Michael Eakin

Dave Peasley Director of Resources Civic Centre, Reading, RG1 7AE. 0118 937 3737 Fax: 0118 958 9770 To: Councillor Bayes (Chair); Our Ref: perscttc/agenda Councillors Lovelock, Page, Pugh and Your Ref: Steele. Direct: 0118 937 2332 e-mail:[email protected] 22 September 2010 Your contact is: Richard Woodford – Committee Services NOTICE OF MEETING – PERSONNEL COMMITTEE – 30 SEPTEMBER 2010 A meeting of the Personnel Committee will be held on Thursday 30 September 2010 at 6.30pm in Committee Room 1, Civic Offices, Reading. The Agenda for the meeting is set out below: AGENDA ACTION WARDS AFFECTED PAGE NO 1. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST 2. MINUTES OF MEETING HELD ON 1 INFORMATION BOROUGHWIDE 1 JULY 2010 3. PROCEEDINGS OF LOCAL JOINT INFORMATION BOROUGHWIDE 7 FORUM HELD ON 1 JULY 2010 AND 2 SEPTEMBER 2010 4. EQUALITY AUDIT 2009/10 INFORMATION BOROUGHWIDE 17 5. EQUALITIES ACT 2010 INFORMATION BOROUGHWIDE 23 6. PAY AND GRADING REVIEW - INFORMATION BOROUGHWIDE 32 IMPLEMENTATION 7. PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT INFORMATIION BOROUGHWIDE 35 PROGRAMME (PIP) - UPDATE 8. STAFF BENEFITS/TOTAL REWARD DECISION BOROUGHWIDE 40 CIVIC CENTRE EMERGENCY EVACUATION: Please familiarise yourself with the emergency evacuation procedures, which are displayed inside the Council’s meeting rooms. If an alarm sounds, leave by the nearest fire exit quickly and calmly and assemble at the Hexagon sign, at the start of Queen’s Walk. You will be advised when it is safe to re-enter the building. www.reading.gov.uk Minicom 0118 937 2700 DX 40124 Reading (Castle Street) 9. CONTRACT TO PROVIDE ACCESS DECISION BOROUGHWIDE 47 TO A CYCLE FOR WORK SCHEME 10. CHANGE PROGRAMMES – DECISION BOROUGHWIDE 52 GUIDANCE FOR STAFF At this point, the following motion will be moved by the Chair: “That, pursuant to Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) members of the press and public be excluded during consideration of the following items on the agenda, as it is likely that there would be disclosure of exempt information as defined in the relevant Paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A (as amended) of that Act” 11. EARLY RETIREMENTS AND DECISION BOROUGHWIDE Report to REDUNDANCIES Follow 12. EARLY RETIREMENTS AND DECISION BOROUGHWIDE Report to REDUNDANCIES – HOUSING AND Follow COMMUNITY CARE www.reading.gov.uk Minicom 0118 939 0700 DX 40124 Reading (Castle Street) PERSONNEL COMMITTEE MINUTES – 1 JULY 2010 Present: Councillor (Chair); Councillors Lovelock and Steele. Also Present: A Burton, J Hoggart, D Peasley and M Popham. Apologies: Councillors Page and Pugh. RESOLVED ITEMS 1. MINUTES The Minutes of the meeting held on 4 March 2010 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair. 2. APPOINTMENT TO SOUTH EAST EMPLOYERS’ EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE The Committee was asked to make appointments to the South East Employers’ Executive Committee for the 2010/11 Municipal Year. Resolved – (1) That Councillors Bayes and Steele be appointed to the South East Employers’ Executive Committee for the 2010/11 Municipal Year; (2) That Councillor Page be appointed as the Standing Deputy to the South East Employers’ Executive Committee for the 2010/11 Municipal Year. 3. HR APPROACH TO DELIVER PIP SAVINGS Further to Minute 29 of the meeting held on 4 March 2010, Anne Burton, Head of HR, submitted a report on the management of key HR issues arising from significant organisational change linked to savings built into the budget, based on the ten cases for change set out in the Performance Improvement Programme (PIP). In view of the tight timescales for delivering savings, it had been agreed that there would be a Council-wide approach followed to manage a reduction in the workforce, ensuring that clear links were made to the PIP cases for change. The Committee agreed that the efficiency savings to be delivered through PIP should be monitored separately to those in-year savings required by external factors, such as reduced grant funding, to assess the effects of both on staffing levels and services being delivered. The Committee noted that service areas were looking at ways in which efficiencies and improvements could be secured through an analysis of working arrangements and structures. The proposed Refuse Pay scheme was appended to the report as an example of this process. 1 PERSONNEL COMMITTEE MINUTES – 1 JULY 2010 Resolved – (1) That, in accordance with the framework agreed at the meeting held on 4 March 2010 (Minute 29 refers), managers be authorised to take more proactive steps to manage down the workforce towards a staff cohort informed by the recommendations arising from the 10 cases for change; (2) That these steps to manage down the workforce be based initially on an elective and voluntary approach for staff but recognising that this would need to change to a more corporately directive approach should insufficient savings be secured; (3) That the timetable and compensation framework set out in paragraph 4 to the report be agreed; (4) That the approach to other service efficiency reviews, as exemplified by recent refuse pay proposals set out in the Appendix to the report, be endorsed for further consultation. 