Issue - meetings

The Trainee Human Resources Officer submitted a report inviting Members to consider the Human Resources (HR) Management Statistics for Quarter 2 (July to September 2021.

Councillor Ruffles asked for some long term elaboration in respect of long term absence and paragraph 3.3.12 of the report as there was a lot of detail in the report and this was the only serious rise in the statistics that had been presented.

The Trainee Human Resources Officer said that in respect of long term sickness, this figure should be lower in the next quarter as one Officer will be leaving on ill health retirement. The employee in question was being supported by HR.

The Chairman reminded Members that the Chief Executive had communicated to Councillors the loss of a long standing Officer and her question to Officers was the support that was being offered to employees in terms of wellbeing.

The Trainee Human Resources Officer said that details of the employee assistance programme would be sent out to all staff along with the funeral details in due course. The Chairman referred to this including details of online grief counselling.

Councillor Curtis referred to online learning and development and said that it was encouraging that 10 in house corporate learning and development events were held in quarter two. He wondered whether in terms of future events it would be worth add training for staff on the newly adopted domestic abuse policy.

The Trainee Human Resources Officer said that this had been considered and an e-leaning course might be adopted. The Chairman asked about posts that were on hold following a review of departments or structural reviews as part of the transformation programme.

The Head of Communications, Strategy and Policy said that the budget setting process was ongoing and reports would be submitted to Scrutiny in January and to Council in March. He referred to the transformation programme and as part of this the Authority was carefully scrutinising vacant posts.

Members were advised that some posts were being held vacant on the basis that a different approach might be taken as part of the transformation programme. The Head of Communications, Strategy and Policy referred to a project involving a central administrative hub to secure the same level of service with some economies of scale.

Councillor Curtis made reference to the different categories where data was stored and said that some protected characteristics did not accord exactly with the Equalities Act 2010. He referred in particular to monitoring in respect of religious beliefs.

The Trainee Human Resources Officer said that data was collected in terms of religious beliefs and Officers could report on that in future.

Councillor Bull expressed concerns about the impact on the planning department and whether applications coming in would be affected. The Head of Communications, Strategy and Policy said that Development Management was being affected by a national shortage and the Council was trying very hard to recruit to vacant planning posts. He said that these posts were not being offered up  ...  view the full minutes text for item 256