Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Alderman Peter Estlin, Deputy Kevin Everett and Wendy Mead.

There were no declarations of interest.

To agree the public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 29 April 2015.

RESOLVED – That the public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 29 April 2015 be approved as an accurate record subject to the addition of the word “exceptional” in relation to the honorarium and market forces supplement at minute items 12 and 13.

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Committee considered a report of the Town Clerk which set out the outstanding actions from previous meetings of the Committee.

RESOLVED – That the Committee notes the report.

To note the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 29 April 2015.

RESOLVED – That the Committee notes the public minutes of the Joint Consultative Committee held on 29 April 2015.

The Director of Human Resources to be heard.

The Committee received a presentation from the Director of Human Resources which provided information regarding Workforce Planning, Management Information and Corporate Memory.

Members asked questions in relation to the cost of pulling the information together, the amount of money spent on agency employees, benchmarking against other organisations, managing short term absence, and the impact of the differing terms and conditions requests from different generations amongst employees. The Director of Human Resources answered all of these questions at the meeting.

RESOLVED – That the Committee notes the presentation.

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Committee considered a report of the Town Clerk which provided information of the cross-cutting review of the grant giving activities of the City of London Corporation as part of the Service Based Review programme. The objectives of the review were to identify the grants programmes which are offered by the City of London Corporation to suggest how to improve value for money and drive up impact.

The Committee also received resolutions from the Policy and Resources Committee on 28 May 2015 and the Finance Committee on 9 June 2015 setting out the discussion of the report at those Committees.

A Member asked whether information was collected in relation to benefits in kind which were provided by the City of London Corporation, as this was not recorded within the report. The Town Clerk explained that this was outside of the remit of this review, but explained that an annual report on this was submitted to the Finance Committee.

RESOLVED – That the Committee agrees to take over responsibility from the Finance Grants Sub Committee for prioritising the (City’s Cash) funds to support welfare initiatives (e.g. staff annual lunch and Guildhall Sports Club).

Report of the Director of Human Resources.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Human Resources which set out the workforce profiles information for the year 2014-2015. The report also provided Members with a summary of the main equalities and inclusion initiatives and actions that had taken place over the previous year.

RESOLVED – That the Committee notes the report.

One question was asked regarding the recruitment to the post of Head of IT. The Member explained that the difficulty which had been experienced in recruiting to this post had been discussed at the meetings of the Information Technology Sub (Finance) Committee and the Finance Committee earlier in the week. The main area of discussion had been the degree to which the processes in relation to job evaluation and the award of Market Forces Supplements (MFSs) had delayed the recruitment process. He explained that the Finance Committee had agreed that it would be appropriate for a question to be put to the Establishment Committee to ask what the steps the Committee would take to avoid delays in future recruitments elsewhere in the City of London Corporation.

The Director of Human Resources explained that the job evaluation process was designed to ensure internal relativity between posts in different areas of the organisation to protect against equal pay claims. Where this process did not result in an appropriate level of pay to attract a sufficient calibre of applicant, MFSs were available. The current approved process for MFSs was that all MFSs above £5,000 required the approval of the Establishment Committee. The Director of Human Resources agreed to submit a report to the Committee’s next meeting in relation to the operation of MFSs.

The Committee also agreed that, with regard to the posts within the IT Department which had been discussed at Finance Committee, it would be appropriate to delegate authority to the Town Clerk (in consultation with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of this Committee) to award a further MFS to these posts if required.

RESOLVED – That the Committee:

a)    Requests that the Director of Human Resources submit a report to the Committee’s next meeting in relation to the operation of

There were no urgent items.

MOTION - That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

RESOLVED – That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of the Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

To agree the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 29 April 2015.

The non-public minutes of the meeting held on 29 April 2015 were approved.

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Committee noted a report of the Town Clerk which set out the outstanding actions from the non-public section of previous meetings.

To note the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 29 April 2015.

The non-public minutes of the meeting of the Joint Consultative Committee held on 29 April 2015 were noted.

There were no questions.

There were no urgent items.

To agree the Confidential minutes of the last meeting held on 29 April 2015.

The confidential minutes of the meeting held on 29 April 2015 were approved.

To note the minutes of a Staff Appeals Committee held on 14 May 2015.

The minutes and summary of the Staff Appeals Committee held on 14 May 2015 were noted.

Joint report of the City Surveyor and the Director of Human Resources.

The Committee considered and approved a report of the City Surveyor which requested that retention payments be made to five staff within the City Surveyor’s Department.

Report of the Commissioner of the City of London Police.

The Committee considered and approved a report of the Commissioner of the City of London Police which requested approval for the next stage of action under the City of London Police Change Programme.

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Committee considered and approved a report of the Town Clerk which provided an update in relation to the Town Clerk’s Department.