Agenda and decisions

To receive any apologies for absence.

To approve the minutes from the previous meeting.

Resolved that the minutes of the Human Resources Committee held on 10 July 2024 be confirmed as a correct record.

To receive and note any declarations of interests in respect of any matters included on the agenda for consideration at this meeting.

(The other registrable interests of Councillors of Somerset Council, arising from membership of City, Town or Parish Councils and other Local Authorities will automatically be recorded in the minutes: City, Town & Parish Twin Hatters - Somerset Councillors 2023 )

The Chair to advise the Committee of any items on which members of the public have requested to speak and advise those members of the public present of the details of the Council’s public participation scheme.

For those members of the public who have submitted any questions or statements, please note, a three minute time limit applies to each speaker and you will be asked to speak before Councillors debate the issue.

We are now live webcasting most of our committee meetings and you are welcome to view and listen to the discussion. The link to each webcast will be available on the meeting webpage, please see details under ‘click here to join online meeting’.

To consider and approve Human Resource Policies.

After considering and discussing the report and appendices the Committee agreed to:

 1. Approve the attached revised proposed plan for completing the outstanding policy work, to show phased approach including the addition of a separate RAG rating column.

2. Agree to cease the arrangement agreed in October 2022 (that in addition to those policies requiring approval by HR Committee, any policy review resulting in significant impact to any of the former District Councils’ policies would be presented as an update to the HR Committee for awareness purposes) via summary update where appropriate. In doing so, agree to revert to the former/standard process of only having those policies presented to HR Committee which require approval from HR Committee.

To consider and approve Health and Safety Policies.

The Committee agreed to approve and confirm the following policies:

1. Fire Safety in the Workplace Policy

2. Young Workers Policy

3. Manual Handling Policy

4. Volunteer Policy

5. Work Equipment Policy

To receive a verbal update on workforce accompanied by a slide presentation.

To consider the committee forward programme.

The Committee considered and agreed the workplan for the next meeting.