Agenda and draft minutes

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 14 January 2025 and 15 May 2025.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 14 January 2025 were approved as a true and correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 15 May 2025 were approved as a true and correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Action: Members of the Committee resolved that Officers would review the actions from the Minutes of the meeting held on 14 January 2025 and report the outcome to Members before the next meeting.

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: To update on HR activity for 2024/2025 for Personnel Committee, Corporate Board and Executive Briefing. This report also includes annual data for the equality makeup of the workforce as at the 31st March 2025, along with other relevant supporting employment data. This data excludes school’s workforce data.

The Committee considered a report (Agenda Item 4) which provided an update on HR activity for 2024/25.

Karen Turner introduced the report which covered the period of 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 and included annual data for the equality makeup of the corporate workforce as at 31 March 2025.

The report provided an update on recruitment activity, training, employee experience, performance management, casework, and appraisals.

The report highlighted the following items:

·       There had been an increase in casework within HR compared to 2023/24. Casework included disciplinary capability, grievances, sickness absence, ill health retirement and related adjustments, Transformation Project restructures and redundancies.

·       There had been significant recruitment activity in comparison to 2023/24 with an increase in new starters.

·       The voluntary turnover for all corporate staff had decreased to 10.4% from 11.09%.

·       Crude turnover had increased to 12.9% from 12.47%.

·       Sickness absence had decreased to 10.13 days per worker from 10.69 days for the same period in 2023/24.

·       As of 31 March 2025, there were 233 vacant posts. Out of the 233, there were 83 live adverts. There were 49 agency workers filling positions. There were 88 vacant posts that were on hold by the relevant department.

Action: Officers would provide a breakdown of the 88 vacant posts that were on hold, and the reasons why they were on hold for the next meeting. 

In response to a query from Members, Officers explained that the Council did have a record of all agency workers in care homes. However, it was noted that they were largely used to cover ad hoc absences, and there were significant fluctuations in numbers. Therefore, they were not added into the agency workers excluding care homes as it could be misleading.

Noting the number of vacant posts which had decreased from 380 to 233, Councillor Jeff Brooks assured Members that the 380 posts had been audited, with many of the posts not being actively recruited, and some roles being deleted. 83 roles were being actively recruited as of 15 July 2025.

Action: Officers would inform Members where the data which stated that that the ideal average UK turnover of civil service staff was 14% originated from, and whether it referred to the average rate of turnover or the optimised rate of turnover for bringing new people in.

Action: Officers would investigate whether they could provide a breakdown of internal movement vacancies.

Noting the reduction in numbers relating to vacant posts, Members felt that the numbers were healthy.

It was noted that of the 201 staff who left the Council in 2023/24, 17% had completed an exit interview. Leavers who had worked less than one year of service stood at 14.4%.

In response to the 14.4% rate of leavers with less than one years service, Members highlighted that this information had not been available in previous years. Members noted the significant time and resources used to induct and train new starters.

Officers stated that all leavers were asked to complete an exit interview either online or  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

The next meeting of the committee will be held on 13 January 2026.

The Committee agreed to hold the next meeting on 13 January 2026.