Agenda and minutes

To receive and note apologies for absence.

No apologies for absence were received.

At this point in the meeting, Members are asked to declare any

disclosable pecuniary interest or other registerable interest they

might have in respect of business on this agenda, if they have not

already done so in advance on the Register of Interests. The

disclosure must include the nature of the interest.

An interest must also be disclosed in the meeting when it

becomes apparent to the member during the meeting.

[Please see attached sheet for further guidance for Members]

At this point in the meeting, Members were asked to declare if

they had any personal interests not included on the Register of

Interests or any prejudicial or disclosable pecuniary interests

that they might have had in the business on the agenda. None were declared.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting of the Staffing Matters and Urgency Committee held on 13 January 2025.

Resolved: That the minutes of the Staffing Matters and Urgency Committee held on 13 January 2025 be approved and then signed by the Chair as a correct record.

At this point in the meeting members of the public who have registered to speak can do so. Members of the public may speak on agenda items or on matters within the remit of the committee.

Please note that our registration deadlines are set as 2 working days before the meeting, in order to facilitate the management of public participation at our meetings. The deadline for registering at this meeting is 5:00pm on Thursday, 29 May 2025.

To register to speak please visit www.york.gov.uk/AttendCouncilMeetings to fill in an online registration form. If you have any questions about the registration form or the meeting, please contact Democratic Services. Contact details can be found at the foot of this agenda.

Webcasting of Public Meetings

Please note that, subject to available resources, this meeting will be webcast including any registered public speakers who have given their permission. The meeting can be viewed live and on demand at www.york.gov.uk/webcasts.

During coronavirus, we made some changes to how we ran council meetings, including facilitating remote participation by public speakers. See our updates (www.york.gov.uk/COVIDDemocracy) for more information on meetings and decisions.

It was reported that there had been no registration(s) to speak at

the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

This report sets out the proposal to appoint a new Council representation on the board of directors of Yorwaste Limited following the resignation of the current City of York Council Officer nominated as Director.

The Chief Officer, HR and Support Services presented the report and noted that there was a requirement to appoint a new City of York Council (CYC) representative on the board of directors for Yorwaste due to the resignation of the current board member, the former CYC Director of Environment, Planning and Transport. It was reported that the recommended appointment of the Director of Finance to this position would be an interim measure ahead of the new Director of Environment commencing in August 2025 who would then be proposed as the new representative on the board of directors for Yorwaste.

Resolved: That the committee:

i.      Approved the appointment of the Council’s Director of Finance to represent the Council on the board of directors for Yorwaste following the resignation of the Council’s Director of Environment, Transport and Planning.

Reason: To ensure that Yorwaste continues to meet the requirements of the Control Test under Schedule 2, Part 1, Para. 2 of the Procurement Act 2023.

ii.     Delegated authority to the Chief Operating Officer and the Monitoring Officer to select and appoint any member and/or officer to represent the Council on the board of directors of Yorwaste Limited, and where necessary in the future remove and / or replace said individuals from the board, pursuant to the Staffing Matters and Urgency Committee’s delegated authority under Article 11 of paragraph 5.2 of Article 12 of the Council’s constitution and in line with company laws, the Company’s articles of association and any agreement between the Company’s members from time to time.

Reason: To expedite such necessary changes to the Council’s representation on the Yorwaste Board of Directors in the future.

This report seeks approval for a market supplement for the post of Corporate Director of Children and Education Services.

The Chief Officer, HR and Support Services presented the report proposing a market supplement to the role of Corporate Director of Children and Education (CDCE) to ensure that the role remained competitive, this had been prompted by a recent vacancy at another Council and an assessment of risk should the current post holder leave CYC.   

In response to questions from members, the Chief Officer, HR and Support Services presented the report confirmed that following approval of the recommendations, work would be undertaken to apply a pro-rata clawback clause into the agreement with the CDCE for up to four years.

