Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 17^th September 2010.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 17 September 2010 were approved as a true and correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Members asked officers to ensure that they received an update in relation to actions one to four of item 16 on the minutes. Ian Priestley to circulate the information outside of the meeting.

To receive any declarations of interest from Members.

There were no declarations of interest received.

This Item is for Information.

The Committee/Commission considered a report (Agenda Item 4) concerning a policy and range of procedures drafted to improve the management of the Council’s transport arrangements. Members were informed that the Chief Executive had agreed the policy under the authority previously delegated to him but that Corporate board had requested that the Personnel Committee have the opportunity to comment on and note the documents. Mark Edwards explained that he had ownership of the document as he had overall responsibility for transport arrangements for the Council. The document had however been drafted in consultation with colleagues in HR and Assurance.

One of the main drivers for producing the documents was to assist with reducing the Council’s insurance policy. While the cost of the policy had increased significantly this year the rate of increase had been reduced as a consequence of the introduction of the policy and procedures. It was hoped that once the policy became further embedded there might be an opportunity to reduce the premiums in the future.

Mr Edwards explained that training measures would be put in place in order to reduce the number of incidents. As part of the training programme an assessment would be undertaken to establish which staff posed the greatest risk. The online training package including a self risk assessment tool which would evidence the level of training individual employees would require.

The Personnel Committee felt that it would be appropriate for the information required from Members to be collected annually by the Members Support officers and that copy of the documentation would be retained in the Policy and Communication unit alongside the other information pertaining to Members. Members would be advised of this requirement by the Head of Highways and Transport during the induction sessions run after the next election. Members requested that clarity be provided as to what would be considered as council business in respect of Members. This should be explained to Members as well as being articulated in the policy. Officers would also be notified of the policy as part of their induction process.

While it was hoped that the policies and procedures would be adopted by all the Council’s schools, in an effort to reduce their insurance premiums, Members were reminded that they were not obliged to adopt Council policies.

Members requested that a number of minor amendments be made to the documents as set out below:

·        Covering Report, paragraph 3.1 (7), remove the numerical value of the excess (to avoid the need to constantly update), and to ensure that it was clear that the excess would be passed onto the relevant service area;

·        Covering Report, paragraph 3.1 (2), clarify what ‘our drivers’ meant;

·        Fleet and Driver Risk Management Policy, paragraph 6.5 remove specific reference to excess amounts

·        Fleet and Driver Risk Management Policy, paragraph 7 (Roles and Responsibilities), needed to include a reference to Members, although it was noted that Members were referred to in paragraph 4.1.2 (Applicability);

·        Fleet and Driver Risk Management Policy, table item (6) the term ‘in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

Lorraine Collins, Vicky Knight and Stefanie Hunt provided Members with a demonstration of the Councils HR System (Resourcelink) which had been implemented in 2006. All employee records were maintained on the system. In addition to HR, other service areas including Payroll and the Training Team could update specific areas of information although access to various applications was restricted. The system was also linked to other areas of work including the IT Helpdesk and Property who needed to be informed when employees joined or left the Council.

In addition to maintain employees staff records other information was also placed on the system which could assist managers responsible for recruitment. This would include information on unsuccessful applicants. An example of the type of useful information that could be provided included where applicants had seen the advertisement for the post which would inform future options for advertising new vacancies. 

The system also assisted the HR Recruitment Team by issuing trigger emails and also automatically generated acknowledgments and responses to applicants that submitted electronic applications. Officers explained that the vast majority of applications for most posts within the Council were now submitted electronically.

Members noted that the system also permitted employees to submit their travel and subsistence claims online and queried whether this could be rolled out to members too. Officers were asked to look into this option.

Jane Milone circulated a list of HR policies, procedures and guidance as at November 2010. Documents shown as orange required updating and those as red were overdue for updating. Jane explained that as HR resources were currently being focussed on the redundancies arising from the reduction in the Council’s revenue budget it was not possible to focus on the policies at this time but that they would be returned to in due course.

Members thanked Officers for all the work they had undertaken in developing new policies and updating existing ones.

To decide a date when the Personnel Committee should next meet.

It was agreed that the next meeting would be arranged as and when required. Officers would circulate a date outside of the meeting when necessary.