Agenda item

To consider a report on proposed amendments to the constitution to include revised terms of reference for the Investigation and Disciplinary Committee, changes to the Employment Procedure Rules and a new IDC Handbook.

The Committee considered proposed revisions to the Terms of Reference for the Investigation and Disciplinary Committee (“IDC”), the Disciplinary Appeals Committee (“DAC”), the Independent Persons Panel (“IPP”) and the Employment Procedure Rules, which are all contained within the Council’s constitution and which, together, provide the mechanisms required by statue to manage disciplinary matters arising against the Council’s Head of Paid Service, its Section 151 Officer and its Monitoring Officer. The Committee also considered proposed new “IDC Handbook” which contained comprehensive guidance notes on the processes that relate and which was to be included as an “associated document” referenced in Section 7 of the constitution as supporting the constitution but not being formally comprised within it.

The current mechanisms and processes relating to the business of the IDC had been reviewed in line with the requirements set out in the Model Disciplinary Procedure and Guidance in the JNC Conditions of Service Handbook, which has the status on nationally applied guidance. In addition, learning points from recent IDC matters had also been taken into account.  A separate IDC Handbook had been produced which provides detail on the process to be followed and which would be included as an associated document in the Constitution, with a link provided for ease of reference.  In respect of the Employment Procedure Rules, which also sought to deal with these issues, the review found these to be out of date and/or duplicated by the processes contained in the proposed new Terms of Reference and Handbook. Therefore the proposal was to reduce the Employment Procedure Rules to a single paragraph which referenced the detail contained in the new proposed IDC Terms of Reference and Handbook.

The Legal Team Manager (Corporate & Regulatory) reported that further changes were required to the documents that had been presented to the Committee. This was to reflect the fact that with the exception of the statutory requirement that 1 seat on any IDC or DAC must be filled by a cabinet member, staffing matters were, in law, non-executive functions and as such the envisaged roles for the Leader/Deputy Leader in the materials presented to the Committee should actually be re-assigned to the Chair of Staffing Committee and/or the Chair of any IDC committee that happen to have be convened at the relevant time. That was in accordance with the council’s current practices, and aligned with nationally accepted good practice (reflected in the JNC model handbook and guidance) of achieving a separation of the Leader/Deputy Leader from functions which, in law, were non-executive functions. Members of the Constitution Committee agreed and as a result, further changes were agreed to the documents originally presented to the Constitution Committee.

The meeting was adjourned to enable officers to produce “clean” copies of the documents incorporating all of the changes proposed, which members subsequently approved.

RESOLVED

That the following proposed amendments to the Constitution, comprising:-

A)   revised Terms of Reference for the Investigation and Disciplinary Committee, the Disciplinary Appeals Committee and the Independent Persons Panel (as set out in Appendix A to the report), with the changes shown in the appendix to these minutes

B)   the proposed amendments to the Employment Procedure Rules (as set out in Appendix B to the report)

C)   the inclusion into the Constitution (as an “associated document” within chapter 7 thereto) of the new IDC Handbook (as set out in Appendix C to the report), with the changes shown in the appendix to these minutes.

be recommended to Council for approval.