Agenda, decisions and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillors Mark Healey, Bente Height, Graham Oakes, Emily Pearlstone and Tony Robins.

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.

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 )

There were no declarations of interest declared.

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’.

There were no public questions brought to The Committee.

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.

Sarah Welland, Service Manager HR Policy, and Projects introduced the report and the policy for approval. The following points were raised and discussed:

·       Councillors sought assurance on how the policies that are outstanding differ from the legacy district policies.

·       The Committee raised concerns about the number of policies that were in red and queried and sought assurance on why these policies were being left. Service Manager HR Policy, Sarah Welland confirmed that these policies are in place, and it is just a timeline of when a review is happening.

·       Councillors had it confirmed that if The Committee feel that a policy is required to be reviewed earlier, they can request it be brought forward.

·       The Committee queried the use of colours and RAG rating, and it was confirmed that changes  would be made to certain columns to make the information clearer to understand.

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

Daniel Thomas, Health, and Safety Strategic Manager introduced the report and discussed the policies for sign off. The following points were raised and discussed:

·       Councillors praised Daniel and his team on the report being very clear and well laid out.

·       Councillors also praised the team for their recent award nomination for Somerset Councils Health and Safety application.

·       Councillors queried whether or not the Council could benefit financially from selling the app to other councils. Daniel confirmed that this would be something that would be needed to be progressed in conjunction with ICT.

·       Councillors raised concerns over the volunteer policy and the fact that volunteers often volunteer for Parish Councils as well as Somerset Council and sought assurance from Executive Director Alyn Jones on the insurances covering the volunteers.

·       Councillors raised that the officers investigate the scope of the volunteer policy,

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 consider the committee forward programme.

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

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

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

Dawn Bettridge, interim service director of workforce introduced the presentation which gave an update on workforce matters. The following points were raised and discussed:

·       Councillors queried the number of FTE that have been capitalised.

·       Councillors raised the risk of losing talent if Voluntary Redundancy (VR) was to be brought back as an option for staff.

·       Councillors were pleased to see the knowledge transfer site in use.

RESOLVED. The Committee noted the udate.