EMPLOYMENT COMMITTEE
Meeting held on Wednesday, 29th April 2015 at 5.00 p.m. in the Boardroom
MINUTES
Present: Marie Gilluley – Principal Kate Hall (to item 28/15) Maresa Kellett
Clare Lomax
Stephanie Nixon - Chair
In attendance: David Chorlton - Human Resources Manager Carl Hosker - Director of Estates (to item 21/15) Jane Marsh - Director of Human Resources Peter Ryan - Clerk to the Corporation
The meeting was quorate throughout.
17/15 Declarations of Interest
There were no declarations of interest.
18/15 Apologies for absence
There were no apologies for absence and the Chair welcomed Kate Hall and Clare Lomax to their first meeting of the Committee.
19/15 Minutes of the Meeting held on 10th February 2015
The minutes of the meeting held on 10th February 2015, were accepted and signed by the Chair as a true and accurate record.
20/15 Matters Arising
The Clerk reported that all matters arising were covered on the agenda.
It was RESOLVED that the contents of the report should be noted.
21/15 Risk Management Monitoring 2014/15
The Director of Estates confirmed that the Employment Committee was accountable for monitoring the following 3 priority risks:
• Serious breach of Health & Safety legislation e.g. serious injury and/or death of student, employee or member of the public;
• Breach of Environment Health arising from low level of awareness of managers and staff in relation to environmental health legislation; and
• Loss of key staff at business critical times e.g. sick leave, study leave, maternity leave.
The risk register which had been included within the report detailed: the relevant risks; the impact of each risk; the inherent risk priority score; the headline controls; residual risk priority score and the sources of mitigation which were used to control the risks.
Members reviewed the risk register and agreed that the 3 risks identified by the Committee were being managed effectively;
It was RESOLVED that the:
a) contents of the report be noted; and
b) the 3 risks identified by the committee were being managed effectively.
Carl Hosker withdrew from the meeting at 5.10pm
22/15 HR Implications of the Ofsted Inspection 16th to 20th March 2015
(Confidential)
(This item is confidential under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act since it refers to commercially sensitive information.)
The Director of Human Resources introduced the report and confirmed the SMT had discussed what initial actions were required in order to address the areas for development. The report outlined an initial overview of the areas that will require further scrutiny from a HR and staff development perspective, as follows:
• Staff technical updating;
• Performance Management to be more robust and timely; • English & Maths staff skills levels;
• Safeguarding journey to outstanding; • Impact of high levels of sickness; and
• Impact of sickness on performance management.
Members reviewed the initial areas for development and made the following observations:
• The issues of coaching managers to implement the performance management process related to consistency and confidence of managers when allying the process;
• To move safeguarding to Outstanding required the production of more evidence relating to health and safety and risk assessment;
• The Self-Assessment process included the criteria for each team to move to Outstanding;
• Following discussion of the inspection of the College Nursery at the Corporation meeting on 15th April 2015, the College had now implemented procedures relating to “Disqualification by Association” and was now compliant with the Regulations; • The issue of sickness arrangements would be discussed later
on the agenda; and
• A meeting would be held with a representative from the AoC later in the week and this would provide an external view on College HR processes and procedures.
It was RESOLVED that the:
a) contents of the report be noted; and
b) update reports be presented at future meetings.
23/15 Draft HR Strategy Update
The Director of Human Resources introduced the report and confirmed that the strategy had been the subject of trade union consultation and had been discussed by the SMT. Since the last meeting the strategy had been enhanced to take account of ‘post inspection actions’ which related to HR and staff development.
Members reviewed the draft strategy and made the following comments:
• Rather than directly amend the Strategy to mirror feedback from the inspection, the requirements for greater efficiency and effectiveness had been reinforced;
• On page 17 the impact of staff absence on the Learner should be highlighted;
• On page 29 the fact that all staff had a leadership and management role should be emphasised;
• Members questioned if the Strategy was too prescriptive and ambitious in certain areas and it was confirmed that the Strategy reflected current practice; and
• The final version would be emailed to Members.
Itwas RESOLVED that the contents of the report should be noted.
24/15 Staff Utilisation 2014/15
The Director of Human Resources introduced the report and confirmed that staff utilisation information was available, on a ‘real time’ basis, via the College Dashboard. The data held within the Dashboard stemed from the HR team and was kept up to date on a monthly basis.
As had been previously reported, the outturn of staff utilisation levels for teaching staff in 2013/14 was 98.5%, against a target of 97.5%. For 2014/15, the dashboard was reporting overall utilisation as 95% and it was expected that the target would be achieved by the end of the year.
