Employment and Appointments Committee agrees reduction in management posts
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In a short meeting, the Management Restructure Proposals were agreed without any questions by councillors. The agreed proposals will result in a loss of eight posts resulting in a saving of £435,714. A number of other posts have been renamed (such as the Chief Internal Auditor will now be called the Senior Manager (Internal Audit)).
Further restructures (not needing to be approved by the Employment and Appointments Committee) will occur at Principal Officer level and above in order to reach the £5 million savings target.
Council (Extraordinary) (Wirral Council) 28th January 2013 Council Tax and Chief Exec’s contract, also delegation of employment issues and senior management restructure
Monday’s Council meeting started the usual way with prayers. Following the prayers the Mayor asked for apologies for absence. Apologies were given for Cllr Elderton and Cllr McLachlan. The Mayor said that Cllr Elderton had improved in hospital for two weeks and hoped they would have a wonderful evening. He also said he’d be stricter on keeping people to time limits on speaking as if they had been adhered to last time a further eight councillors would’ve spoken, with a warning that the Deputy Mayor said he would be much tougher during his time in office.
No declarations of interest were made.
The Mayor brought forward item 5 (by-election results) and asked for it to be noted. Cllr Jeff Green (Conservative leader) congratulated the two new Conservative councillors at being elected.
A number of petitions were submitted.
Cllr Patricia Glasman submitted a petition opposing planning application APP/12/01520 for a ‘One to One’ Birth Centre in New Brighton.
Cllr Kathy Hodson told of a petition of 690 signatures opposing the withdrawal of maintenance of the bowling greens.
Cllr Leah Fraser put forward a petition of 36 signatures opposing planning application DPP4/12/01491 for an extension to St Georges Primary School in Liscard.
Finally, Cllr Clements presented a petition of 118 signatures opposing withdrawing maintenance of a bowling green in Greasby.
The meeting moved onto approval of the Council Tax Support scheme. Cllr Phil Davies gave a brief speech, bemoaning the fact that their budget was being cut by 10% next year, but that pensioners and people with disabilities wouldn’t lose out. Cllr Gilchrist indicated his disagreement with the scheme and said there would be problems collecting money from people who hadn’t had to pay Council Tax before. Fifty-five councillors voted for the scheme (Conservative and Labour) with the seven Lib Dem councillors against it.
Cllr Phil Davies stating it was unfortunate that they didn’t have the right figures on the senior management restructure from the start, but that they’d had assurances it wouldn’t happen again. The changes were agreed unanimously.
The changes to delegation on employment matters were more controversial. Cllr Phil Davies said that following the feedback from the peer challenge review, which recommended clarifying roles to ensure councillors did “not get overly involved in operational matters”. He asked for a quarterly report to the Employment and Appointments Committee on the gradings, grievances and disciplinary action decisions.
Cllr Jeff Green said they would be supporting it.
Cllr Pat Williams said that poor working practices had been brought to councillor’s attention during these meetings and that they had often found in the employee’s favour. She said that they would not know about these issues if it was taken out of their hands.
The Labour and Conservative councillors voted for (55), the Lib Dem councillors voted against (7).
Item D (Collection Fund 2012/2013, Council Tax Discounts (Annual Review) and Council Tax Base) was agreed unanimously.
Item E (The Employment Contract of the Chief Executive and Head of Paid Service) attracted more disagreement. Cllr Phil Davies said that it was “important to make the change now”, whereas Cllr Green didn’t understand the sudden urgency or why there shouldn’t be an open and transparent process instead. He said it was disappointing as the Chief Executive should have the full support of councillors.
Cllr Harney said he couldn’t understand why the issue of a permanent contract couldn’t be linked to the performance appraisal of the Interim Chief Executive. He said he hoped it was not a precursor to employment practices that had “bedevilled the Council”. Cllr Pat Williams said that Labour had created division which was “unnecessary and insensitive” and referred to adverse and avoidable press publicity. Cllr Mark Johnston said during his time as councillor he had seen three political leaders, four Chief Executives and damning reports on poor governance. Cllr Gilchrist referred to the peer review.
Cllr Davies responded to the comments made and referred to a conversation with Cllr Green in December, Cllr Green disputed how Cllr Davies portrayed this. He said he was more than happy to show the public proof that this was incorrect. He said, “To suggest anything else is not only inaccurate, but it actually puts at risk any sort of trust we can have in terms of when we actually have a meeting, whether those views will be accurately represented or not.”
Cllr Davies (Phil) said that it was his recollection of the meeting and said the “business of the Council must go on” and taunting Cllr Green by saying, “this is why Jeff is no longer Leader of the Council”. He said “I believe this is the right thing to do” and said he was “showing leadership” and that it was “the right thing to do”.
