Agenda and minutes

To confirm and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 8 February 2022 (copy attached).

The minutes of the meeting held on 8 February 2022 were confirmed and signed by the Chairman.

The Committee considered a report that outlined information and proposed changes regarding the Council’s Information Security Policy, which was reviewed on an annual basis.The Head of HR, Performance & Communications undertook to progress a suggestion that all managers’ job descriptions should include a reference to their responsibility for their staff’s management of data.

RESOLVED that the revised Information Security Policy, as set out at Annex A to the report, be adopted.

The Committee considered a report setting out proposed amendments to the Council’s Data Protection Policy, which principally reflected changes to job titles.

RESOLVED that the revised Data Protection Policy, as set out at Annex A to the report, be adopted.

The Committee received a report which reviewed the Council’s Data Security Breaches Policy and proposed a few minor changes.

The proposed policy had been amended to reflect that the United Kingdom was no longer part of the European Union and now reflected UK GDPR. Furthermore, changes to Paragraph 3.1 reflected the job role changed for SIRO as a result of the recent Senior Management Restructure.

RESOLVED that the revised Data Security Breaches Policy, as set out at Annex A to the report, be adopted.

The Committee considered a report which outlined proposed changes to the Council’s Social Networking Policy.Members discussed the new paragraph at 8.3, which referred to certain uses of social networking, including MS Teams and WhatsApp, potentially being subject to Freedom of Information and Environmental Information Regulation requests. Having noted concerns about the use of WhatsApp for Council business and discussed the need to strengthen wording about the circumstances that could be covered by FOI disclosure, it was agreed that further consideration would be given to this paragraph before agreeing the revised Policy.

RESOLVED that the item be deferred to the next meeting.

The Committee considered a draft Organisational Change Policy, which would replace the existing Employment Stability Policy (ESP). The new Policy had been subject to an extensive review and had been considered by the Joint Staff Consultative Group (JSCG) at its meeting on 29 March 2022.

Members reviewed the Policy and an annex to the report setting out a schedule of the key changes to the ESP, plus details of the negotiations that had taken place prior to and recommendations arising from the JSCG meeting. The proposals in relation to the redundancy multiplier were discussed and the Committee debated whether to introduce a multiplier of 1x the weekly salary immediately, rather than agreeing a non-discretionary 1.5x multiplier until 31 March 2023, which would thereafter become a multiplier of 1x the weekly salary, as recommended by the Member Representatives on JSCG. Following the debate it was agreed to implement a non-discretionary multiplier of 1.5x the weekly salary until 31 March 2023, which would thereafter revert to a multiplier of 1x the weekly salary. It was noted that, where a restructure had started but was not completed before 31March 2023, the 1.5x multiplier would be honoured. The other recommendations detailed in the schedule were also agreed.

The Committee noted a suggestion that an appendix be added to the Policy detailing who was authorised to make decisions on each aspect of the Policy. It was agreed to delegate authority to the Head of HR, Performance & Communications after consultation with the Chairman of the Employment Committee, Chairman of the Joint Staff Consultative Group and Chairman of Staff Representativesto agree the content of this appendix.

RESOLVED that

(i)        the Organisation Change Policy, previously referred to Employment Stability Policy, as set out at Annex A to the agenda report, as amended to incorporate the recommendations at Annex C to the agenda report, be adopted; and

(ii)      authority be delegated to the Head of HR, Performance & Communications after consultation with the Chairman of the Employment Committee, the Chairman of the Joint Staff Consultative Group and the Chairman of Staff Representatives to add an appendix to the Policy setting out the relevant decision maker in respect of each aspect of the Policy.

The Committee discussed its work programme for the 2022/23 year and agreed to add a review of the Retirement Policy to the January meeting’s agenda.

RESOLVED that the work programme for the 2022/23 municipal year, as set out at Annex A to the agenda report, as amended, be agreed.