Agenda

RECOMMENDED that the Minutes of the meeting of the Employment Committee held on 16 June 2015 be confirmed and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

The purpose of the report is to update the Employment Committee on Portsmouth City Council’s (PCC) health and safety (H&S) performance for the period 1 April 2014 - 31 March 2015.

RECOMMENDED that the 2015/16 H&S action plan be agreed and endorsed by the Employment Committee.

The purpose of the report is to seek approval in principle to select and procure an employee benefits portal, subject to it demonstrating employer recruitment and retention benefits, employee benefits and overall financial savings.    

RECOMMENDED that

1.      Employment Committee approve the implementation of an employee benefits portal, subject to recommendations 2 and 3 below

2.      Employment Committee delegates the selection of the employee benefits portal to the Director of Finance and IS and Director of HR, Legal and Procurement. The selection criteria will incorporate a financial appraisal to demonstrate that financial savings will accrue from this initiative.   

3.      Employment Committee delegate authority to the Director of HR, Legal and Procurement in consultation with the Chair of the Employment Committee to investigate and implement the appropriate range of benefits to be included in the portal. (This will be informed by some external support we are currently obtaining (at no cost) to look at the demographics of the council workforce to identify which benefits would deliver the best outcome for staff in terms of take up and also savings to the council. An idea of the types of benefit that could be included in the portal are listed in section 4.1.)

The purpose of this item is to make an appointment to the Hampshire Pension Fund Panel to serve for the period up to 30 September 2017.

The nominee must be an elected member and should have a grasp of financial issues and be prepared to commit time to the duties involved, including the requirement to undergo training on local government pension funds and their investment. There is no remuneration for this role. Expenses can be claimed under Portsmouth's scheme of allowances for meetings outside the city.

This vacancy will be circulated to group leaders and secretaries (at the same time as this agenda) seeking nominations.

RECOMMENDED that an appointment to serve on the Hampshire Pension Fund Panel to 30 September 2017 (subject to the appointee remaining an elected member) be made.

The purpose of the report is to seek approval from Members for a definition of what we mean by a Chief Officer employed by Portsmouth City Council.   

RECOMMENDED that Employment Committee notes that the outdated reference to SM2 in the delegations to the Employment Committee (section 2, part 2, para 3) be updated to a catch all definition of Chief Officer, which should be:

(1)                on the JNC terms and conditions, and

(2)                defined as one or more, of the following:

·         The Chief Executive

·         The Deputy Chief Executive

·         The S151 Officer

·         A direct report to the Chief Executive (i.e. Port Manager; Director of Public Health; Director of Regulatory Services, Community Safety and Troubled Families; Director of Integrated Commissioning Unit; Director of Adult Services; and, Director of Children Services and Education)

·         A direct report to the Deputy Chief Executive (i.e. Director of Housing and Property; Director of Transport, Environment and Business Support; Director of Culture and City Development; Director of Finance and Information Services (NB also S151 officer); Director of HR, Legal and Procurement; and, Director of Community and Communication)

The purpose of the report is to  present the outcomes of the Equal Pay Audit 2015, ensuring the Council can fulfil its statutory obligations in respect of equal pay for its employees, and deliver its corporate commitment to equalities. 

RECOMMENDED that the Employment Committee:

1.    Note the key findings of the Equal Pay Audit 2015.

2.    Agree the recommendations set out within the Equal Pay Audit report.

The purpose of this report is to advise members of proposed modifications to the senior management structure for Children's Services, in order to clarify reporting lines and accountabilities.

RECOMMENDED that Employment Committee:

(i)            Revise the senior management structure, as agreed by this committee on 19^th February 2015, to the effect of deleting the post of Director of Children's Social Care.

(ii)          Note the creation of posts of Deputy Director of Children's Services - Social Care and Deputy Director of Children's Services - Education, reporting to the Director of Children's Services

The purpose of the report is to inform members of a change to the procedures, recently agreed by Full Council that must be followed for the dismissal of designated statutory officer posts (Head of Paid Service, Monitoring Officer or Chief Finance Officer). These new changed procedures were set by central Government. To ensure that the new procedures are in line with employment law this report also seeks that the committee approve an appeals process, to be followed in the event of such a dismissal, which will then be placed before full council.

RECOMMENDED that Employment Committee:

(1)  Notes the new process for dismissal of designated statutory officer posts (set out in paragraphs 4.1-4.4) and also the new Officers' Employment Procedure Rules in Part 3D of the constitution that have been approved by Council (see Appendix 1) in line with Government requirements and which have been subsequently modified to take account of the contents of this report.

(2)  Agrees that in order to meet the new requirements, and also employment law, that the specific process to be followed, set out in section 5, is proposed to Full Council for adoption (via Governance and Audit and Standards Committee) with the proposed new Officers Employment Procedure Rules shown as Appendix 1.

The purpose of the report is to advise Members about proposed changes to HR policies.

RECOMMENDED

Members are recommended to:

                      i.        Adopt the new Appeal policy (Appendix 1) and note consequent amendments to other associated policies.

                    ii.        Note that the Director of HR, Legal and Procurement will update all other policies to reflect new job roles created by latest senior management restructure (in particular removing references to Heads of Service and Strategic Directors).

                   iii.        Note that the 2^nd appeal stage in the grievance section of the Formal Action policy will be removed.

                   iv.        Note the different composition of dismissal panels (excluding schools and probationary dismissals) as detailed in the report.

                    v.        Change the requirement in the Flexible Retirement policy from a permanent reduction in salary of at least 50% to a permanent reduction in salary of at least 20%. Achieved through either a reduction in hours or band of post or a combination of these.

                   vi.        Adopt the revised Organisational Change and Redundancy policy and procedure and note that the qualifying criteria for redeployment support would increase from 1 year to 2 years' continuous local government service.

The purpose of this quarterly report is to update and inform Employment Committee on actions being taken that have an effect on the levels of sickness absence across Services.

RECOMMENDED that Employment Committee

1. Continue to monitor sickness absence, on a quarterly basis, and to ensure appropriate management action is taken to address absenteeism.

2.  Continue to offer a range of interventions around the three main reasons for sickness absence to assist employees to manage their attendance at work.

3.  Support Public Health flu vaccination campaign for 2015 by working with Corporate Communications to develop marketing initiatives to maximise the uptake of flu vaccinations, especially where Directorates have contact with NHS defined risk groups or have particular low uptake in 2014. 

The next meeting is scheduled for 15 December 2015.