A card vote was called for. Conservative councillors voted against, Labour councillors voted for. Lib Dem councillors voted for and against. The final vote was 36 in favour, 26 against.
Report of the Employment and Appointments Sub-Committee (Wirral Council) of the 26th October 2012 in Committee Room 2, Wallasey Town Hall starting at 3pm.
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Present (6/7,3:2:1) Employment and Appointments Sub-Committee
Committee Room 2, Wallasey Town Hall
26th October 2012 3pm
Cllr Lesley Rennie, Conservative
Cllr Jeff Green, Conservative
Cllr Patricia Williams, Liberal Democrat
Cllr Phil Davies, Labour
Cllr Ann McLachlan, Labour
Cllr Adrian Jones, Labour Cllr George Davies (from 15:30 (agenda item 3)), Labour
Committee Services
Andrew Mossop (Committee Clerk)
Not Present (Legal adviser) Wirral Council officers
Chris Hyams, Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development
Graham Burgess, Acting Chief Executive
David Armstrong, Deputy Chief Executive
Unknown male
Unknown female
Press/public (agenda items 1-3)
J and L Brace
The meeting originally scheduled for 3pm started at 3.06pm. There were no microphones used.
1. Appointment of Chair Andrew Mossop asked for nominations for Chair.
Cllr Ann McLachlan proposed a nomination for Cllr Phil Davies.
Cllr Adrian Jones seconded a nomination for Cllr Phil Davies.
There was a vote on the nomination for Cllr Phil Davies for Chair by show of hands.
Andrew Mossop asked if there were any other nominations for Chair?
No other nominations for Chair were made.
Cllr Phil Davies was therefore appointed Chair of the Employment and Appointments Sub-committee (unopposed). Cllr Phil Davies got up from his seat and walked to the Chair’s chair in the room and sat down.
The Chair (Cllr Phil Davies) asked for any declarations of interest?
2. Declarations of Interest
No declarations of interest were made.
3.Exclusion of the press and public
Cllr Phil Davies proposed the following recommendation on the advice of a Council officer:-
“That in accordance with section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item of business, on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined by the relevant paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to that Act. The public interest test has been applied and favours exclusion.”
This was agreed.
A member of the public (the author of this blog) asked why the resolution didn’t include the paragraph/s number and asked if they were required to include theparagraph or paragraph number in the resolution?
The Chair Cllr Phil Davies said he would seek advice on the subject. He sought advice on the subject and was also given advice by Cllr Jeff Green that it was paragraph 1. His resolution was amended to:-
“That in accordance with section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item of business, on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined by the paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to that Act. The public interest test has been applied and favours exclusion.”
The amended resolution was put to the vote and agreed. The press and public were excluded for agenda item 4 (Appointment of Strategic Director: Families and Wellbeing).
The public made their way to the door to leave the room.
Cllr George Davies arrives.
The public left the room.
Agenda Item 4 Appointment of Strategic Director: Families and Wellbeing
The councillors now including the late Cllr George Davies considered the applications for the new post of Strategic Director (Families and Wellbeing).
The following resolution was agreed:
That the following 5 candidates be long listed for the next stage of the selection process which shall be for officer interviews on Tuesday, 13 November – candidate numbers, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
Transcript
Andrew Mossop: any nominations for the Chair?
Cllr Ann McLachlan: I nominate Phil Davies.
Andrew Mossop: Chair, err, Cllr Phil Davies, is that seconded?
Cllr Adrian Jones: Yes.
Andrew Mossop: Are there any other nominations?
Cllr Phil Davies: Right, OK, err folks, … see you’re busy…errm Item 2 this is a standing item, Members Code of Conduct Declarations of Interest. Has anyone wish to declare any interests?
No, OK, no interests, errm, item 3, is item for you to agree the exemption to exclude the members of the public from the meeting. Is that agreed?
Various councillors: Agreed.
John Brace: Sorry, there are no reasons in it, but the case law says there has to be reference to a paragraph, so errm is it possible to give the reasons,
Cllr Phil Davies:
John Brace: that’s supposed to be in the resolution you passed you see but unfortunately it’s missing from the agenda.
Cllr Phil Davies:
Cllr Jeff Green: on the basis of paragraph 1, I can suggest we actually go carry forward the exemption.
Cllr Phil Davies: So we should agree on the basis of paragraph 1?
John Brace: Is that agreed on paragraph 1?
Cllr Phil Davies: Is that agreed on the basis of paragraph 1?
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Present
Councillors on Employment and Appointments Committee
Cllr Lesley 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 Interest00:15
He asked if the councillors had any interests to declare? No declarations of interest were made.
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
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 Lesley 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.
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)