4. PERFORMANCE RELATED PROGRESSION POLICY Anne Burton, Head of HR, submitted a report on progress to introduce the new Performance Related Progression Policy using a set of council-wide 'Core Competencies', which would underpin people management from recruitment to learning and development and performance management. The competency framework had been developed and had been drawn-up in consultation with various ‘stakeholder’ groups, including trade unions. A copy of the revised Leading the Way – Managing People Performance – Contribution Based Pay Scheme competencies was appended to the report. The main benefits of a competency-based system were: • Employees would have a set of objectives to work towards and would be clear about how they were expected to perform their jobs; • The appraisal and recruitment systems would be fairer and more open; • There would be a link between organisational and personal objectives; • Processes would be measurable and standardised across organisational and service boundaries. The anticipated timescale for implementation of performance-related progression would be April 2011. The Trade Unions had been generally supportive of the Policy and the increased transparency it would provide by setting clear expectations of staff and demonstrating how they could progress. However, they had made the point that performance related progression was inextricably linked to the pay and grading review, which would provide the reward element of the scheme. Therefore, the introduction of the Policy would need to be accompanied by the implementation of the new pay and grading structure. The Single Status 2 PERSONNEL COMMITTEE MINUTES – 1 JULY 2010 Agreement (Pay and Grading Review) would be discussed in Part 2 of this meeting (Minute 7 refers). Resolved - That, subject to the conclusion of consultation with stakeholders, the new Performance Related Progression Policy be approved as attached to the report. 5. SAFEGUARDING – VETTING AND BARRING SCHEME Further to Minute 30 of the meeting held on 4 March 2010, Anne Burton, Head of Human Resources, submitted a report on progress towards the implementation of the new Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) / Vetting and Barring Scheme. The report explained that the Home Office had announced that the Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) for those working with children and vulnerable adults would be put on hold so that it could be reviewed. As a result, the Independent Safeguarding Authority registration stage of the scheme, which had been due to start on 26 July 2010, had been stopped. In the meantime, the existing requirements concerning Criminal Records Bureau checks remained in place and those checks would still be carried out where necessary; and the parts of the VBS put in place in October 2009 continued to be in force. Therefore, it remained a criminal offence for individuals barred by the ISA to work or apply to work with children and vulnerable adults across a wide-range of posts. The two ISA barred lists for children and adults, which replaced the three former lists (POCA, POVA and List 99) would continue to be operational. Local authorities, employers, professional regulators and other bodies would retain the duty to refer information to the ISA about individuals who had caused harm to or posed a potential threat to children or vulnerable adults. Resolved – That the position be noted. 6. EXCLUSION OF THE PRESS AND PUBLIC Resolved - That pursuant to Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) members of the press and public be excluded during consideration of the following item, as it was likely that there would be disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1, 2 and 4 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A (as amended) to that Act. 7. SINGLE STATUS AGREEMENT (PAY AND REWARD) Further to Minutes 32 and 16 of the meetings held on 4 March 2010 and 29 October 2009 respectively, Dave Peasley, Director of Resources, submitted an update report on the Single Status pay and grading review. The report explained the current position in relation to implementation of the scheme. The Committee was 3 PERSONNEL COMMITTEE MINUTES – 1 JULY 2010 given details of Counsel’s opinion on the implementation process in the light of the legal developments relating to the proposed scheme. As a result of the legal advice received and careful consideration of a range of options and their associated risks, it was recommended that the implementation of the pay and grading scheme should be introduced from 1 April 2011, and in those cases where individual agreement could not be secured this would be achieved by the dismissal and re-engagement of the NJC staff it affected. The report had appended the key milestones and dates for the project and the latest proposed pay and reward package.

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