Agenda and minutes

Councillor Jon Collins   – Personal

Councillor Ginny Klein  – Personal

Councillor Toby Neal  – Council Business

Councillor Linda Woodings   – Personal

None.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 6 February 2018

The minutes of the meeting held on 6 February 2018 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Report of the Corporate Director for Children and Adults and the Director of HR

Lynn Robinson, HR Business Partner Children & Adults, introduced the report on the Safer Recruitment and Working Practices Framework Report. She highlighted the following points:

(a)  The Safer Recruitment & Working Practice Framework will become part of the People Management Handbook. The Framework has been developed as a result of the workforce elements of the corporate Casey Action Plan and lessons learnt from a review of Social Care Employee Records Review (Historic Records Review – HRR, October 2014 – June 2016)commissioned by the Corporate Director of Children and Adults in 2014;

(b)  As a result of this review the lessons learned and the recommendations have been incorporated into this policy and framework;

(c)  The policy sets out expectations of managers and employees and acts as a reference point for information on safer recruitment and working practices. It provided clarity in terms of roles and responsibilities and is broken down into two sections. Section A refers to behaviours and section B refers processes to be adhered to and to points of referencing terms of other policies.

(d)  This is a draft version of the Framework, which requires some minor updating following consultation feedback.  There is also a proposal to add a third section;  Section C which will apply to those people who are not directly employed by the Council but who work with the Council, such as agency worker, volunteers, consultancy;

(e)  Full consultation with the trade unions and senior colleagues has taken place and the document being discussed is one that the trade unions and senior management have supported, following full consultation and are content with;

(f)  There is also work planned to draw up a Relationships at Work Policy that will stand alongside this policy and Safer Recruitment and Working Practices Framework;

Following discussion and questions from the Committee the following points were made:

(g)  The policy looks to be comprehensive and well written. Members of the committee suggested that the proposed further section, Section C, be made applicable to all Councillors as well as others who are not directly employed by the Council;

(h)  Although there is no specific mention of School staff within the policy part of the overall Safer Recruitment and Working Practices Programme included a workstream to engage with schools around relevant safer recruitment practices.  The policy and framework is in line with legislation relevant to schools, for which policy updates where proposed to schools in 2015. A full briefing note can be made available for Councillors about Schools involvement in the writing of the documents;

(i)  All staff will be made aware of the main points of the policy and SRWP Framework as part of their inductions. Managers will be expected to ensure that new staff and existing staff are made aware of the Framework and it will be made part of the induction check list.  Communications and workshops/learning sessions will be arranged to cascade the message;

(j)  For existing staff there will be briefing notes sent to managers to raise within team  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.

Report of the Director of HR and Transformation and the Corporate Director Strategy and Resources

Although it was not included on the original agenda the Chair of the Committee agreed that the Gender Pay Gap Reporting item should be considered as a matter of urgency in accordance with Section 100b(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972. The decision could not wait until the next meeting of the Audit Committee, as the Gender Pay Gap report has already been published in line with legislation.

Imogeen Denton, Equality & Community Relations Lead, introduced the Gender Pay Gap Reporting item to the Committee. She highlighted the following points:

(a)  Gender Pay Gap reporting is a legal requirement under the Equality Act 2010;

(b)   The Equality Act requires companies with over 250 employees to publish the difference between average pay of men and women as a percentage of men’s pay;

(c)  The Pay Gap is calculated from a snapshot  taken on 31.3.17 and takes into account the pay of just over 6500 employees. It should be noted that this was before the implementation of the Council’s new terms and conditions which came into effect in April 2017;

(d)   The mean hourly rate Gender pay gap is 4.2% and the median hourly rate pay gap is 2.6%;

(e)  This pay gap is comparable to neighbouring local authorities, and comparable to other core cities. It is lower than the average pay gap within the public sector;

(f)  The Equality Act 2010  also requires that data around bonuses is published. The mean bonus pay gap is -110.9% and the median bonus pay gap is -224.04%.  Bonuses were paid to just over 30 people within the City Council;

(g)  Bonuses were paid to staff within EnviroEnergy, a power generation bonus protected under TUPE regulations. This payment ended in May 2016 and will not feature in future Gender Pay Gap Reports.

(h)  Bonuses were also paid to staff at the Theatre Royal Concert Hall (TRCH) where employees earn commission on concessions sold to theatre goers, there are many more females who work in this area than males and the bonus amounts paid to TRCH staff are higher than those earned in EnviroEnergy;

Following questions from the Committee the following further information was given:

(i)  Some subsidiary companies have not published their gender pay gap because they are below the threshold for reporting in terms of staff numbers. These companies can be encouraged to publish their reports to be transparent and support will be given to those companies should they require it as what has to be reported is very prescriptive. If they are not going to publish the data then an item on the agenda of the next board meeting to raise awareness would be beneficial in tackling the gap;

RESOLVED note the content of the report which includes details of the Council’s Gender Pay Gap, information regarding bonuses received by men and women, and details regarding males and females employed at different levels in the organisation.

To consider excluding the public from the meeting during consideration of the remaining item(s) in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the basis that, having regard to all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information

RESOLVED to exclude the public from the meeting during consideration of the remaining item in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the basis that, having regard to all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information as defined in paragraphs 4 and 5 of part 1, Schedule 12A of the Act.

Report of the Corporate Director of Commercial and Operations and the Director of Neighbourhood Services

RESOLVED to approve the recommendation as amended at the meeting.