Tag Archives: Cllr Leslie Rennie

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Employment and Appointments Committee (Wirral Council) 24th September 2012 Part 1


Present

Councillors on Employment and Appointments Committee

Cllr Leslie Rennie (Conservative)
Cllr Peter Kearney (Conservative)
Cllr Andrew Hodson (Conservative) deputy for Cllr Jeff Green (Conservative), spokesperson
Cllr Mark Johnston (Liberal Democrat), spokesperson
Cllr Paul Doughty (Labour), Chair
Cllr Phil Davies (Labour)
Cllr George Davies (Labour)
Cllr Ann McLachlan (Labour)

Officers
David Armstrong, Acting Deputy Chief Executive
Tony Williams, Acting Employee Relations Manager
Chris Hyams, Head of HR and Organisational Development
Surjit Tour, Legal adviser
Andrew Mossop, Committee Services Officer

In attendance:

Cllr Adrian Jones (Cabinet Member for Corporate Services)
Two members of public

00:08 to 00:15
The meeting started with the Chair, Labour councillor Paul Doughty welcoming people to tonight’s meeting.

1. Members’ Code of Conduct – Declarations of Interest 00:15

He asked if the councillors had any interests to declare? No declarations of interest were made.

2. Minutes 00:28

The minutes of the meeting held on the 12th July 2012 were agreed.

3. Managing attendance 00:55

Linked report, Appendix 1, Appendix 2, Appendix 3

The Chair, Labour Cllr Paul Doughty asked Tony Williams, Acting Employee Relations Manager to introduce the report.  Tony Williams said it was a regular report to update the Committee on attendance and referred to figures in the report.

Cllr Harry Smith (Cabinet Member for Streetscene and Transport) and Cllr Chris Meaden (Cabinet Member for Culture, Tourism and Leisure) arrive.

Tony Williams said the report showed that health issues were the highest cause of absence, which they were doing work to address, with an example being given of stress awareness. He also referred to the absence rate at the Department for Adult Social Services. He asked if there were any questions?

Cllr Paul Doughty said the report was for noting, so it was noted.

4. Update on Managing Workforce Change and Redeployment 03:20

Linked report, Appendix 1

The Chair, Labour Cllr Paul Doughty asked Tony Williams, Acting Employee Relations Manager to introduce this report.

Tony Williams said there were now fourteen employees on the register, he said at the last meeting there had been six, but five of these had been resolved. He said three on the register had complex circumstances, with two of these being due to disability, he referred to exempt appendix 12.

The Chair, Labour Cllr Paul Doughty referred to exempt appendix 12. He asked if anyone had any questions?

Cllr Mark Johnston, Liberal Democrat spokesperson asked about the reason behind the increase in employees on the register from the Department of Law, HR and Asset Management?
Tony Williams answered Cllr Johnston’s question by saying it related to a graduate trainees program. Cllr Mark Johnston asked a further question to Tony Williams. Tony Williams replied.

Cllr Leslie Rennie, Conservative asked about a point she had raised at the briefing. She wondered if the senior management restructure would lead to people’s jobs being subject to risk. She asked if in future members of the Committee, Leaders and Deputy Leaders could receive updates more regularly, such as fortnightly?

Chris Hyams answered.

The Chair Cllr Paul Doughty asked the Committee if they were happy to note the contents of the report? The report was noted.

5. Workforce Monitoring 2012/2013 Quarter 1 06:53

6. Restructure of Human Resources and Organisational Development 10:00
7. Monitoring Use of Compromise Contracts 29:25
8. Appeals SubCommittee 30:24
9. Employment and Appointments SubCommittee Minutes 14/6/12, 28/6/12, 4/7/12, 5/7/12 31:33
10. Any Other Urgent Business Approved by the Chair (Part 1) 31:46
11. Exclusion of press and public 31:52
12. Exempt Appendix – Update on Managing Workforce Change and Redeployment
13. Exempt Appendix – Monitoring Use of Compromise Contracts
14. Any Other Urgent Business Approved by the Chair (Part 2)

