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

A motion to appoint Rosie Olle as Chair of the Committee for the ensuing year was moved and seconded.  It was noted that Rosie Olle was not present at the meeting but had indicated that she would be happy to be nominated as Chair.  The motion was then put to the vote and carried.

RESOLVED:

That Rosie Olle be appointed as Chair of Local Joint Committee for the ensuing year.

As the Chair was not present at the meeting the Secretary continued the meeting and presided over the election of a new Vice Chair.

A motion to appoint Authority Member Cllr Chris Carr as Vice-Chair of the committee for the ensuing year was moved, seconded, voted on and carried.

RESOLVED:

That Cllr Chris Carr be appointed as Vice-Chair of the Local Joint Committee.

Cllr Carr then took the Chair.

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

RESOLVED:

That Ruth Marchington be appointed as Secretary of the Local Joint Committee for the ensuing year.

The minutes of the last meeting of the Local Joint Committee held on 10 June 2016 were approved as a correct record subject to the addition of Cllr J A Twigg as Chair.

Cllr Mrs Kath Potter thanked Staff Committee for holding their recent Christmas charity event which raised money for ‘Crisis’.

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 Member declarations of interest.

The Safety Officer introduced the report which sought approval of the Authority’s new Health and Safety Policy, previously known as the General Statement of Safety Policy.  The new policy gave the opportunity to clearly reference the Authority’s intentions to:

·         Promote a more positive safety culture involving all the Authority’s people and partners

·         Commit to becoming a role model and for sustainability

·         Adopt a solid performance management approach for health and safety.

If approved the policy would be implemented from 1 January 2017.

In response to queries the Safety Officer stated that training on the new policy for staff had been started via briefing meetings and communications would be sent to ensure all staff were aware of the new policy.

The recommendation for approval of the new policy was moved and seconded.  The motion was then voted on and carried.

RESOLVED:

That the revised Health and Safety Policy (2017) be approved as Authority policy from 1 January 2017.

Tim Nicholson introduced the Staff Committee activity report and highlighted the main activities.  These included the Cycle to Work scheme and involvement with the current organisational changes, he thanked the Leadership Team for supplying information to the Staff Committee and he also thanked UNISON for their support.

Tim also reported on the recent Christmas charity event held by Staff Committee which had raised £227 for ‘Crisis’ and he thanked Cllr Mrs Kath Potter for her help with this.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

Josephine Allen introduced the report which gave details of UNISON involvement in the current organisational changes.

Mr Hamid stated that he had been involved in similar changes in various roles through his employment and knew how difficult situations could be.  He praised Authority staff, Staff Committee and UNISON representatives on their professional and mature responses to the situation.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.