Agenda item

To consider a report on the progress with Human Resource Issues

The Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development, aided by the HR Strategy & OD Manager and the Corporate Health & Safety Manager, presented a report which provided a general update on Human Resource issues, including Health & Safety, Organisational Development, HR Delivery and HR Policy and Reward.

Health and Safety

It was reported that 764 delegates had attending 50 training courses and briefing session delivered by the Corporate Health & Safety Team during Quarter 3.  Courses provided included Emergency First Aid at Work, Use of PRIME, First Aid at Work and Use of Evac Chair.

The Council had a duty of care to ensure the health, safety and welfare of people who were not in their employment but who may be affected by the activities of their undertaking. A Visitors Policy, detailing the health and safety arrangements which were in place for visitors (including customers, contractors, maintenance personnel, guests, delivery drivers etc) coming onto Cheshire East Council premises had been drafted.  The Visitors Policy had been approved at the Corporate Health and Safety Forum on 2 March 2012 and the Committee was asked to approve the Policy.

The Corporate Health and Safety Policy had been significantly restructured to form two parts: Part 1 - Policy Statement, Introductions and Organisation, and Part 2 - Corporate Policies and Procedures.  The Committee was asked to approve Part 1, which had be approved at the Corporate Health and Safety Forum on 2 March 2012.

The Committee was informed that the RIDDOR Regulations had been amended in order to increase the period for reporting incidents and injuries.  The trigger point after which an injury must be reported would increase, from over three days to over seven days incapacitation and was effective from
6 April 2012.  The deadline by which an over 7-day injury must be reported would also increase to 15 days from the day of the accident.

In Quarter 3 a total of 2002 accidents/incidents were entered onto PRIME, of which 74 were RIDDOR reportable to the Health & Safety Executive.  These figures represented an increase of 46.67% for the total number of accidents and a fall of 14.94% for RIDDOR reports when compared to Quarter 2. 

Organisational Development

The Apprenticeship Scheme now had approximately 70 young people on placements across the Council.  The A-Team was holding a number of roadshows during April to raise awareness of the Apprenticeship Scheme and encourage young people about to leave school or college to consider joining the A-Team.

Work was underway to develop an on-line learning zone for employees and Members.  The web based site would host a range of development tools such as e-learning, learning forums and access to webinars.  The facility complimented other forms of learning such as classroom based, by providing a cost effective and flexible means of learning in bite size pieces.  The site could be accessed from both work and home and would be launched later in the spring.

Work was in progress to refresh the Aspire values and to develop a framework of behaviours that defined ‘how’ successful people approach their work and achieve great things. The ‘Behaviours for Success’ would form part of the performance development process from 1 April 2012.  This would be supported by a series of manager briefing sessions during April and May.  It was suggested that a presentation be given to the Committee at a future meeting on the new Aspire framework.

The Council had achieved Investors in People (IiP) core standard in June 2011.  It had now been decided to work to towards a higher level standard within the IiP extended framework and aim to achieve the silver award by June 2014.  To obtain an initial snapshot of how the Council was doing, an informal assessment would take place in May 2012.  A further informal review would take place in May 2013, leading to the formal assessment for the whole Council during spring 2014.

HR Delivery

The HR Delivery Team had been continuing to work on a number of potential TUPE situations both into and out of Cheshire East Council.  This included the provision of information and consultation with staff, unions and external councils on the transfer out of services and assets to Town and Parish Councils and Connexions.  The Team had also been working with colleagues in the Central and Eastern Primary Care Trust to develop a co-working arrangement for Public Health prior to the Council assuming full responsibility in April 2013.

HR Policy and Reward

A review of the Trade Union Facilities Agreement was being undertaken and a report with options would be presented to Cabinet in the first instance.  An update would be provided to the Committee in due course.  It was noted that the trade union secondments to Unison had reduced from 4 to 3 officers as much of the work associated with the negotiation of new terms and conditions of employment had now been completed.

The current contact for the supply of agency workers to the Council came to an end on 31 March 2012.  Work had been undertaken to re-let the contract on a collaborative basis with Cheshire West and Chester Council.  The new contract had been awarded to Comensura.  A series of training events for managers was being held to ensure a smooth transition to the new provider.

RESOLVED:  That

(1)       the report be noted;

(2)       the Visitors Policy and Part 1 of the Corporate Health & Safety Policy be approved; and

(3)       the progress with the review of the Facilities Agreement be noted.