Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Rooms 2 and 3, Trafford Town Hall, Talbot Road, Stretford, M32 0TH

Contact: Alexander Murray  Governance Officer

Items
No. Item

21.

MINUTES pdf icon PDF 203 KB

To receive and if so determined, to approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 9 December 2019.

 

Minutes:

That the Minutes of the meeting held on 9 December 2019 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

 

22.

QUESTIONS FROM THE PUBLIC

A maximum of 15 minutes will be allocated to public questions submitted in writing to Democratic Services (democratic.services@trafford.gov.uk) by 4 p.m. on the working day prior to the meeting. Questions must be relevant to the remit of the Committee and will be submitted at the meeting in the order in which they were received.

 

Minutes:

No questions were received.

23.

PAY POLICY STATEMENT pdf icon PDF 369 KB

To receive a report from the Corporate Director of People.

Minutes:

The Head of Workforce and Core Strategy introduced the report and informed the Committee that it contained information on the Councils Pay Policy Statement for 2020/21 in line with the Localism Act 2011. The Pay Policy Statement included the Councils gender pay gap information which was published annually. The Statement covered chief officer appointments and showed pay ratios between the top to median worker and Chief Executive which was 1:6.92 and the ratio of median Chief Officer to lowest paid staff Member which was 1:5.71. The Committee were informed that these ratios were well within the recommendations set by the Hutton review.

 

The mean gender pay gap was 10.7% and the median was 20%. The Head of Workforce and Core Strategy explained that the gender pay gap was skewed by a number of factors including the number of female employees who worked part time compared to male workers. When looking at full time employment only the mean dropped to 3.51% and the median was 6.58%.

 

Councillor Acton asked if there was anything that the Council could do to get rid of the gender pay gap. The Corporate Director of People responded that the councils traded services were mainly female and those staff have lower wages due to the Council needing to stay competitive within the market.

 

Councillor Holden asked why there was a gender pay gap following the review of pay that had been conducted? The Corporate Director answered that there was a difference between the role reviews (job evaluation) and the gender gap as job evaluation made sure that people were paid right for the work that they did whereas the gender pay gap looked only at individuals salary and gender.

 

Councillor Akionola asked whether the Council had stats across ethnicity as in addition to gender. The Head of Workforce and Core Strategy informed the Councillor that the Council did have that information and could provide it for the Committee but they only had to publish gender data.

 

RESOLVED:

1)    That the report be noted by the Committee.

2)    That the Pay Policy Statement 2020/21be approved and recommended to Council.

 

24.

AGENCY SPEND Q3 pdf icon PDF 336 KB

To receive a report from the Corporate Director of People.

Minutes:

The Corporate Director of People assured the Committee that the Council had robust policies in place to ensure agency workers were only hired when it was necessary to do so. The Corporate Director then proceeded to present the report to the Committee. The Committee were informed that all of the agency spend was met within staffing budgets although there had been an increase in spend during this quarter and compared to the previous year.

 

The total spend during the quarter was £617,000 with some social workers being hired off contract due to not having an adequate number available through the contract. Councillor Acton noted the continued shortage of qualified social workers and how a national solution to the problem was needed. Councillor Rigby added that this was a problem in the private sector as well due to the lack of qualified people.

 

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

25.

QUARTERLY REPORT ON EXEMPTIONS TO THE SICKNESS POLICY

To consider a verbal report from the Corporate Director of People.

Minutes:

The Corporate Director of People informed the Committee there had been seven approved extensions. One within Children’s Services had been extended for a month, within Adult Services two had been extended for three and two months, within Governance and Community Strategy one had been extended by two months and within the People Directorate one person’s leave had been extended by a month.

 

RESOLVED: That the update be noted.

 

26.

WORKFORCE UPDATE pdf icon PDF 1 MB

To receive an update form the Corporate Diretor of People.

Minutes:

The Head of Workforce and Core Strategy informed the Committee that the update covered the period from November 2019 to January 2020. The update had been arranged to align with the key themes of the people strategy.

 

The guaranteed interview scheme for groups who find it hard to gain employment had been expanded to include ex-military and care leavers so they were guaranteed an interview if they met the Job specification criteria. The Council had also started using a new programme which aided people in completing applications by saving what they input so they did not have to spend time filling out the same information in multiple applications.

 

The results from the B-Heard survey had been shared with the Corporate Leadership Team in December. Since then the results had been circulated to colleagues and a corporate action plan was being developed for improvement. Part of the action plan was to improve engagement within the Council over the next year. This was to be achieved by enabling senior leaders to communicate with staff in a more informal manner.

