To authorise the Chairman to sign the minutes of the meeting of the Licensing and General Purposes Committee held on 18 January 2021, at a later date, as a correct record of the proceedings.

The Chairman was authorised to sign the Minutes of the meeting of the Licensing and General Purposes Committee held on 18 January 2021, at a later date, as a correct record of the proceedings.

The Chairman to ask if any Member present is substituting for another Member and, if so, to declare his/her name as substitute Member and the name of the absent Member.

An apology for absence was received from Councillor G.C. Curtis.

To receive any disclosure by Members of personal and disclosable pecuniary interests in matters on the agenda, the nature of any interest and whether the Member regards the personal interest as prejudicial under the terms of the Code of Conduct.  Members are reminded of the need to repeat their declaration immediately prior to the commencement of the item in question.

There were no disclosures of interests.

Consideration was given to the report of the Chief Executive on the Review of the Local Pay Award 2021.  Pay award discussions had been on-going with Staff Side/UNISON and Members’ views were being sought on proposals for a pay settlement to enable negotiation with Staff Side/UNISON to be progressed. 

The Assistant Director Resources outlined the key issues to be taken into account which included current inflation and future trends; the Government’s expectation  that local government follow the policy of no cost of living increase for staff earning a full time equivalent salary of more than £24,000 (however, a flat rate of at least £250 per annum to be paid for staff earning below this threshold); the current financial year’s budget provision; the Living Wage (from the Living Wage Foundation separate from the National Living Wage), which sought to provide a socially acceptable wage level; and recruitment trends.  Any pay award agreed for staff would also be applied to Members’ allowances.

As part of setting the annual revenue budget for this year, Rother’s pay award for 2021 was budgeted at 2% and this figure had been used in the agreed Medium-Term Financial Plan for future years.  Members were reminded that any enhancement beyond this budgeted figure would require full Council approval and have to be found from within the existing budgets and would further increase the financial pressure on the Council.

Members were mindful of the current uncertain climate and sought clarity on a number of issues prior to final determination.  The following points were noted during the discussion:

•           Members congratulated and thanked staff at all levels of the Council for their hard work during the COVID-19 pandemic and were keen to show their appreciation.  A 1% increase across the board was suggested subject to a minimum increase of £250 for one year, with a continued commitment to matching the Living Wage from the Living Wage Foundation;

•           Members suggested that Members’ Allowances should not be linked to any pay award agreed for staff. However, as any changes to the current agreed Members’ Allowance Scheme would have to be considered by an Independent Renumeration Panel (IRP), which would be reconvened towards the end of 2022, discussions were to be deferred until that time;

•           Members suggested that a working group be set up to consider the previously agreed ‘root and branch’ review of the pay structure and it was agreed that the Chief Executive would hold a briefing for Members in the first instance; and

•           Members considered the potential wider implications of agreeing a 2% increase in future local government financial settlements and that the lower increase could provide an amount of savings for the future or an opportunity to direct the saving towards other priorities.

Members were keen to reward and recompense the staff employed by the Council and therefore agreed that the Council continued to support the Living Wage Foundation for the lower paid permanent staff and that a 1% pay award across the board for one  ...  view the full minutes text for item LG20/24.

Members considered the Staffing Digest report of the Human Resources Manager covering the period April 2020 to March 2021 which gave an update in the field of staff management.  The following key points were highlighted:

•           recruitment remained active; turnover was 3.13% for the first six months of the year and 7.42% for the latter part of the year, which was considered reasonable;

•           the Council had successfully recruited six apprentices into various roles and service areas around the authority.  Since the scheme’s introduction, six apprentices had successfully completed and three had secured employment with the Council;

•           issues around professional post recruitment had been raised and remained a concern;

•           the  payroll section of the Unit 4 finance system went live in July 2018 and development work on the HR side had continued, which was likely to be live by the summer 2021;

•           an online annual leave solution for staff had been developed by the HR team and the Transformation team and had gone live for one service area.  This was to be gradually rolled out across the whole workforce over the coming months, saving a considerable amount of effort in maintaining the previous manual system;

•           due to the pandemic, in house training was put on hold, with training providers not initially set up for online delivery. However, online training has taken place through the iHASCO system on the topics of GDPR and Cyber Security;

•           four minor staff accidents had been reported during the year, up one from the previous year, and all had been investigated fully.  Refresher training for first aiders had continued;

•           seven staff volunteers had been trained as Mental Health First Aiders to help support any staff dealing with poor mental health, in addition to supporting information released from HR to aid staff in identifying issues and signposting where help could be found through outside organisations or via the Employee Assistance Programme;

•           a minor temporary restructure had been put in place as of 1 February 2021 in order to ease pressure on one of the larger service areas,  resulting in the creation of a new Head of Service role to lead Neighbourhood Services.  The staffing structure was to be looked at in further detail in the context of delivering the Corporate Plan;

•           in June 2021, Council policies were to be independently reviewed by an outside body to ensure an up to date, robust policy framework remained in place; and

•           Members were pleased to note the support put in place for staff’s mental health and wellbeing.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.