Members discussed the work and successes achieved by the children’s services directorate, and the role of the CDCE, and the following points were raised:

·       Keeping the current CDCE was important for the ongoing work of children’s services

·       An improved salary for the CDCE role would retain the post holder for the benefit of CYC and young people.

·       There were concerns with the benchmarking method used to compare salaries of senior officer roles from nearby local authorities (LAs) as they didn’t take into account the different budgets held by the directorate, and comparisons instead against similar sized LAs would be beneficial, however the method used was beneficial in highlighting areas where CYC may lose staff to.

The Committee voted two in favour and one against the recommendations in the report, and it was resolved that:

·       The committee approved:

i.                A market supplement for the post of Corporate Director of Children and Education Services.

ii.               That subject to approval, the supplement will be monitored by the Chief Officer, HR and Support Services. As part of regular reports to the committee relating to market supplements and retention payments, this supplement would be presented.

Reasons:

i.                To ensure that the post is competitive in the current market and not risk the departure of the current post holder.

ii.               There is a very real flight risk of the current postholder leaving CYC on the grounds of career development to a larger authority and/or on the grounds of seeking a higher salary for a comparable role with another Council. The postholder is prepared to dedicate time and resources to CYC should a supplement be approved. The continuity of leadership is advantageous to lead on the social care reforms and maintain the outstanding status of Ofsted. Learning and shared ambition can also continue with fellow colleagues as we work on a one council basis to achieve the best outcomes for the children and families that we support in the City.

This report provides the workforce profile, covering the period of 1 April 2024 to 31March 2025.

The Chief Officer, HR and Support Services presented the report and noted that CYC’s FTE and headcount has increased since the last report, however, since teams had undergone changes like for like comparisons were not possible. It was also noted that CYC’s average age had decreased to 47 years which was still higher than the average within Yorkshire and the Humber.

In response to questions from members, the Chief Officer, HR and Support Services confirmed that:

·       The increasing headcount number would be expected to flatline shortly as the council continues to review services.

·       The high number of new starters and leavers within the Housing and Communities Directorate was partly down to the number of internal recruitments and promotions which was a positive story for the directorate, and partly due to the recent TUPE transfer to the Council

·       HR teams had delivered training to managers on short and long term sickness absence, and reinforced occupational health and tools such as Medigold.

·       There had been a recent increase in the declaration of protected characteristics across the workforce following promotion and awareness, and there had also been engagement with the staff networks to assist with promotion.

·        CYC’s gender pay gap was more positive in favour of women than men, and that although the gender pay gap was small, Officers were not complacent. This year CYC had also voluntarily published a disability and ethnicity pay gap report based on the data available (these were available on the York Open Data platform).

Resolved: That the committee noted the workforce profile provided in Annex A of the report.

Reason: In order to provide an overview of the workforce profile.

This report provides details of the expenditure associated with redundancy, pension or exit discretions paid in accordance with council policy to employees below Chief Officer.

The Chief Officer, HR and Support Services presented the report and provided clarification in that the Discretionary elements for Employee 2 and 5 within Table 1 on page 47 of the agenda; for these employees it was explained that the ‘discretionary element’ was the pension payment that was due as these employees were eligible for their pension on redundancy in accordance with the Local Government Pension Scheme and the Pension Discretions Policy  (hence the term ‘discretion’ used in the table). It was confirmed that there was no additional discretion or payment beyond a statutory redundancy and the individual employees’ pension entitlement, and that in order to be entitled to pension when made redundant, an employee must be 55 years or over. Table 2 showed a summary of all exit payments over the last 12 months and included those in Table 1. Table 2 had multiple employees in numerous lines, and summarised costs were therefore provided. The Chief Officer – HR and Support Services would look to amend the tables for future meetings for greater clarity.

Resolved: That the committee noted the expenditure and cases that have been approved.

Reason: To provide an overview of expenditure.

To consider the Committee’s draft work plan for the municipal year 2025-2026.

Resolved: That members considered the work plan for the municipal year 2025-2026.

Reason: To ensure the Committee maintains a programme of work for the municipal year 2025-2026.