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  • Agenda and minutes
  • Agenda and minutes

    Venue: Wantsum Room, Sessions House, County Hall, Maidstone. View directions

    Contact: Denise Fitch  03000 416090

    Items
    No. Item

    78.

    Declarations of Interests by Members in items on the Agenda for this meeting.

    Minutes:

    None.

     

     

    79.

    Minutes - 24 January 2019 pdf icon PDF 95 KB

    Minutes:

    RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 24 January 2019 are correctly recorded and that they be signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

     

     

    80.

    Leadership Strategy pdf icon PDF 339 KB

    Minutes:

    (Ms Cudmore, Head of Organisation Development, was in attendance for this item)

     

    (1)          Ms Cudmore introduced a report which provided a short update on KCC’s Leadership Strategy.  She also gave a presentation which provided further detail and summarised learning from the first year of the Strategy.

     

    (2)          Ms Cudmore and Mrs Beer replied to questions of detail in relation to the strategy and the 360 degree assessment of managers:

     

    ·         Ms Cudmore confirmed that the completed 360 degree assessments were sent back to managers to discuss the outcomes and any further development with their line manager. 

    ·         Members were pleased with the emphasis on innovation.

    ·         Ms Cudmore explained the role of succession planning within the leadership process and the way in which 360 degree assessment had been used previously for specific programmes including the “Future Manager”.

    ·         Ms Cudmore confirmed that all Managers were encouraged to have discussions with their staff about development.  Whilst it was not possible to make promises about individual progression, staff were made aware of available opportunities.

    ·         In relation to comparisons with other local authorities, Ms Cudmore stated that she was not aware of any other local authority that was as far advance with a leadership strategy as KCC.

     

    (3)       RESOLVED that the report be noted.

     

     

    81.

    Apprenticeship update pdf icon PDF 241 KB

    Minutes:

    (Mrs Flegg, HR and OD Strategy and Commissioning Officer, was in attendance for this item.)

     

    (1)          Mrs Flegg introduced a report on the progress made on Apprenticeship training via the Apprenticeship levy in KCC and KCC schools up until March 2019.

     

    (2)          Mrs Flegg and Mrs Beer noted comments and answered questions from Members which included the following: -

     

    ·         Members were pleased with the progress made and requested that publicity be given to this positive situation.

    ·         Mrs Flegg confirmed that it was intended to track the progress of participants in the scheme.  However, the scheme had not been operating long enough to currently have this data available.

    ·         Mrs Flegg provided an explanation of the way in which degree level apprenticeships were part of a KCC career pathway and gave the example of Social Workers.

    ·         Mrs Flegg confirmed that KCC was supporting the independent care sector by sharing the apprenticeship levy, for example, supporting level 5 nurse associate apprenticeships.

    ·         It was suggested that there should be a KCC accreditation for employers who had engaged in partnership training with KCC.

    ·         Mrs Flegg referred to the second Kent  Apprentice Graduation Ceremony which was  due to be held in October 2019

     

    (3)               RESOLVED that the report be noted

     

     

    82.

    Employee Relations Casework Activity pdf icon PDF 118 KB

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    (1)          Mr Royel introduced a report which updated the Committee on employee relations casework activity for the period 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019.

     

    (2)          Mr Royel and Mrs Beer answered questions and noted comments from Members which included the following:

     

    ·         Mr Royel confirmed that the Health and Wellbeing Group was part of the support which contributed to an improved management of staff mental health.

    ·         It was suggested that it would be helpful if the 5 year data collected was related to the percentage of total workforce and Mr Royel undertook to ensure that this was reflected in next years report.

    ·         Mr Royel confirmed that although KCC provided HR advice to GEN 2/Invicta Law/The Education People their statistics were not included in this report.

     

    (3)          RESOLVED that the report of employee relations activity including senior officer appeal hearings be noted.

     

     

    83.

    Annual Workforce Profile pdf icon PDF 894 KB

    Minutes:

    (1)          Mr Royel introduced a report which provided information on the staffing levels in the various sectors of the Authority’s workforce as at 31 March 2019, together with comparative information from recent years. The report also provided information on the diversity and demographics of the current workforce including a breakdown of staff by each of the diversity strands.

     

    (2)          Mrs Beer and Mr Royel answered detailed questions of explanation about the disability/gender profile at different levels of the KCC workforce.

     

    (3)         Mrs Beer confirmed that the reserve allocated for redundancies was currently robust and if the number of redundancies continued to reduce it would be appropriate to review the fund after 2020-21.

     

    (4)         The Committee discussed whether school’s data should continue to be included in this report. 

     

    (5)          RESOLVED that the report be noted and that schools workforce data should be included separately in future reports and not as part of the overall workforce data.

     

     

    84.

    Total Contribution Pay Equality 2018/19 pdf icon PDF 122 KB

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    (1)          Mr Royel introduced a report which provided an overview of the appraisal distribution profile and equality analysis for the 2018/19 outturn. It was noted that this was the first year of the new process.

     

    (2)          Mrs Beer and Mr Royel, in responding to questions about the process, explained the support given to managers.  Also the role of Directorate Management Teams in the moderation process and the appeal process was clarified.

     

    (3)          Members asked questions of detail around the assessments for various groups of staff and officers undertook to provide a briefing to the Committee.  

     

    (4)          RESOLVED that the outturn and the continued progress with the representative appraisal distribution profile be noted and a briefing be provided to the Committee on the detail of the outcome for certain groups.

     

     

    85.

    Staff Survey - Progress on action planning pdf icon PDF 192 KB

    Minutes:

    (1)          Mrs Beer gave a presentation to accompany the report which provided a short update on the actions and activities being delivered across KCC in relation to learning from the staff survey. Particular reference was made to the focus on Directorate Plans.

     

    (2)          Mrs Beer undertook to submit an update report on progress with actions from the Staff Survey to the meeting of the Committee in January 2020

     

    (3)           RESOLVED that the report and presentation be noted.

     

     

    86.

    Exclusion of the Press and Public

    RESOLVED that under Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1 and 2 of part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

     

    EXEMPT ITEMS

     

    Minutes:

    RESOLVED that under Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1 and 2 of part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

     

    EXEMPT ITEMS

     

    (Open minutes)

     

     

    87.

    Discretionary Payments

    Minutes:

    (1)          Mrs Beer introduced an annual report which set out the various types of discretionary payments to staff in accordance with KCC’s discretionary payment policies and procedures.  These enabled a consistent yet flexible approach to rewarding staff appropriately.  The paper updated the Committee on the specific payments made to individuals and key groups of staff.

     

    (2)       RESOLVED that the use of discretionary payments as set out in the report be noted.