employee procedures should usually be dealt with within a month or two.

During the discussion on this item, Trade Union Members of the Forum made a number of comments which included:

·                     the unions did not wish to use the employment procedures as a prelude to Employment Tribunal cases;

·                     Unison had dealt with cases, which on average had taken 7 months.  In some cases they alleged that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 64.

Joint Report of the Divisional Director Human Resources & Development and Shared Services and the Director of Legal and Governance Services.

The issues raised in this item were considered together with Agenda Item 9, Information Report – Policies and Procedures Application as they considered similar issues.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

Joint Report of the Divisional Director Human Resources & Development and Shared Services and the Director of Legal and Governance Services.

An officer introduced a report providing information relating to follow up actions requested by the Forum since January 2010.

An officer confirmed that this would be a standard item on each agenda to ensure that the Forum were kept up to date on progress made in relation to the actions they had requested.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

Report of the Assistant Chief Executive.

The Forum received a report evaluating the accident and training statistics during the financial year 2010/11.

An officer reported that:

·                     the report had been presented to the last meeting of the Forum. Members had requested extra information on the analysis and context of the statistics provided;

·                     the information provided had been presented to show relevant information by each directorate;

·                     officers had been liaising with schools in the borough to heighten awareness of Health and Safety issues.  This had involved visiting every school in the borough;

·                     actions were being taken to address disappointing attendance figures for Health and Safety training events.

During the discussion on this item, Members of the Forum raised a number of issues which were responded to as follows:

·                     the recent figures in relation to the number of accidents in Children’s Services was showing signs of beginning to level off having increased significantly in the last few years;

·                     the item would be placed as an agenda item at the next meeting of the Health and Safety Partnership Meeting;

·                     staff at schools received physical intervention training.  The Trainer within the Council could only train permanent staff.  Agency staff were instructed not to intervene.  Risk assessments were in place to address the scenarios;

·                     it was believed that the explanation for an increase in the number of accidents reported from quarter 3 in 2010/11 to quarter 4, was due to a new online tool for reporting accidents.  Officers had been to each of the schools in the borough and highlighted the need to be more proactive in reporting accidents;

·                     training on Health and Safety had been provided to all Headteachers.  Officers had not spoken personally with all Headteachers on the significant increase in reported accidents.  This would be an action that officers would perform;

·                     details of the statistics presented to the Forum would be broken down further in the half year report, which would be presented to the Forum at a later date.  This report would include more information on analysis.

During the discussion, Elected Members on the Forum also made a number of comments which included:

·                     schools had been advised to report all accidents and that there were new methods to report accidents;

·                     it would be helpful if details relating to academies could be shown separately when presenting the half – year report.

During the discussion, Trade Union Members on the Forum also made a number of comments which included:

·                     they believed there needed to be a greater focus on safety inspection at schools;

·                     they believed that agency staff not being trained in physical intervention posed a risk to all staff employed.  Their pay and conditions should be the same as permanent staff.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.