Agenda and minutes

At this point in the meeting, Members and co-opted 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.

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 consider the exclusion of the press and public from the meeting during consideration of the following:

Annexes A - E to Agenda Item 2 (Redundancy, Retirement and Settlement Agreements) on the grounds that they contain information relating to individuals and the financial affairs of particular persons. This information is classed as exempt under paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of Schedule 12A to Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as revised by The Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006).

Resolved:

·        That the press and public be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of Annexes A-E to Agenda Item 6 on the grounds that they contained information relating to individuals and the financial affairs of particular persons. This information is classed as exempt under Paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of Schedule 12A to Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as revised by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006).

·        That agenda item 6, Redundancy, Retirement and Settlement Agreements be moved to the end of the agenda.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meetings of the Staffing Matters & Urgency Committee held on 21 March 2024 and 26 March 2024.

Resolved: That the minutes of the Staffing Matters and Urgency Committee meetings held on 21 and 26 March 2024 be approved and then signed by the Chair as a correct record, subject to the following amendment:

·        In relation to Minute No.32, Councillors Healey and Waller would replace Councillors Ayre and Widdowson, in order to accurately reflect the attendance and voting record of the meeting.

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, 16 May 2024.

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 registrations to speak at

the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

This report provides the committee with the workforce profile, covering the period of 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 (Quarter 4).

The Head of HR presented the report and issued a correction to the table of figures below paragraph 4. It was noted that the Resignations for Q4 2024 should have read “25%”, and the trend should have read “Decrease”, and that the Retirements for Q4 2024 should have read “73%”.

In response to questions from members, the Head of HR confirmed that:

·       As some agency workers changed to work part-time this could affect the figures shown, but that this would balance over the year.

·       CYC could be more representative than currently shown within the figures detailed in Annex 1, but it was not compulsory for employees to disclose this information.

Resolved: That the Committee noted the report and workforce profile provided in Annex 1 of the report.

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

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

The Head of HR presented the report and the Committee entered into private session for the consideration of Annexes A-E of the report.

Resolved:

·         That future Redundancy, Retirement and Settlement Agreements reports would contain overview reports of the number of redundancy, and flexible retirement business cases, rather than full business cases as seen in Annexes A-E.

·         That the Committee noted the expenditure associated with each proposal as detailed in Annexes A-E.

Reason: In order to provide an overview of expenditure.

To consider the Committee’s draft work plan for the municipal year 2024-2025.

Members considered and confirmed the draft work plan for the municipal year 2023-2024.

It was confirmed that the Committee would receive a further report on the Chief Officer Restructure in the meeting scheduled for 5 June 2024.

Resolved: That the members confirm and accept the committee’s draft work plan for the municipal year 2023-2024.

Reason: To ensure the Committee maintains a programme of work for the municipal year 2023-2024.