Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Mrs Blatchford.

The Panel noted the resignation of Councillor Mrs Blatchford and the appointment of Councillor G Lambert respectfully in place thereof in accordance with the provisions of Council Procedure Rule 4.3.

To approve and sign as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 22^nd April 2024and to deal with any matters arising, attached.

RESOLVED: that the minutes for the Committee meeting on 22^nd April 2024 be approved and signed as a correct record.

To appoint a Vice-Chair for the remainder of the Municipal Year.

RESOLVED: that Councillor McCreanor be appointed Vice-Chair for the remainder of the Municipal Year.

Report of the Executive Director of Enabling Services detailing HR information for April to June 2024, attached.

The Committee received and noted the report of the Executive Director of Enabling Services detailing HR information for Quarter 1 April – June 2024. It was noted that there had been a total of 21 dismissals for a range of reasons as detailed in the report, 5 suspensions and 3 grievance/dismissal appeals.

The Committee also noted that the overall sickness levels for the council this quarter showed an average of 9.12 days per employee, the sector “average” was 8 days.  Data analysis indicated that the authority was consistently above the sector “average” for the last 4.5 years.  Sickness was more prevalent in the Directorates of Community Wellbeing and Resident Services where rates were 12.1 days and 12 days respectively per FTE with comparatively Growth and Prosperity, Enabling Services and Strategy and Performance with lower sickness rates, all under the 8 days sector “average”.

The report also detailed the breakdown of psychological absence reasons across the last 12 months which indicated the highest number of days lost had been due to depression, followed by stress and anxiety with 49% of all occupational ill-health last year being stress related.

The Committee requested that the Quarter 2 report provided a breakdown of sickness levels within Adult Social Care and Children’s Services and Learning together with data on back to work interviews across the authority.  The Committee also requested data on the ages of those recorded as sick and whether it was psychological or muscular skeletal related sickness.