Members reviewed the report and made the following observations: • From an analysis of the College Dashboard the current staff
utilisation level was 95.7%;
• Utilisation was based upon timetabled commitments and was a standards calculation within the sector; and
• The impact of staff absence was managed at team level and key issues reflected within team Self-Assessment reports.
It was RESOLVED that the contents of the report should be noted.
25/15 Staff Appraisal Update 2014/15
The Director of Human Resources introduced the report and confirmed that 87% of appraisals had been undertaken during the period. This performance was broadly similar to the previous year and the Director of HR and SMT were working with managers to ensure that outstanding appraisal meetings were undertaken during the early part of the current term.
Members reviewed the report and the following comments were made: • HR policed the policy which was implemented via the line
management process and where required coaching was available and in place;
• HR sampled checked the process and requested amendments, where required;
• The process included College wide key objectives such as safeguarding, sickness absence, lesson observations and specific contractual requirements in Work Base Learning.
26/15 Annual Employment Law Update
The Director of Human Resources introduced the report which highlighted recent and forthcoming employment law changes. It was confirmed that the College had access to various resources to ensure that it remained compliant with any changing legislation. A summary of the key changes and their impact on the College were highlighted within the following areas:
• Shared parental leave; • Adoption leave;
• Unpaid parental leave;
• New limit for redundancy pay; and • Fit for work service.
It was RESOLVED that the contents of the report should be noted.
27/15 Payroll Expenditure Monitoring 2014/15
The Director of Human Resources introduced the report and confirmed that the College’s payroll budget for the current academic year was £17,151k (including FRS17 charge). This was circa 65% of total College income (excluding deferred capital grant release).
As at April 2015, the FTE was 419.69, with a headcount of 532, compared to the previous year of an FTE of 429 and a headcount of 561. This demonstrated the reduced staff cost which had supported the overall College strategy.
Members reviewed the report and asked that future reports should include the total staff cost, including agency costs, as a percentage of total income.
It was RESOLVED that the:
a) contents of the report be noted; and
b) future reports should include the total staff cost, including agency costs, as a percentage of total income.
28/15 Staff Sickness/Absence Monitoring 2014/15
The Human Resources Manager introduced the report which detailed sickness absence levels across the College, including long and short term absence by department as and the strategies for monitoring and managing staff absence during 2014/15.
The College remained committed to reduce absence levels (to the AOC benchmark i.e. 4.09%), as highlighted the overall College’s cumulative percentage sickness rate for the quarter was 6.09 %, which was a reduction of 1.65% from the previous quarter. As had been previously requested by the Committee, the report also included the costs of sick pay for the current and previous year.
Members reviewed the report and made the following observations: • A more detailed report on the cost of sick pay, including cover
costs, would be presented at the next meeting;
• The procedure for managing short term absence should be reviewed in order to ensure that it was consistently applied and that the impact on the Learner was managed and minimised; • The three areas with zero absence were acknowledged;
• Managers need to be confident and rigorous when applying the absence procedure;
• The management team should consider sharing the actual cost and impact of staff absence with College staff and the Trade Unions;
• Given that the current sick pay arrangements were covered by a collective agreement any changes would be subject to a period of consultation; and
• Any proposed changes to the sick pay arrangements should be brought back to the Employment Committee or Corporation. If needed, and to fit in with the consultation timescale, special meetings could be organised.
Kate Hall withdrew from the meeting at 6.25pm
Itwas RESOLVED that:
a) the contents of the report should be noted; and
b) any proposed changes to the sick pay arrangements should be brought back to the Employment Committee or Corporation. If needed, and to fit in with the consultation timescale, special meetings could be organised.
29/15 Review of Committee Terms of Reference and Business Items 2015/16
The Clerk confirmed that, as part of the self-evaluation process, each Corporation Committee would review its Terms of Reference at the final meeting of the academic year, to enable the complete set of Committee Terms of Reference to be approved by the Corporation at the meeting on 8th July 2015.
It was RESOLVED that:
a) the contents of the report be noted;
b) the Post Inspection HR Action Plan should be a standing agenda item in 2015/16; and
c) the Committee’s Terms of Reference and Business Items for 2015/16, amended as above, be recommended to the Corporation for approval.
30/15 Any Other Business
There were no items of any other business.
31/15 Dates of Next Meeting
To be confirmed at the Corporation meeting on 8th July 2015
The meeting closed at 6.31pm
As approved by the members for the Chairperson to sign as a true and correct record:
Chair ………
