Agenda and minutes

At this point, Members are asked to declare:

·        any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests

·        any prejudicial interests or

·        any disclosable pecuniary interests

which they may have in respect of business on this agenda.

Members were invited to declare at this point in the meeting any personal interests, not included on the Register of Interests, or any prejudicial or disclosable pecuniary interests they might have in respect of business on the agenda. No further interests were declared.

To approve and sign the Minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 9 September 2013.

Resolved:           That the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 9 September 2013 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record subject to:

                             In Minute 17 (Criteria for Achieving Excellence for the Equality Framework for Local Government), final bullet point amend to read:

·        The barriers faced by disabled people had been a focus.

It is at this point in the meeting that members of the public who have registered to speak can do so.  The deadline for registering is 5.00pm on Friday 8 November 2013.  Members of the public can speak on agenda items or matters within the remit of the Committee.

To register to speak please contact the Democracy Officer for the meeting, on the details at the foot of the agenda.

It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

This report provides Members with the headline results of the Council’s latest  2013 workplace wellbeing staff survey. It also describes how the results have been used to date, what happens next and provides a summary of what was done as a result of the 2011 staff survey.

A detailed verbal presentation of trends behind the headline results will be given by a representative of Health ‘e’ Solutions who carried out the survey.

Consideration was given to a report which provided Members with the organisation level results on the latest 2013 Workplace Wellbeing Staff Survey. The report also provided details of actions taken as a result of the 2011 survey together with progress to date and further action planned, following this year’s staff survey.

Paul Entwistle, representing Health ‘e’ Solutions facilitators of the 2013 staff survey, gave a detailed verbal presentation to the Committee of the trends behind the headline results. The main points being:

·        The survey was a follow up of the 2011 survey with all staff invited to participate

·        It was an anonymous survey with only group data being reported on (groups of 10 or more employees)

·        The survey consisted of 10 profile questions , 35 workplace stress risk indicator questions and an Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Workplace Stress Risk Assessment

·        1,428 employees participated giving a 42.3% rate, up 5% on 2011

·        HSE workplace stress factors were listed as:

o   Demand

o   Control

o   Peer and Manager Support

o   Relationships

o   Role

o   Change

·        Results of the HSE stress risk indicators were categorised from ‘Very Good’ to ‘Need for Improvement’

·        A comparison with the 2011 results had shown an improvement on Control, Support and Relationships, Change had maintained its position as Good and Demands and Role had shown a reduction.

·        467 individual comments had been made by staff all of which would be analysed and fed back

·        A summary of results would now be provided for both Managers and staff, with Directorates having access to their own results

·        Local interventions and actions plans would be developed and reviewed with progress being measured.

Members questioned a number of points arising from the report and presentation including:

·        Confirmation that only school support staff had been included in the survey rather than the teaching staff

·        The move to West Offices had been commented on by a large number of staff. Suggested that peer support could have contributed to the improved results.

·        Importance of planned action to alleviate any issues raised in the survey to ensure their effectiveness e.g. bullying

·        Concern at the low response rate and suggested requirement for future surveys to be completed by all employees

·        Need to identify reasons for non participation and reiterate that this was a completely anonymous survey.

Officers confirmed that a similar presentation had been made to Unions and the Joint Health and Safety Committee. An improvement plan would now be prepared highlighting staff groups where there had been low participation rates.

A full communication plan had been agreed which included the provision of the summary results and the full report being made available to all staff. Corporate actions and directorate plans would be presented to the Corporate Management Team in December with progress against these plans being reported in June 2014.

Resolved:           That the Committee note the progress and achievements made since the 2011 survey, the headline results of the 2013 survey and the work undertaken to date and future priorities.

Reason:              To keep Members  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

This report provides Members with an update on the implementation of the recommendations arising from the previously completed Staff Sickness Absence Management and Community Engagement scrutiny reviews which fall within the remit of this overview  and scrutiny committee. 

The Committee considered a report which updated Members on the implementation of recommendations arising from the following recently completed scrutiny reviews which fell within the remit of the Corporate and Scrutiny Management Committee:

Staff Sickness Absence Management Scrutiny Review

Members went through the recommendations provided in Annex A of the report and, following receipt of Officer comments, agreed not to sign off recommendations viii) to xii) in relation to this review, to allow completion of restructures and further work on the staff survey.