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Investigation and Disciplinary Committee (21st September 2012) (Wirral Council)


Investigation and Disciplinary Committee
Date: 21st September 2012
Time: 9.30pm

Committee Room 3

Investigation and Disciplinary Committee (6/7 present)

Cllr Ann McLachlan, (Chair), Labour
Cllr Adrian Jones, Labour
Cllr Ann McArdle, Labour
Cllr Leslie Rennie, Conservative
Cllr Mike Hornby, Conservative
Cllr Dave Mitchell, Liberal Democrat

Wirral Council Officers
Surjit Tour, Acting Head of Law, HR and Asset Management
Shirley Hudspeth, Committee Services Officer
Chris Hyams, Head of HR & Organisational Development
Tony Williams, Acting Employee Relations Manager
David Armstrong, Deputy Chief Executive?
Unknown officer (male)

In attendance
Cllr Paul Doughty, Labour, Chair of Employment and Appointments Committee
Two members of the public (John Brace, Leonora Brace) (items 1 to 3)

The Chair, Cllr Ann McLachlan (Labour) apologised for starting the meeting late.

1. Declarations of Interest

The Chair, Cllr Ann McLachlan Labour asked for any declarations of interest. None of the six councillors (including the Chair, Cllr McLachlan Labour) made any declarations of interest.

2. Minutes of the meeting held on the 20th August 2012

The minutes of the Investigation & Disciplinary Committee on the 20th August 2012 had been published on Wirral Council’s website.

The Chair, Cllr Ann McLachlan asked if the minutes were agreed?

Cllr Leslie Rennie disputed the minutes and stated they were missing that she had said at the last meeting that she wanted it minuted that she wanted Richard Penn to be invited to the meeting.

"Richard

She pointed out that this was missing from the minutes.

The Chair, Cllr Ann McLachlan said it was fine as Mr. Penn was “in the building” [see above photo of Richard Penn waiting in lobby, Ground Floor, during agenda item 4 (not the room the meeting was being held in)]. She thanked Cllr Leslie Rennie for pointing this out. There were no more comments on the minutes of the meeting held on the 20th August 2012, so the Chair moved the meeting onto agenda item 3.

3. Exclusion of the Press and Public

The Chair expressed her opinion that the press and public should be excluded from the meeting for agenda item 4. She expected the two members of the public to leave, however a member of the public waited for the Committee to agree with this opinion. The reason she gave was that it related to “staff”.

The two members of the public left.

4.  Statutory Officers Preliminary Investigation – Preliminary Report/Report from the Independent Investigator

The Committee received the reports from Chris Hyams (Proper Officer), Tony Williams (Acting Employee Relations Manager) and Richard Penn (Independent Investigator).

Only Chris Hyams and Tony Williams were present at the start of this item.

The reports were about the suspensions of Bill Norman, Ian Coleman and David Taylor-Smith, following the decision made at the Investigation and Disciplinary Committee meeting of the 20th August 2012 (agenda item 4).

Decision:

David Green (Director of Technical Services): Unknown outcome
David Taylor-Smith (Deputy Director of Finance): Unknown outcome

Ian Coleman (Acting Chief Executive):
Outcome: request made to Employment and Appointments Committee (3/10/2012) for Early Voluntary Retirement (£82,528.50) effective from 5th October 2012.

Bill Norman (Director of Law, HR and Asset Management): “no case to answer”
Outcome:  ”no case to answer” “no further advice appropriate”
Compromise Contract (£155,416) (agreed by Employment and Appointments Subcommittee (Compromise Contracts) of 20th September 2012. Made redundant as of 30th September 2012. 

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Cabinet Wirral Council 15/3/2012 Parts 1 to 7 (15th March 2012)


http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7DC84616353B7551

Video of Wirral Council’s Cabinet meeting from 15th March 2012, here is a playlist with all seven parts, apart from the odd few seconds in between. Can anyone tell me how to embed a playlist into a WordPress post? Thankfully the battery lasted, so did the tape. Will do write-up and more subtitles later when I’ve had more sleep.

