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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Meeting Room F2 Council Offices Market Street Newbury. View directions

Contact: Moira Fraser / Janet Giddings 

Note: This meeting can be viewed online from 10:30am on the 24 April 2020 at: https://youtu.be/IiibAYQV_dY 

Items
No. Item

18.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 80 KB

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 11th February 2020.

Minutes:

The Minutes of the meeting held on 11 February 2020 were approved as a true and correct record and signed by the Chairman.

19.

Declarations of Interest

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.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest received.

20.

Parental Leave for Members Report (PC3841) pdf icon PDF 137 KB

Purpose: To adopt a parental leave policy for Councillors in accordance with the motion that was approved at the 12 September 2019 Council meeting.

 

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report (Agenda Item 4)which sought agreement to adopt a parental leave policy for Councillors in accordance with the motion that was approved at the 12 September 2019 Council meeting.

Abi Witting explained that the Leader had proposed the motion which had been adopted by Council and was designed to encourage a more diverse range of people to stand for election in the future. It was hoped that the policy would assist with the work life balance for elected Members. She thanked the Legal Team for their input into the report. The policy was based on the employee framework and would address the issue of Members ceasing to be a member if they were unable to attend a Council meeting over a six month period.

Councillor Jeff Brooks commented that was a good, well written policy and he thanked Officers for it. He did however feel that, as this was a policy for Members, there should be more emphasis on the role of Group Leaders in the document. He therefore requested that paragraphs 5.1 and 8.1 be expanded to include the role of the Group Leader and the political groups and not just those of the Monitoring officer. Councillor Brooks commented that the report would need to be promoted.

Officers commented that they would amend the policy to reflect the changes suggested. The following changes were proposed:

·         Insert the following paragraph at 4.3 - Before formally requesting to take Qualifying Parental Leave a Member should first consult their political group leader.

·         Paragraph 8.1 to be amended to read: ‘On returning to Member duties (or commencing duties if a New Member), a Member can request a ‘parental buddy’ to support them – for example, someone who has experience of returning to duties following a period of maternity or adoption leave.  Such requests should be discussed with the Member’s political group leader in the first instance.’

 

Officers note that in terms of publicity, while the Council would publish the policy on its website, it would be incumbent on the political groups to make prospective candidates aware of the policy in order to encourage more diversity of candidates. Councillors Adrian Abbs, Dennis Benneyworth and Howard Woollaston stated that they would be willing to accept the changes proposed by Councillor Brooks and that they too welcomed the policy.

RESOLVED that:

1.    the policy as amended at the meeting would be adopted.

2.    Authority be delegated to the Personnel Committee to make any future changes to the policy following a review.

3.    Authority be delegated to the Service Director Strategy & Governance to make any changes to the Constitution arising from the approval of the policy.

 

 

21.

Future Meeting Dates

·         17 July 2020 at 10.30am in the Committee Room

·         13 November 2020 at 10.30am in the Committee Room

·         12 February 2020 at 10.30am in the Committee Room

Minutes:

17 July 2020 at 10.30am in the Committee Room

13 November 2020 at 10.30am in the Committee Room

12 February 2020 at 10.30am in the Committee Room