Customer Engagement Scrutiny Review

Consideration was given to Annex B which set out the recommendations of this review, Members felt that as this review had only recently been completed that all the recommendations should be left live.

Concerns were expressed that the under mentioned recommendation had not yet been implemented. Officers confirmed the current practice of stating in full the name of the organisation/initiative etc for its first reference in the report followed by subsequent references as abbreviations. This was pending a wider review being undertaken of the report template and style guides.

xii.   Report authors to include appendix of abbreviations in reports where appropriate

Pending the wider review it was agreed to implement this recommendation and provide an appendix of abbreviations at the end of future reports, where appropriate.  ^1.

Following further discussion it was

Resolved:    i)      That recommendations i) to vii) arising from the Staff Sickness Absence Management Scrutiny Review be signed off as completed with those remaining recommendations  being brought back to the Committee for review in six months.

ii)      That the recommendations of the Customer Engagement Scrutiny Review be not signed off at this time and added to the Committee’s work plan for review in six months.

Reason:     In order to conclude the Committee’s reviews and to raise full awareness of those recommendations which are still to be fully implemented.

This report provides information on the Equality Framework for Local Government and the related results from the recent Big York Survey and proposes an associated scrutiny topic for review by this Committee.

Consideration was given to a report which provided information on the Equality Framework for Local Government (EFLG) and the related results from the recent Big York Survey.

Arising out of the implementation of the EFLG it had been noted that one of the improvement actions identified had been that the Council were unaware of the equalities profile of its members. As a result , all Members had been asked to provide this information by the end of November 2013.

The results from the recent Big York Survey had also revealed that 57% of respondents where unaware of who their ward councillors were. It was pointed out that this figure worsened when the results had been examined against the Communities of Identity and showed a high percentage of non British respondents were unaware of their ward councillors. Taking the findings from the EFLG and the Big York Survey in to account the Committee were asked to consider undertaking a scrutiny review to examine how these issues could be addressed.

Members expressed concern at the findings and confirmed details of the work they undertook both individually and by their Groups in examining ways to engage minority groups. Reference was made to the existing excellent work already being undertaken by Electoral Services in engaging voters in the political process, although concerns were expressed at the current changes in voter registration which could further affect the number of registrations.

Members suggested the need to promote the democratic process with young people, possibly through the Youth Council and citizenship classes and the provision of information at Libraries. Other suggestions included engagement with the growing Black and Minority Ethnic community in York who had also been found to have little awareness of the democratic process.

Following further discussion Members suggested revisions to the suggested remit of this scrutiny review to address other issues within the equalities framework and it was

Resolved:     i)        That a Task Group consisting of Cllrs Galvin, Horton (or Potter), Jeffries and McIlveen be appointed to undertake a scrutiny review with a remit to include the following:

·          To examine how best to raise awareness of the democratic process amongst York’s Communities of Identity, in particular those who have protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010.

·          In support of the outstanding improvement action in the Excellence Equalities Improvement Action Plan to identify any equalities training required for members to help them better serve Communities of Identity within their wards

ii)         That an update from the Task Group on the scoping of the review be scheduled on the Committee’s work plan for January 2014, with a view to completing the review in time for the findings to feed into the Council’s peer assessment in May 2014.

Reason:     To support the Council in its efforts to achieve ‘Excellence Level’ in the Equality Framework for Local Government, and progress the work of this Committee in line with agreed scrutiny procedures and protocols.

To consider the Committee’s work plan for the 2013/14 municipal year, including verbal updates on ongoing scrutiny reviews.

Consideration was given to the Committee’s work plan for the 2013/14 municipal year.

Following discussions earlier in the meeting, Officers reported the following additions to the work plan:

·        13 January 2014 – Feedback from Task Group appointed to examine the democratic process and the equalities framework

·          10 March 2014 - Update on the Staff Survey Results

Resolved:  That the Committee’s work plan for 2013/14 be received and noted subject to the addition of the above items.

Reason:     To update Members and provide an overview of the Committee’s work for the 2013/14 municipal year.