Agenda and minutes

Councillor Moore proposed, and Councillor Davey seconded, the nomination of Councillor Nestor as Chair.

Unanimously resolved that Councillor Nestor be elected as Chair for the remainder of the municipal year.

No apologies were received.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no public questions.

Lynsey Fulcher, Assistant Director for People and Change, introduced the report.

The report referenced the nationally negotiated pay award of 3.2% applicable to the Chief Executive pay band. Authority to implement this award had previously been delegated to the Head of People by the Civic Affairs Committee. However, following the adoption of the new Cabinet governance model, this delegation was now under the remit of the Employment Committee.

RESOLVED (6 votes to 0, 1 abstention): To approve the pay award of 3.2% for the Chief Executive pay band in line with the nationally negotiated pay award already awarded to all other council employees, backdated to 1 April 2025.

Lynsey Fulcher, Assistant Director for People and Change, introduced the report.

The report provided an overview of the workforce demographics for 2024 – 2025, with snapshot of data taken from 31 March 2025.

The report also highlighted the current people-related challenges and the work being undertaken to address those challenges.

In response to questions from the Committee the Assistant Director for People and Change said the following:

      i.         Noted the Committee’s positive comments regarding the report and the request for it to be presented as an annual report going forward.

    ii.         Regarding the increased agency spend related to the GCP, the Council was currently hosting these employees, who were expected to transfer to another entity in due course. Would investigate this further and share the information outside of the meeting.

   iii.         Agreed to include data from the Shared Planning and Shared Waste Services in future reports.

  iv.         Noted that while the demographic data was well received, the Committee requested a departmental breakdown of employees to enable year-on-year comparisons.

    v.         Acknowledged the request to show the demography of the workforce compared to the city’s demography.

  vi.         Noted the request for information regarding gender and race concerning management, not just non-management, in future reports.

 vii.         Would include the data of those staff who had left to show their overall length of service.

viii.         Noted that it was unclear whether the reported increase in disabled employees was due to existing staff declaring a disability or the recruitment of new employees with a disability. Would ensure this information was included in future reports.

  ix.         The annual equality report would provide further information regarding the gender pay gap; this would go to through the Equality Committee and the document would be in the public domain.

    x.         For those staff who were off work with anxiety and stress the following services were available

·           Stress MOT that Managers could use with their employees.

·           Access to an outsourced telephone helpline available 24/7, which could also provide face to face appointments if required.

·           Support from their Line Manager and HR.

·           Occupational health provider.

RESOLVED: To note the workforce information contained in the attached appendix.