Agenda and minutes

It was proposed and seconded that Councillor A Dodwell be appointed Chair for the municipal year 2020-21. There were no further nominations.

RESOLVED to appoint Councillor A Dodwell as Chair of the Personnel Sub-Committee for the municipal year 2020-21.

Councillor Dodwell took the Chair.

It was proposed and seconded that Councillor K Cursons be appointed Vice Chair for the municipal year 2020-21. There were no further nominations.

RESOLVED to appoint Councillor K Cursons as Vice Chair of the Personnel Sub-Committee for the municipal year 2020-21.

Schedule 12 of the Local Government Act 1972 requires a record be kept of the Members present and that this record form part of the minutes of the meeting. Members who cannot attend a meeting should tender apologies to the Town Clerk.

Apologies for absence had been received from Councillor K Cursons (substituted by Councillor R Berry).

(i)    Under the Localism Act 2011 (sections 26-37 and Schedule 4) and in accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct, Members are required to declare any interests which are not currently entered in the Member’s Register of Interests or if he/she has not notified the Monitoring Officer of it.

(ii)   Should any Member have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in an item on the agenda, the Member may not participate in consideration of that item unless a Dispensation has first been requested (in writing) and granted by the Council (see Dispensation Procedure).

Members were asked to declare any interests, including the nature of those interests, which they had in any of the items under consideration at this meeting. No declarations were made.

To receive questions and statements from members of the public in respect of any item of business included in the agenda, as provided for in Standing Order No.s 3(f) and 3(g).

No members of the public were present.

To receive and approve as a correct record the minutes of the Personnel Sub-Committee meeting held on 6 January 2020 (attached). (Minutes will be signed retrospectively when safe to do so)

The minutes of the Personnel Sub-Committee meeting held on 6 January 2020 were received.  

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Personnel Sub-Committee meeting held on 6 January 2020 be approved as a correct record and would be signed at a later date when safe to do so.

In accordance with the Service Level Agreement for Human Resources and Occupational Health support from Luton Borough Council, the Sub-Committee received a report for the period October 2019-March 2020. This had been due to be presented at the March meeting, which had been cancelled due to the lockdown restrictions introduced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

RESOLVED to note the report and to note that the Council’s Compassionate and Special Leave Procedure must be updated to incorporate the legal entitlements to employees resulting from the Parental Bereavement and Pay Act 2018.

To receive a report regarding proposed amendments to the Procedure as a result of new legislation and to consider the recommendation/s contained therein.

Further to the recommendation in the previous agenda item, the Sub-Committee received a report and proposed amendments to the Compassionate and Special Leave Procedure. The amendments were to reflect the legal entitlements to employees resulting from the Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay Act 2018, which came into force in April 2020.

RECOMMENDED to the Policy and Finance Committee to recommend to Council approval the revised Section 7 of the Council’s Compassionate and Special Leave Procedure (see attached).

To receive a report regarding a draft Recruitment Policy (attached) and to consider the recommendation/s contained therein.

The Sub-Committee receive a report proposing the introduction of a formal Recruitment Policy, the purpose of which was to ensure adherence to relevant legislation whilst also ensuring consistency of process across the Council. One minor amendment was suggested and agreed.

RECOMMENDED to the Policy and Finance Committee to recommend to Council approval of the Recruitment Policy (see attached).

To consider whether to change the time of future meetings from 1930 hours.

The Sub-Committee discussed the possibility of holding meetings during normal office hours to facilitate attendance, where appropriate, from the Council’s retained HR support provider. It was agreed to continue with the schedule for evening meetings but to consider changing to a 10am meeting on an ad hoc basis, should the agenda content for a specific meeting suggest that attendance from an HR advisor would be advisable.

The Sub-Committee may consider it appropriate to consider the following resolution should they consider that any discussion would be prejudicial to the public interests: that, under the Public Bodies (Admissions to Meetings) Act 1960, the public be excluded on the grounds of the confidential nature of the business about to be transacted which involves the likely disclosure of exempt information. The public and press to withdraw from the meeting during consideration of detailed discussion regarding:  staffing matters.

The Sub-Committee considered that any further discussion regarding staffing matters would be prejudicial to the public interests.

RESOLVED that, under the Public Bodies (Admissions to Meetings) Act 1960, the public be excluded on the grounds of the confidential nature of the business about to be transacted which involves the likely disclosure of exempt information.  The public and press to withdraw from the meeting during consideration of detailed discussion regarding staffing matters.

The Head of Democratic and Central Services gave an overview of team workload and capacity. Due to COVID-19, it was not currently practicable to recruit for maternity leave cover for the Administration Officer. It was proposed to outsource a limited amount of communications support for a short term period.

RESOLVED to support the proposal to outsource a limited amount of communications support for a short term period.

I Haynes and S Sandiford left the meeting at 1849 hours.

The Town Clerk raised a staffing matter and put forward a recommendation for consideration by the Sub-Committee.

RESOLVED to support the recommendation proposed by the Town Clerk.