Agenda and minutes

(1)  Replaced County Councillor David O'Toole for this meeting only.

Members are asked to consider any pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the agenda.

None.

To be confirmed, and signed by the Chair.

Resolved: That the minutes of the meeting held 9 February 2020 be confirmed as a correct record.

An item of urgent business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the minutes, the Chair of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.  Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any member’s intention to raise a matter under this heading.

Laura Sales, Director of Corporate Services and Deborah Barrow, Head of Service, Human Resources, provided a verbal update to share the decisions taken under delegated authority agreed by the Corporate Management Team since the commencement of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.

It was explained that the process was initiated to facilitate timely human resource decisions, necessary to support the fast changing needs of Lancashire's residents in the initial stages of the pandemic, when face to face meetings could not be held. Any decisions that were likely to be contentious or cost a significant sum of money were made by the Director of Corporate Services (Laura Sales), following consultation with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of Employment Committee, in accordance with the Committee's urgent business procedure and circulated to members of the Employment Committee. This was done on 9 April 2020 for 'Changes to Staff Terms and Conditions due to the present Coronavirus Emergency Circumstance'.

In response to changes to Government legislation, virtual meetings had been put in place and were working well. Therefore future decisions under the remit of Employment Committee would be conducted in the usual way.

The following decisions related to human resources had been taken since the last meeting of Employment Committee under delegated authority and were in place until 31 August 2020:

·  The overtime payments cap, in place for staff paid at grade 8/9, scale point 19 was removed to facilitate more flexible working for staff at all grades. Prior to this change staff at or above scale point 19 would be offered time off in lieu for additional hours worked. Individual business cases were agreed by Laura Sales and Deborah Barrow.  As a result overtime payments had been made in Adult Services and a small number of staff in Facilities Management. 

·  The three year restriction on employing staff who had taken voluntary redundancy was waived to allow former staff to be approached to support critical roles. To date this had not been used.

·  The flexible retirement policy was eased to allow staff to remain in post beyond the usual 12 months to enable necessary support to critical roles. To date this had been applied in a small number of cases.

·  The flexi-time scheme was suspended as it was not compatible with home working. However managers could still be flexible with staff who had worked additional hours or for those who needed to work differently in order to home school.

·  The purchase of an additional five days leave without manager approval had been suspended, to prevent any impact on critical roles.

·  The leave policy had been amended to ensure staff used their leave during the 2020/21 leave year. Staff were required to use 40% by 30 September 2020 and 60% by 31 December 2020. This was put in place to ensure staff took time to rest and to ensure that once restrictions were lifted, services could manage requests for leave and maintain effective operations.

It was noted that the service had engaged with the recognised trade unions,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The next meeting of the committee will be held on Monday 7 September 2020 at 2.00pm at County Hall, Preston.

It was noted that the next meeting of the committee would be held virtually on Monday 7 September 2020 at 2pm.

The committee is asked to consider whether, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, it considers that the public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items of business on the grounds that there would be a likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the appropriate paragraph of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972, as indicated against the heading to the item.

Resolved: That the press and members of the public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items of business on the grounds that there would be a likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the appropriate paragraph of Part I of Schedule 12 A to the Local Government Act

1972.

It was considered that in all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.

(Not for Publication – Exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 2 and 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972.  It is considered that in all the circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interests in disclosing the information).

(Not for Publication – Exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 2 and 3 of

Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972. It was considered that in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interests in disclosing the information).

The committee considered a report from Deborah Barrow, Head of Service for Human Resources, regarding the Payment of Market Supplements to Members of the ICT Solutions Architect Team.

It was confirmed that in order to remain competitive in the market for the required skills a longer term evaluation plan would be required.

Resolved: That having considered the officer advice and recommendations, as presented, the proposals with regard to market supplements to members of the ICT Solutions Architect Team be approved.