Mainly audio only as there’s no way to film video and write subtitles without a tripod (I only have a pair of hands!), so apologies for the “scribbling noise”! I might get a tripod in the next few weeks soon, if more people start watching this videos, or leave nice comments. One retweet of part 4 already, which is pleasing.

Any tips on Youtube please feel free to leave advice in the comments (whether on Youtube or here).

Here are links you might need to understand it:-

Agenda

Agenda reports

Supplementary Agenda reports (item 27)

Meeting page on Wirral Council’s website

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

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Cabinet 12/1/2012 Part 1 DASS overcharging, North West Tonight, Martin Morton etc


It seems issues discussed at last night’s Cabinet meeting made the top story on the North West news last night. In case you missed it (and sadly it’s only available on iPlayer for a short while after) I’ve got the relevant clip uploaded to Youtube which you can view below. Thanks go to the BBC for giving this issue coverage to a wider audience than those that go to Wirral Council Cabinet meetings. So what do people think about how people came across?

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Wirral Council – Wirral Council 23rd May 2011 – Part 10 – speech (Cllr Lesley Rennie) on leader motion/amendment


Cllr Rennie next to speak said “If it was true [in relation to the Foulkesworld Twitter account] she was really worried, however she thought it was the product of a twisted mind. She said there had been signs of progress and that never before had the Council, staff, officers and residents worked together. She said they had run things in an open and transparent manner and hoped it would continue. Never in [Wirral Council's] previous history had there been such a wide consultation exercise. The wishes of the people had been carried out or if impossible they had been written to. The next administration had to engage openly and honestly. Cllr Green’s leadership had supported a strong and able Cabinet with the support of the Liberal Democrats. However not here today were three Lib Dem former Cabinet members [Gill Gardiner, Bob Moon, Simon Holbrook]. She was concerned that a new administration would take Wirral Council back to the “bad old days” driven by dogma.

She said whenever a party is in government that members of that party who are local councillors suffer. She referred to John Major telling Conservative councillors in 1995 to take a sabbatical and that it may be a while. After 24 years, Wirral Council was Conservative led, run for the people of Wirral. She took a dim view of the Lib Dems and said there were not nine empty seats as there had been in 1991. She said she couldn’t imagine they were elected to Wirral Council to sit on their hands. Cllr Rennie repeated they were not elected to sit on their hands, but thought perhaps they had lost the glue that kept them together under the strong leadership of Simon Holbrook, deputy leader Gill Gardiner, Bob Moon and Stuart Kelly (who had been to one Cabinet meeting). She said it would be a shame to be tearing things apart when they had been willing to challenge when necessary.

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Cabinet meeting – 14th April 2011 – Election Special Edition – Part 2 – NHS questions


In conclusion he said that change was the only constant, stressed the importance of the Health and Wellbeing Board, said that there was a constant focus on interagency working and that the footprint (meaning the population a hospital served) would be changing.

Cllr Green spoke about the partnership work and referred to his role as a hospital governor. He asked in regards to a cottage hospital why a large footprint was required to provide a quality service? Mr. Richards replied that a sufficient population base with the right amount of patients was required for a higher quality of outcome. He said unlike decades ago that general physicians were not employed now by a District General Hospital. Instead doctors were cardiologists, gastroenterologists, specialist diabetic doctors etc. Even in cardiology, doctors focussed on certain types of heart conditions. In order to keep up their level of expertise these doctors needed to see numbers of patients that were more if a hospital served a population of greater than 250,000 for example the Wirral and Cheshire population. Wirral and Cheshire share a renal and dermatology service. Looking at specialist cardiology, there had to be a balance between access to services at a local level and quality of service. In this area the vast majority were seen in an outpatient setting.

Cllr Rennie asked about the high number of stillbirths reported in the media and what WUTH was doing about this. The answer was that they employed CHKS to compare their clinical data to a peer group of other hospital trusts of a similar size. WUTH was in the top quartile and the issues they were not performing as well on compared to other trusts were organisational things. For example the length of hospital stays and their rates of day cases were lower. He said the Maternity Hospital was in the top 10.