Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence had been received from Councillors Mary Dooley and Tom Munro.

To note any urgent items of business which the Chair has consented to being considered under the provisions of Section 100(B) 4(b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

There were no urgent items of business to consider.

Members should declare the existence and nature of any Disclosable Pecuniary Interest and Non Statutory Interest as defined by the Members’ Code of Conduct in respect of:

a)         any business on the agenda

b)         any urgent additional items to be considered

c)         any matters arising out of those items

and if appropriate, withdraw from the meeting at the relevant time.

There were no declarations of interest made.

To consider the minutes of the last meeting held on 3^rd July 2024.

Moved by Councillor Duncan McGregor and seconded by Councillor Sandra Peake

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the Employment and Personnel Committee held on 3^rd July 2024 be approved as a correct record.

The Committee considered a report which proposed to create an additional post within the Customer Services team, to provide resilience and make the team better resourced to deliver the Council’s complaints administration.

The report detailed the changes that had been made by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, Housing Ombudsman and Regulator for Social Housing, and the impact this had had on the complaints administration work.

The report set out two options, with the preferred option being to create a permanent Customer Advisor/Complaints Administrator post.  This would be a full-time position with three days per week (22 hours) dedicated to the complaints handling and two days per week (15 hours) operating as a Customer Advisor. This would also allow for a reduction in the overtime budget of £8,000.

The new post would be a Grade 5 post, and would incur additional costs of £34,072.09, to be funded from the General Fund.  With the reduction in the overtime budget the actual cost would be £26,072.09.  A proportion (roughly 42%) would be recharged to the HRA and Dragonfly based on the support service calculations.

In answer to a question about affordability, the Director of Finance and Section 151 Officer explained that the Growth Protection Reserve could be used to balance the increased cost if necessary.

Moved by Councillor Duncan McGregor and seconded by Councillor Deborah Watson

RESOLVED that (1) the establishment of a new full time Customer Advisor/Complainants Administrator post be approved;

(2) it be recommended to Council that the new post be funded via the Council’s General Fund.

The Committee considered a report which set out proposed changes to Governance and sought delegated authority for the Chief Executive to make a decision regarding a structure change following the completion of the required consultation with staff.

The report set out the background to the review of Governance and proposed that the current 0.6 FTE Governance & Civic Manager and 0.4 FTE Governance & Civic Manager / 0.6 FTE Governance & Civic Officer be replaced with one FTE Governance & Civic Manager (Grade 10) and one FTE Senior Governance & Civic Officer (Grade 7). 

It was also proposed that the Scrutiny Officer would become part of the Governance Team and would report directly to the Governance & Civic Manager.  The Scrutiny Officer was currently a stand-alone post and would benefit from being within a team.

The report set out that an increased budget of £36,641 was required to fund the proposed changes.

The Committee discussed and supported the proposals.

Moved by Councillor Duncan McGregor and seconded by Councillor Sandra Peake

RESOLVED that (1) the proposed changes be noted;

(2) authority be delegated to the Chief Executive Officer to make the changes, following completion of the consultation with Governance staff;

(3) the budget increase required to fund the proposed changes be recommended to Council for approval.