Tag: Chris Hyams

Wirral Council Cabinet 13/10/2011 Job Evaluation, Merseyside Pension Fund accounts, Part 4

Chris Hyams, Head of HR & OD introduced Agenda Item 23: Job Evaluation. She said she sought Cabinet’s approval for the implementation of stage 4 which covered the Heads of Service and Chief Officers. The costs were in Agenda Item 35 – Exempt Appendix – Job Evaluation. She wanted to complete the process and they … Continue reading “Wirral Council Cabinet 13/10/2011 Job Evaluation, Merseyside Pension Fund accounts, Part 4”

Chris Hyams, Head of HR & OD introduced Agenda Item 23: Job Evaluation. She said she sought Cabinet’s approval for the implementation of stage 4 which covered the Heads of Service and Chief Officers. The costs were in Agenda Item 35 – Exempt Appendix – Job Evaluation. She wanted to complete the process and they were working on stages 2 and 3. Stage 3 was underway regarding the evaluation of jobs.

Cllr Steve Foulkes asked if there was much option about taking it through to the upper grades?

Chris Hyams responded that there had been a local agreement in 2008 [by Cabinet].

Cllr Adrian Jones referred to 3.1 in the report . The recommendations were agreed.

Ian Coleman, Director of Finance introduced item 4 Merseyside Pension Fund Accounts. He said it was a statutory report that had already been agreed by the Pension Committee and the Audit and Risk Management Committee. The auditors had given an unqualified opinion.

Cllr Steve Foulkes said he was happy to endorse the accounts. The item was agreed.

Ian Coleman, Director of Finance introduced item 5 Audit Commission – Merseyside Pension Fund Annual Governance Report. He said it had already been presented to the Audit & Risk Management committee.

Cllr Steve Foulkes said that Wirral Council had been entrusted with the governance of one of the largest pension funds. Regarding best practice and skills, he asked how much it was possible for cross-skilling so Wirral’s corporate governance could pick up best practice from the Pension Fund?

Ian Coleman, Director of Finance said the Pension Fund was a division in the Department of Finance. He said the Pension Fund was a single service operation so governance was easier. The Pension Fund had to stick to Pension Committee policies and had oversight by the Audit Commission.

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.

Employment and Appointments Committee 11th August 2011 Part 1

The agenda and reports for this meeting can be viewed here.

The meeting started ten minutes late as Cllr Foulkes, Cllr Davies (Phil) and Cllr Jones (Adrian) who is the Chair and all members of the Labour Party didn’t arrive on time.

Cllr Adrian Jones started the meeting by apologising to the councillors, officers and members of the public present over the meeting started late. He thanked people for waiting and asked for any apologies.

Apologies had been already received from Cllr Jeff Green (who sent Cllr Lesley Rennie to deputise for him) and Cllr Johnston (who sent Cllr Gilchrist to deputise for him).

The Chair asked for any declarations of interest. None were declared.

Item 2 on the agenda was Department of Finance – Staffing of IT services with four appendices which were Appendix 1 – ITS structure (31.12.2010), Appendix 2 – ITS structure (post EVS), Appendix 3 – ITS restructure and Appendix 4 – IT Services Manager Job Description and Person Specification.

This item was introduced by Ian Coleman, the Director of Finance. He said it was to do with the restructure of the management of the IT services. Previous to the EVR there had been a Head of Service and four section heads. This would result in savings of £111,000 out of a total staff saving of half a £million. He said there had been a full and lengthy discussion at the briefing.