A motion to appoint Wendy Amis as Chair of the Committee for the ensuing year was moved and seconded.  As there were no further nominations this was put to the vote and carried.

RESOLVED:

That Wendy Amis be appointed as Chair of the Local Joint Committee for the ensuing year.

Wendy Amis took the Chair.

A motion to appoint Mr Zahid Hamid as Vice-Chair of the Committee for the ensuing year was moved and seconded.  As there were no further nominations this was put to the vote and carried.

RESOLVED:

That Mr Zahid Hamid be appointed as Vice-Chair of the Local Joint Committee for the ensuing year.

RESOLVED:

To reappoint the Director of Corporate Resources as secretary of the Local Joint Committee.

The minutes of the meeting of the Local Joint Committee held on 6 June 2014 were approved as a correct record.

Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary, personal or prejudicial interests they may have in relation to items on the agenda for this meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

In the absence of the Head of Human Resources the Director of Corporate Resources presented a report setting out the Committee’s role in the scrutinising process on the Employee Engagement Improvement Action Plan.

The following updates in relation to the themes were noted:

·         Theme 1 - Workshops had been held with staff and Members

·         Theme 2 - The last session with Francis Strickland, consultant, and the Management Team had been held this week in preparation for the arrival of the new Chief Executive.  It had been agreed to ask the new CEO if she would like to hold a final session which involved her too.

·         Theme 3 - Management Team had discussed the action plan to improve internal communications.  Further discussion on this issue was being held during the following week.

·         Theme 4 – see the report for item 10 on the agenda for this meeting.

·         Theme 5 – JPAR docments for staff had been updated.  A working group was working on an action plan and it is intended that the JPAR procedure will be audited robustly, including ensuring that learning and development requests are taken forward.  Staff will be made aware of all changes to the procedure.

·         Theme 6 – updating of the disciplinary procedure will be done when the changes to the JPAR process have been finalised.

·         Theme 7 – Workshops are being developed to improve skills of managers based on the competency framework

·         Theme 8 – The Head of Human Resources is in the process of progressing work on the Well Being at Work policy.  The Director of Corporate Resources was checking to see if the policy needed to be reported to the Authority meeting.

·         Theme 9 – no update

·         Theme 10 – Darren Butler had been appointed as the new Head of Information Management.  Progress was being made on moving forward with development of the revised Strategy.

RESOLVED

That work to progress on the Employee Engagement Improvement Action Plan is endorsed.

The report on the proposed Recognition and Procedural Agreement was moved and seconded to be endorsed, this was then voted on and carried.

RESOLVED:

That the Recognition and Procedural Agreement set out in appendix 1 of the report is endorsed.

The Safety Officer introduced the annual statutory review of the General Statement of Safety Policy.

The review document was presented to the Committee as a clear and accurate reflection of  the way in which safety was routinely managed by the Authority. The review concluded that there we no significant changes required for the 2015 policy.

RESOLVED:

That the General Statement of Safety Policy (2015) be approved as Authority policy from 1 January 2015.

Following a request made at a previous meeting the Safety Officer introduced a report describing the Policy and systems in place for incident reporting and the specific arrangements for dealing with incidents of violence and aggression.

RESOVED:

1.            To recognise that suitable systems were in place for incident reporting and that arrangements for following-up violent incidents and for maintaining a list of perpetrators had been made.

2.            To endorse the proposal for incident reporting, including for violent incidents, to be specifically referred to in management competencies and at JPAR.

Wendy Amis presented the report of the Staff Committee activities which included:

·         Consultations on reports and other staff related consultations

·         Supporting staff through grievance and assimilation processes

·         Regular meetings between Management Team and Staff Committee

·         Meetings with the Head of Human Resources and Unison

·         The Think BIG staff suggestion scheme

·         Changes in staff committee membership

·         Events during 2014 including the Christmas Fayre on 2 December.

Cllr Mrs Potter expressed appreciation for the Staff Committee’s efforts in relation to the Christmas Fayre.

RESOLVED:

That the  report be noted.

The Committee consider the activity report of UNISON which included:

·         National public sector strike action

·         Developing the recognition agreement

·         Supporting UNISON Members

·         Meetings with Management Team and the Head of Human Resources

·         Discussions on zero hours contracts

·         Developing policies

It was noted that during the next 6 months UNISON priorities included:

·         Re-exploring the relationship with Staff Committee

·         Monitoring the use of zero hours contracts

·         Staff recruitment, particularly casual staff

·         Encouraging provision for planning for retirement and pensions.

·         Looking at staff survey questions with Head of Human Resources, as it was perceived questions in the current survey were more closed this time.

The Director of Corporate Resources will feedback to the Head of Human Resources regarding the retirement planning and staff survey questions issues.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.