Cllr Caroline Howe was moved and seconded for the appointment of Chair of the Committee.  There were no other nominations so the motion was voted on and carried.

RESOLVED:

To appoint Cllr Mrs Caroline Howe as Chair of the Local Joint Committee for the ensuing year.

Penny Aitken was moved and seconded for the appointment of Vice Chair of the Committee.  There were no other nominations so the motion was voted on and carried.

RESOLVED:

To appoint Penny Aitken as Vice Chair of the Local Joint Committee for the ensuing year.

David Hickman, Director of Corporate Strategy and Development, was moved and seconded for the appointment of Secretary of the Committee.  There were no other nominations so the motion was voted on and carried.

RESOLVED:

To appoint David Hickman, Director of Corporate Strategy and Development, as Secretary of the Local Joint Committee for the ensuing year.

The minutes of the last meeting of the Local Joint Committee held on 29 June 2017 were approved as a correct record.

There were no items of urgent business.

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 was no public participation.

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.

Members and Staff representatives considered the report about reviewing the Local Joint Committee constitution which included 10 questions to help decide  whether or not to propose changes to the constitution.

It was noted that if changes were proposed then a new constitution would be drafted and consulted on, it would then be reported back to the next scheduled meeting of the Local Joint Committee before being reported to the Authority meeting for final agreement.

The Committee considered the questions raised in the report and the following points were noted:

·         Concerns were raised regarding the Committee meeting always being held on Fridays, as although this was usually easier for Members to attend it caused problems for Staff representatives to attend.  It was suggested that meetings could possibly be held on Thursdays when Planning Committee site visits are also held and the meeting could be held either before the site visits or after.

·         Staff representatives would be happy to accept 2 Staff Committee representatives and 1 UNISON representative as the quorum for the Staff side.  The quorum for the Members side was then suggested as 3.  However some concern was expressed about whether reducing the quorum would help with attendance at meetings.

·         It was suggested that Local Joint Committee should meet more frequently than the current 2 meetings per year.  Staff representatives suggested that the Committee meetings could be linked to their quarterly meetings with the Head of HR and there was general support for this to happen.

·         The Committee agreed that the current arrangements for rotating the Chair annually and for appointing the Committee Secretary should continue.

·         It was noted that linking the Committee meeting cycle to the Staff meetings with the Leadership Team could generate more items for the Committee agendas.  It was suggested that all Committee Members could be contacted before the meeting report deadlines to ask if anyone had any items to add to the agenda.

·         To raise staff awareness of the Local Joint Committee the Director of Corporate Strategy and Development will include an article in the next edition of the ezine.

Mr Zahid Hamid joined the meeting at 9.30am,during the discussion of this item.

RESOLVED:

The Secretary to prepare a draft revised constitution taking into account the issues raised at the meeting.

The Head of Human Resources gave apologies from the Safety Officer, as he was unable to attend the meeting, and introduced the report on the review of the Authority’s Health and Safety Policy for 2018 on his behalf.  It was noted that the main changes to the Policy were in Part 2 where the responsibilities of the Safety Officer and of the Safety Representatives was now specifically included.  Also in Part 3 concerning governance arrangements the Safety Officer was currently consulting with Directors to widen the membership of the Health and Safety Committee to include representatives from all Services.  An appendix was now also included with the Policy which gave details of all current Health and Safety Policies, when they were last reviewed and who the responsible officers were.

Members queried how health and safety issues arising are reported to the Local Joint Committee Members.  The Head of Human Resources stated that the Health and Safety annual report is provided to the June Committee meeting and she will liaise with the Safety Officer to consider how issues are reported in future.

RESOLVED:

To approve the revised Health and Safety Policy (2018) as Authority policy from 1 January 2018.

Tim Nicholson introduced the report on Staff Committee activity since July 2017.  This had included being involved in the structural reorganisation, cycle to work scheme, charity Christmas event, provision of yoga classes for staff.  Staff Committee were currently working on a possible ‘University Challenge’ event to help improve morale and relationships across the organisation.  They were also organising a memorial to Dave Frost, a valued colleague and member of Staff Committee who died suddenly last year, with help from the Property Service.

The Chair thanked Staff Committee for their excellent charity fund raising work and also thanked Cllr Mrs Potter for her involvement in the Christmas event too.

Members stated that they would have liked to have seen more detail in the report regarding the staff responses to the structural reorganisation.  The Head of Human Resources responded to state that as the comments had been made in October last year and the process had moved on.  However if Local Joint Committee meetings become more regular then there was scope for more timely information to be supplied on such future consultations.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

Joanne Cooper introduced the report on UNISON activity by the representatives since June 2017.  This included a UNISON/PDNPA Partnership Agreement which was currently being proposed by Management and was still under discussion, changes to the use of Authority vehicles and the impacts on staff, the restructure of the Commercial Development and Outreach Directorate, and just recently being involved in consultation on a possible apprenticeship scheme.  It was noted that UNISON now have a trained Health and Safety Representative and are to take up a new position of PDNPA Convenor on the Derbyshire County UNISON Branch Committee.

In response to queries the Head of Human Resources stated that the Authority was currently considering the introduction of an apprenticeship scheme in response to new public sector targets to have 2.3% of workforce as apprentices.  A report on options was being considered by the Resource Management meeting next week.  There was no intention to save money by using apprentices instead of established staff.

As the meeting needed to close it was requested that a further report on apprenticeships be brought to the next meeting.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the report be noted.

2.    That a further report on apprenticeships be made to the next Local Joint Committee meeting.