Agenda and draft minutes

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 12 February 2019.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 12 February 2019 were approved as a true and correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To remind Members of the need to record the existence and nature of any personal, disclosable pecuniary or other registrable interests in items on the agenda, in accordance with the Members’ Code of Conduct.

There were no declarations of interest received.

Purpose: The following amendment to the Statutory Pay Policy (at 3.1) was proposed by Cllr Lee Dillon at Full Council on 05/03/19:

“All jobs within the Council are paid on salary grades within five or more incremental points.  All jobs within the Council will be contractually remunerated as a minimum at the National Living Wage level and we will seek our suppliers to do the same, through our procurement processes”.

Full Council agreed to refer the amendment for decision to the Personnel Committee.

See extract from the Personnel Committee on 17^th September 2018 when the ‘Real Living Wage’ was discussed and a proposal not to proceed in accordance with this amendment was approved. It has now been confirmed that the amendment refers to the ‘Real Living Wage’ when it says ‘National Living Wage’.

The Committee considered Agenda Item 4 concerning an amendment proposed to the Statutory Pay Policy at the Full Council meeting held on 5 March 2019. Councillor Lee Dillon had proposed the following “All jobs within the Council are paid on salary grades within five or more incremental points.  All jobs within the Council will be contractually remunerated as a minimum at the National Living Wage level and we will seek our suppliers to do the same, through our procurement processes”. It had been determined to refer the matter for the Personnel Committee’s consideration.

Robert O’Reilly explained that the Liberal Democrat Group Support Officer had agreed with him that the amendment should read ‘Real Living Wage’; the ‘Real Living Wage’ was set by a charity and was always higher than the ‘National Living Wage’. Robert O’Reilly referred to the minutes from the meeting of the Personnel Committee held on 17 September 2018 at which if had been decided not to proceed in accordance with the amendment. Members had considered that they did not want to tie the Council to the terms of being a Real Living Wage employer and instead preferred to shadow the National Joint Committee conditions, also known as the ‘Green Book’. It should be noted that schools had not signed up to the previous West Berkshire Living Wage Supplement. For these reasons, officers recommended that the amendment be rejected.

Councillor Mollie Lock expressed concern regarding the impact on schools’ budgets should the Committee approve the amendment.

RESOLVED that the amendment failed.

Purpose: To seek approval from the Personnel Committee for a change in the allocation of the statutory role of Section 151 Officer as set out in the report to the Executive on 28/03/19 attached as Appendix D to the report.

The Committee considered a report (Agenda Item 5) to seek approval to change the designation of the statutory role of Section 151 officer from the Head of Finance and Property to the new Executive Director (Resources).

The Executive had approved a new senior management structure on 28 March 2019. At present, the Chief Executive had the dual role as Corporate Director (Resources). The new structure would see the separation of the Chief Executive’s role to create a new Executive Director (Resources) post. It was proposed that this role would hold the statutory role of Section 151 officer in order to ensure that finance had greater prominence in the Council’s strategic management. It was also proposed that the statutory roles of Director of Adult Social Services and Director of Children’s Services return to the Executive Director (Communities) post once Andy Sharp assumed his role in May 2019.

In response to a query by Councillor Richard Crumly, Nick Carter explained that the Executive had approved the new structure but the power to designate statutory roles was delegated to the Personnel Committee.

Councillor Lock expressed concern that the Executive Director (Resources) was yet to be appointed and the role would have responsibility for schools budgets. Nick Carter advised that the vacancy was ready to be advertised subject to the Personnel Committee’s approval of the recommendation and he would hope to have the post filled by the Autumn.

Councillor Dennis Benneyworth asked about the financial implications of the restructure. Nick Carter advised that it was the Executive’s role to approve the financial implications of the restructure but as 13 Heads of Service would be replaced by 7 Service Directors, it was anticipated that the new structure would cost less than the present structure. However there would be a need to consider the staffing levels at the new tier 4 level.It was intended to phase in the new structure in order to avoid the need for potential redundancy costs associated with a sudden implementation.

RESOLVED: 

That the statutory role of Section 151 Officer is transferred from the post of Head of Finance to the post of Executive Director (Resources) on the date when the post of Executive Director (Resources) becomes occupied.

That the statutory role of DCS is transferred from the post of Head of Education to the post of Executive Director (People) on the date when the post of Executive Director (People) becomes occupied.

That the statutory role of DAS is transferred from the post of Head of Adult Social Care to the post of Executive Director (People) on the date when the post of Executive Director (People) becomes occupied.

·         11 June 2019

The Committee agreed to hold the next meeting on 11 June 2019 at 10am.