Agenda and draft minutes

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meetings of the Committee held on 21 February 2022 and 10 May 2022.

The Minutes of the meetings held on 21 February 2022 and 10 May 2022 were approved as true and correct records 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.

Purpose: the report is an information only report for the purposes of updating on HR activity for 2021/2022 which includes Recruitment, Appraisals and Performance Management, Training, and Casework. There is also a brief update on the Workforce Strategy and actions in Appendix A.

Paula Goodwin (HR Service Lead), introduced the report (Agenda Item 4), which provided updates on HR activity for 2021/2022 including Recruitment, Appraisals and Performance Management, Training, and Casework. Paula Goodwin noted that it was the second time that such a report had been to the Committee.

Councillor Jeff Brooks commented that he did not see any improvement in the data and that he felt that all of the amber items in Appendix A should be explained item by item.

Paula Goodwin explained that the chart was not RAG rated.

Councillor Lynne Doherty queried the accuracy of section 6.3 of the report which referred to ‘305.83 FTE at WBC as at the 31st March 2022 (including all temporary posts)’.  

Paula Goodwin clarified that the word ‘vacant’ was missing from the sentence.

Appendix A queries

Councillor Doherty queried whether the ‘Review of Training and Development Programme, had commenced given that it had a target date to complete by March 2022. Paula Goodwin responded that a training needs analysis was undertaken in February and that a new corporate training programme had been published on the intranet.

Councillor Doherty referred to the section which detailed ‘Diversity in Recruitment’ and queried whether recruitment had commenced for the Talent Acquisition posts. Paula Goodwin reported that the job description had been finalised and would be advertised in the next couple of weeks.

Councillor Adrian Abbs referred to the Timelord 2 update with a deadline date of June 2021, and queried the comment ‘This project has been slightly delayed as it is connected to the TL2 project’. Abi Witting (HR Manager), explained that the deadline had been an aspirational target set by the previous Chief Executive. Covid, lockdowns and supply issues had affected the deadline.

Paula Goodwin explained that HR’s involvement in the Timelord 2 project had been in relation to policy and workstyle reviews and had been positive.

Councillor Abbs commented that he believed that Timelord 2 had been approved in 2021 and suggested that the aspirational deadline must have been set in 2020. He further suggested that the deadline should potentially have been updated.

Councillor Brooks commented that the report was out of date and requested that Paula Goodwin provide an update on each target.

Paula Goodwin’s comments were as follows:-

Review of Training & Development Programme: it was reported that the training programme had been completed and implemented, but that trainers were still being sought for some of the courses. There would be an annual review of the training programme.

Coaching and Mentoring Project: it was reported that the pilot project with ten coaches had been completed by December 2021. It was explained that there was an aspiration to have more coaches with formal qualifications and a complete coaching framework within the organisation with both internal and external coaches.

Councillor Brooks commented that as an aspiration, the action would need to be signed off. 

Management Support and Development Offer for Senior Leaders: Paula Goodwin reported that the April 2022 priority had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The next meeting will be held on Friday 11 November 2022, at 10:30 am.

The Committee agreed to hold the next meeting on Friday 11 November 2022 at 10:30 am.