Hart Borough Council Staffing and Appeals Committee Meeting

It was decided that Members would discuss the minutes of the previous meeting at the end of the meeting, as the previous minutes remained unpublished due to matters arising.

Apologies were received from:

Councillor Oliver (substituted by Councillor Ambler)

Councillor Worlock (substituted by Councillor Farmer)

No declarations were made.

No announcements were made.

Cllr David Neighbour introduced the report.

Members discussed:

·       that some areas of the report were statements of fact rather than an assessment of performance, and the balance between brevity and detail

·       future objectives, measures and timelines

DECISION

That the performance of the Joint Chief Executives as set out in Appendix 1 be noted and the objectives as set out in Appendix 2 be confirmed for the Joint Chief Executives for the coming year.

The report was introduced by the Joint Chief Executive. An additional recommendation (iii) to that published in the agenda was added.

Members discussed:

·       the reasoning for the additional recommendation and that it is included in the budget for 2022/23, and how any back pay will be accounted for

·       the changes to the policy compared to last year

·       staff numbers, current vacancies, market supplements, honoraria, apprenticeships and current recruitment processes

·       recent staff changes, shared service changes budgetary implications, and the need for detail on these during the next budget setting process

DECISION

  i)          That the Pay Policy 2022/2023, attached as Appendix 1 to the report, be recommended to Council for approval.

 ii)         That the staff numbers and vacancies provided in Appendix 2 are noted.

iii)         Recommendation to Council to increase staff salaries by 1.75% from 1^st April 2022.

The following item(s) contained exempt information.

DECISION

Members decided that the public interest in maintaining an exemption out-weighed the public interest in disclosing the information.

In accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded during the discussion of the matters referred to, on the grounds that they involved the likely disclosure of exempt information, as defined in paragraphs 1 and 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, and the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.

An amendment to the recommendation to Cabinet in item 8 of the minutes was proposed. 

DECISION

The recommendation item 8 of the minutes was agreed.