The Secretary took the Chair to open the meeting and preside over the election of a new Chair. As the last Chair had been a member of staff, the Constitution required that a Member should be elected for the coming year.

A motion to appoint Cllr Mrs J Twigg as Chair of the Committee for the ensuing year was moved, seconded, put to the vote and carried.

RESOLVED:

To appoint Cllr Mrs J Twigg as Chair of Local Joint Committee for one year until the Autumn meeting of 2016.

Cllr Mrs J Twigg took the Chair.

A motion to appoint staff member Wendy Amis as Vice-Chair of the committee for the ensuing year was moved, seconded, put to the vote and carried.

RESOLVED:

To appoint Wendy Amis as Vice-Chair of the Local Joint Committee.

A motion to appoint Ruth Marchington as Secretary of the Local Joint Committee was moved, seconded, put to the vote and carried.

RESOLVED:

To appoint Ruth Marchington as Secretary of the Local Joint Committee for the ensuing year.

The minutes of the last meeting of the Local Joint Committee on 19 June 2015 were approved as a correct record.

There was no urgent business to report.

To note any questions or to receive any statements, representations, deputations and petitions which relate to the published reports on Part A of the Agenda.

There were no members of the public present to make representations.

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.

The Safety Officer introduced the report which sought approval of the revised General Statement of Safety Policy (2016) and endorsement of the draft new Health and Safety Policy as a suitable model to replace it.

In preparing the draft policy, he had compared the Authority’s health and safety practices with those of other organisations.

In response to Member questions, the Officer confirmed that:

·         The Authority as a landlord would set out clear health and safety requirements for tenants in their use of office space and car parks at Aldern House. This would include the earliest permitted start time and latest finish time.

·         The draft new policy had been seen by both the Management Team and the Health and Safety Committee.

·         In paragraph 1 of the covering report, the second bullet point should be changed by replacing the words “and for sustainability” with “to show how we will make continuous improvements and commit always to getting better.”

As a member of the Authority’s Management Team, Ruth Marchington confirmed that the Management Team was keen to discuss and understand an implementation plan to support the introduction of a new policy and to see how the new draft policy would be embedded in performance via Joint Performance Assessment Reviews (JPARs) and job descriptions.

The report recommendations were moved, seconded, voted upon and carried.

RESOLVED:

a)    To approve the revised General Statement of Safety Policy (2016) as Authority policy from 1 January 2016.

b)    To adopt the draft new Health and Safety Policy as a suitable model to replace the General Statement of Safety Policy in 2016, subject to future consideration and agreement of a suitable implementation plan.

Wendy Amis reported that Staff Committee had been very busy working with Management Team to support staff during the redesign of the organisation. Useful meetings had also been held between Staff Committee, UNISON representatives and the Human Resources Team.

In response to Wendy’s enquiry for updates on the Employee Engagement Improvement Action Plan (EEIAP), Ruth Marchington confirmed that progress is regularly reported to the Audit, Resources and Performance Committee in the quarterly performance reports, rather than to the Local Joint Committee. However, this would not preclude updates from being given to the Local Joint Committee in the future if needed. A member of Staff Committee had been nominated to work with Management Team on the four key areas.

Tim Nicholson stated that the Cycle to Work Scheme would be launched at the start of 2016.

Wendy reported that events arranged for staff during the year had been successful and enjoyable. She thanked Cllr Mrs K Potter and Jorge Au?on for their supply of home-made cakes in support of Macmillan coffee mornings at Aldern House and the Moorland Centre. Cllr Mrs Potter and the Chair applauded Staff Committee for the efforts it made to support charities in this way.

Cllr A Favell recorded his gratitude to staff for their co-operation during the organisational changes.

Ruth Marchington expressed Management Team’s appreciation of the’ professional support given to staff by Staff Committee and UNISON representatives throughout this difficult period. It was noted that there was no report from the UNISON representatives but they had been focusing on current staffing issues.

Members were encouraged to attend the Christmas Fayre on 1 December at Aldern House. All staff were encouraged to join Members at a talk to be given prior to the Authority meeting on 4 December.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.