Agenda item

Report of the Town Clerk, Comptroller and City Solicitor, and Director of Human Resources.

The Committee received a joint report of the Town Clerk, Comptroller and City Solicitor and Director of Human Resources presenting the business plans for 2017/18 for the Departments for which the Committee was responsible – these were the Town Clerk’s Department, Corporate Human Resources, and the Comptroller and City Solicitor’s Department.

The report also presented an early draft of the Corporate Plan 2018-23 in order to give Members an opportunity to provide initial feedback before wider consultation on the plan took place in the autumn with staff, partners and other external stakeholders.

Several members referred to the section regarding developing capabilities and highlighted the fact that the recent high turnover of staff in the Town Clerk’s Committee and Members’ Services Team might make this hard to deliver. A Member suggested that it was time to look again at the operational model and review effectiveness as the ‘policy’ function had practically disappeared and the ‘committee’ function took priority, and there was now limited support for Chairmen and Deputy Chairmen. In particular, Officers were asked to look at this in the context of establishing a career path for staff joining the Corporation, possibly as graduates, for whom work as a committee/policy officer could form part of their progression into non-specialist management roles.

It was agreed that the views of both Members and staff be sought and a report be brought back to a future meeting.

RESOLVED - to

1)            Approve the high-level and detailed departmental business plans from:

·         Town Clerk’s Department (Corporate and Member Services)

·         Corporate Human Resources

·         Comptroller and City Solicitor’s Department

2)            Note the draft Corporate Plan 2018-23

3)            Request the Town Clerk and Director of Human Resources to report back to the Committee on the staffing resource concerns identified by Members.