Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests in any item on the agenda.

Councillor J Jackson declared that she was a member of GMB and Councillor D Flude declared that she was a retired member of UNISON.

In accordance with Procedure Rules Nos.11 and 35 a total period of 10 minutes is allocated for members of the public to address the Committee on any matter relevant to the work of the body in question.  

Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes but the Chairman will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned where there are a number of speakers.

Members of the public wishing to ask a question at the meeting should provide at least three clear working days’ notice in writing and should include the question with that notice. This will enable an informed answer to be given.  It is not required to give notice of the intention to make use of public speaking provision, however, as a matter of courtesy, a period of 24 hours notice is encouraged.

No members of the public in attendance wished to speak.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 27 April 2017

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 27 April 2017 be confirmed as a correct record.

To receive a response to questions raised by Councillor Jeuda, at Cabinet, on 13^th June 2017, in relation to the treatment of staff and an alleged bullying culture.

Councillor L Jeuda had raised questions at the meeting of Cabinet on 13 June 2017 in relation to the treatment of staff and an alleged bullying culture.  The Leader of the Council had referred the matter for consideration by the Staffing Committee.

The Committee considered a report which provided a response to the questions raise by Councillor Jeuda.  It was reported that in the report at  paragraph 5.1, first bullet point, it should read “the number of staff who raised grievances was ten.”

Councillor Jeuda was in attendance and spoke about the bullying allegations, staff being afraid to speak out because it could lead to disciplinary action and the culture at Cheshire East Council.  She asked that an independent external investigation be carried out into these areas and the outcomes be reported back to Members.

The Committee discussed the report and Cllr Jeuda’s comments and noted the work undertaken by the Reassurance Working Group, Staff Survey Governance Group and the planned focus group in July 2017 and January 2018, and the support provided to staff through the Occupational Health Service and the Employee Assistance Programme.

The following motion was moved, seconded and put to the vote:

“That the Staffing Committee recognise the value of our staff and the continued commitment to promoting staff engagement and well-being. At future Staffing Committee meetings, it is proposed that there will be a standing agenda item entitled  ‘Staff Wellbeing’ to enable progress and update reports to be tabled on an on-going basis. This will enable Staffing Committee members to be re-assured and also to probe on particular aspects of interest and concern.”

The motion was carried.

RESOLVED: That

1        a standing  item entitled ‘Staff Wellbeing’ be included on future Staffing Committee agendas to enable progress and update reports to be tabled on an on-going basis; and

2        further details be provided on the Employee Assistance Programme in terms of usage and value to the organisation.

To receive a report on the progress with the Council’s People Plan 2017/18, including Health and Safety, Human Resource and Organisational Development items

The Committee considered a report on the progress with the Council’s People Plan 2017/18.

The report provided details on the progress with the main priorities for each HR service area in the People Plan, and on HR Performance Data for April and May 2017 which included headcount and employee turnover, voluntary redundancy and working days lost to sickness absence.

The report also provided a summary of accidents and incidents in April and May 2017 and details of the RIDDOR reportable accidents.

A new People Plan had been created for 2017-18 with eight strategic workforce objective identified.  The Plan outlined the priorities within each objective and an additional column would be included in the next report which would detail progress to date against these priorities.

The Committee noted that the Council’s Health and Safety Team had been awarded the ROSPA award for the 5^th consecutive year.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.