Category: Employment and Appointments

Employment & Appointments Committee (Wirral Council) 23/11/2011 Part 1, Declarations of Interest, Minutes

Present: Cllr Jeff Green Cllr Lesley Rennie Cllr Peter Kearney Cllr Mark Johnston Cllr Paul Hayes Cllr Adrian Jones (Chair) Cllr George Davies Cllr Steve Foulkes Cllr Phil Davies Officers present: Chris Hyams Andrew Mossop (Committee Clerk) Tony Williams Kevin Adderley Others Cllr Adrian Jones (Chair) said “Good evening” and asked for declarations of interest. … Continue reading “Employment & Appointments Committee (Wirral Council) 23/11/2011 Part 1, Declarations of Interest, Minutes”

Present:
Cllr Jeff Green
Cllr Lesley Rennie
Cllr Peter Kearney
Cllr Mark Johnston
Cllr Paul Hayes
Cllr Adrian Jones (Chair)
Cllr George Davies
Cllr Steve Foulkes
Cllr Phil Davies

Officers present:
Chris Hyams
Andrew Mossop (Committee Clerk)
Tony Williams
Kevin Adderley
Others

Cllr Adrian Jones (Chair) said “Good evening” and asked for declarations of interest. Cllr Steve Foulkes declared a personal interest in item 8 (Appeals Sub-Committee Minutes) as the solicitor named was known to him.

Cllr Adrian Jones (Chair) moved the meeting on to the minutes of the meetings held on the 29th September 2011 and the 13th October 2011.

Cllr Jeff Green asked a question about page eight of the minutes in respect of the interim management arrangements. He asked for an update about “where we are”? He asked about the arrangements for the Policy Unit, which he had not been contacted about.

Chris Hyams updated Cllr Green on where the process was up to. However she said any discussion would affect staff in the room but they were completing the procurement process. She said the Policy Unit was the remit of the Corporate Governance Cabinet Committee.

Cllr Foulkes said it was one of the Key Lines of Enquiry (KLOE).

Cllr Jeff Green said he was conscious that everything was sequential, but could it be done in tandem? Did the procurement exercise have to be finished?

Chris Hyams said it absolutely had to finish and that was the intention, to meet the timescale.

Cllr Jeff Green said from the 29th September they were getting to the end of November, and asked if it would take a further six months?

Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Wirral Council) 17th November 2011 Early Voluntary Retirement/Voluntary Severance and Organisational Change Part 3

Chris Hyams continued by saying that the restructures had gone to the Employment & Appointments Committee and in the Finance department there had been a number of new posts since the Early Voluntary Redundancy program started.

She referred councillors to paragraph 7.1 as there was an error in the number given for new posts. Chris Hyams said the report states 100, but it should be 104 due to the 4 posts in the Law, Human Resources and Asset Management department.

Another error was also highlighted by Chris Hyams as a 3 should read 7. She did point out that some new posts are not related to Early Voluntary Redundancy/Voluntary Severance and out of the 104 new posts, 81 were related to the Early Voluntary Redundancy/Voluntary Severance program.

Chris Hyams said that the posts had been advertised internally, with “strict vacancy controls”. Once they had tried internal recruitment, then they would go externally. The Finance Department had a mix of internal and external advertising as there were risks in failure to appointing to positions such as service provision being put at risk. There was a process of remodelling which explains why posts had been vacated, but then filled.

Cllr Phil Gilchrist asked about Metro, referred to in 6.2 (paragraph 2) and a meeting in September. He said he’d also like a response to further questions, an update over the deleted posts and why some people had left when they oughtn’t to while their job was still there?

Chris Hyams said yes the post was required, but they were let go at their request. Metro provided a service to schools and worked differently. There had been a review of the service and requirements which had led to employees being replaced and less temporary staff.

Employment and Appointments Committee 11th August 2011 Part 4

The meeting moved onto the last item Any Other Urgent Business Approved by the Chair. There was one item of Any Other Business. However Chris Hyams asked the legal adviser to the committee if it should be held in closed session.

The legal adviser seemed reluctant to recommend in closed session as he admitted he hadn’t read the four page report in the supplementary agenda and asked for a reason. However Chris Hyams said it was related to financial matters. The legal adviser then said an exemption may be appropriate but would have to be agreed by the committee.

The Chair, Cllr Adrian Jones agreed that the item could be taken as a matter of urgent business. The Chair asked the committee for the rest of the meeting to be held in closed session. Nobody on the committee objected so the press and public were asked to leave (but officers and the research assistant to the Liberal Democrat Group stayed).

Once they had left, the councillors discussed and made a decision on the four page report on the Occupational Health Contract.

Employment and Appointments Committee 11th August 2011 Part 3

Jim Wilkie continued saying that the budget had been reduced, there were significant changes and they needed to remodel to do things in a different way. Four branches were going down to three. There was strategic overview of key services, they had taken on responsibility over transport services in the Learning and Achieving branch of the Children and Young People department and the Antisocial Behaviour Unit.

This report was looking at posts over spinal column 49. It sets out each posts proposals and allocates significant additional responsibilities. He was happy to go through on a post by post basis.

Cllr Gilchrist said “even I’m alright”, so Jim Wilkie said he would “stop there”. Cllr Gilchrist said he didn’t have a clear picture of the numbers of people in the structure, there were grey bold titles but not the details underneath. As Chair of Council Excellence he was aware that people could have added additional responsibilities such as additional duties as well as a range of new jobs which required a breadth of knowledge. On page 25, the second block on the left in the light grey he asked what secondary consultant meant as well as WASP. Was this an external consultant Wirral Council was bringing in?

Chris Hyams explained it was not an external consultant but experienced members of staff to advise. The report was agreed.

Employment and Appointments Committee 11th August 2011 Part 2

Cllr Gilchrist said he was puzzled by the equality implications. He asked why they were not required for the Finance restructure but were required for the Education restructure and he asked for an explanation.

Chris Hyams, Head of Human Resources & Organisational Development started to speak but then Jim Wilkie, Chief Executive asked why had there been no Equality Impact Assessment on the IT restructuring but they had done one on the Children and Young People restructuring?

Chris Hyams, Head of Human Resources & Organisational Development said they were not changing the structure. However the Children and Young People restructure had an impact on service delivery, which required an EIA.

Cllr Gilchrist asked comparing the two structures, what posts would be deleted further down?

Ian Coleman said there would be a £500,000 staffing saving.

Cllr Adrian Jones asked if the report was agreed and said yes.

The committee then considered Item 3 – Department of Children and Young People Restructure along with Appendix 1, Appendix 2, Appendix 3, Appendix 4 and Appendix 5.

This report was introduced by Jim Wilkie, Chief Executive. He explained that the Director of the Children and Young People’s Department, David Armstrong was current on his well deserved annual holiday on a cruise ship. Although there were no senior staff here tonight from the Children and Young People’s Department, he had their telephone numbers.

He said he was at a disadvantage over the detail at the briefing. However the restructure was a result of the Early Voluntary Redundancy/Voluntary Severance which had led to over three hundred leaving.