 

The EPIC manager model had been developed and it would enable managers to be their best and help their teams achieve their potential. Work was ongoing across all directorates to identify areas of best practice and how we can learn from each other. The Council were running let’s talk sessions which gave the opportunity for staff members to share ideas. These sessions were followed up with a “you said we did” document showing the impact the sessions had upon the Council as a whole.

 

In sickness absences Trafford were ranked fifth when compared with the other Greater Manchester Authorities which was the same level as in previous quarters. The Corporate Director of People added that the Council had some very poorly individuals who had been on long term sickness leave which had skewed the statistics.

 

The Council were looking to refresh the apprenticeship tool kit to help ensure that all apprentices had a great experience within the Council which would prepare them for work afterwards. A full calendar of wellbeing events had been run in the New Year including sessions by Offload who helped staff deal with mental health issues and encouraged them to open up and seek help if they need it.

 

The Council were also looking to improve support for staff with disabilities by refreshing policies through continued engagement with disabled staff. Improvements that had been made so far included additional disabled car parking bays, changes to the email footer, and changes to the room booking system.

 

Following the overview of the update Councillors were given the opportunity to ask questions. Councillor Holden asked whether the guaranteed interview scheme had any legal issues regarding human rights. The Head of Workforce and Core Strategy informed the Committee that the legal had been consulted and they had confirmed that it did not violate any legislation. The Corporate Director of People added that the rest of the process was conducted in the same way  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26.

27.

EXCLUSION RESOLUTION (REMAINING ITEMS)

Motion   (Which may be amended as Members think fit):

 

That the public be excluded from this meeting during consideration of the remaining items on the agenda, because of the likelihood of disclosure of “exempt information” which falls within one or more descriptive category or categories of the Local Government Act 1972, Schedule 12A, as amended by The Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006, and specified on the agenda item or report relating to each such item respectively.

 

Minutes:

Motion   (Which may be amended as Members think fit):

 

That the public be excluded from this meeting during consideration of the remaining items on the agenda, because of the likelihood of disclosure of “exempt information” which falls within one or more descriptive category or categories of the Local Government Act 1972, Schedule 12A, as amended by The Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006, and specified on the agenda item or report relating to each such item respectively.

28.

REALIGNMENT OF CORPORATE LEADERSHIP PORTFOLIOS FOLLOWING THE STRATEGIC SERVICES REVIEW AND PROPOSALS FOR THE RETIREMENT OF THE CORPORATE DIRECTOR OF FINANCE AND SYSTEMS

To consider a report from the Corporate Director of People.

 

Note the content of this update is expected to contain exempt information as defined by Local Government Act 1972, Schedule 12A, as amended by The Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006, and is therefore not for publication.

 

Minutes:

The Corporate Director of People introduced the report to the Committee and went over the main highlights of the report. The Council was looking to adjust to the current climate which was clear within the Councils Corporate Plan, Epic Values, and People Strategy. The Council needed to modernise in order to keep up with increasing demand in a time of reduced resources. The Council had worked alongside modernisation experts in coming up with its plan for transformation. Part of this required that the Council updated its senior management structure so that it was fit for purpose. The Committee were informed of the changes that the structure had been through.

 

The Committee were told that the Place directorate had been working to employ someone to the development director position but their attempts had been unsuccessful. Market research had found that Trafford were offering less than the market rate it was proposed that the Council add a supplement of £15000 to make the Council’s offer competitive.

 

The Corporate Director of People explained to the Committee that the Corporate Director of Finance and Systems was looking to retire. As part of their retirement the Council and CCG were looking at separating out the different elements of this role. This would lead to a number of changes to the Council’s structure including STAR Procurement moving to the Governance and Customer Services directorate.

These changes were to be reflected in a change of the titles roles and responsibilities of the Council’s corporate directors. Communications had begun with those who would be directly impacted by the changes within the report. The report ended with six recommendations which the Corporate Director of People explained to the Committee prior to asking them for their approval.

 

The Committee were then given the opportunity to ask questions. Councillor Thompson asked whether the Council were making life difficult in offering director of finance and systems less than the director of development. The Corporate Director of People responded that the amounts offered for both positions reflected competitive salaries as shown by the Council’s market research.

 

Councillor Rigby raised a question as to why this item had been discussed in its entirety in the closed section of the meeting. Noted that there were some elements that should have been in part two of the meeting but there were many items within the report which should have been made open to the public. In response to the Councillors question the Corporate Director of People and the Corporate Director of Governance and Community Strategy explained the reasons why the report was being discussed in part two of the meeting.

 

Following the questions the motion was raised to agree recommendations two and four of the report. Five Committee Members voted in favour and Councillor Rigby voted against so the motion was passed and the recommendations were agreed.

 

RESOLVED:

1)    That the report be noted.

2)    That all the recommendations of the report be agreed.