To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 15 December 2021.

Decision

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 15 December 2021 as a correct record.

The report of the Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development is attached.

The Committee considered the report of the Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development, which set out the proposal for the creation of a new Director of Neighbourhoods Delivery post within the Neighbourhoods Directorate and the redesignation of the Director of Policy, Performance and Reform to Assistant Chief Executive.

The current Neighbourhoods Directorate played a key role in supporting the delivery of the Our Manchester Strategy. This included the creation of sustainable, safe, resilient, and cohesive neighbourhoods, with good quality green spaces, and accessible culture and sporting facilities. The recent addition of Housing and Homelessness had made the directorate the largest within the organisation with over 1800 staff and with the broadest span of activity.

It was therefore proposed that the number of direct reports into the Strategic Director Neighbourhoods was reviewed and streamlined by creating a new post Director of Neighbourhoods Delivery at senior salary grade SS4 (£98,592 to £108,853).  This would bring Neighbourhood teams, Libraries, Galleries and Culture, and Parks, Leisure, Youth and Events, together with Compliance and Community Safety into a single division and would reduce current direct reports from seven to four for the Strategic Director.

It was also proposed that the existing post of Director of Policy, Performance and Reform was redesignated to Assistant Chief Executive on its existing senior salary grade (SS4) to reflect the support, policy work and insight this function provided to the Chief Executive and based on the observations of the recent Peer Review, which in summary asked the Council to consider strengthening the policy and performance capability directly available to the Chief Executive and Senior Management Team.

Decisions

The Committee:-

(1)       Recommends to Council the creation of new post, Director of Neighbourhood Delivery at senior salary grade SS4 Grade (£98,592 to £108,853).

(2)       Note the redesignation of the existing post Director of Policy, Performance and Reform to Assistant Chief Executive on existing senior salary grade SS4 Grade (£98,592 to £108,853) and the change in line management arrangements for this post.

The report of the Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development is attached.

The Committee considered the report of the Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development, which outlined new and revised employment policies for the Committee’s consideration: the new Annual Leave Policy and the revised Domestic Abuse and Special Leave Policies.

The new Annual Leave Policy and revised Domestic Abuse and Special Leave Policies had been developed to fill a policy gap where there was no MCC policy on Annual Leave, updated in line with legislation (revised Domestic Abuse Policy) and new contractual entitlements introduced for Safe Leave and Fostering Leave (revised Special Leave Policy). Feedback from the 2019 Race Equality Review has also been incorporated in the revised Special Leave Policy.

Introducing a new Annual Leave policy would result in more consistent and equitable practice across Directorates in agreeing annual leave requests and authorising annual leave carryover. This also linked to the Health and Wellbeing Strategy by encouraging employees to take regular breaks from work and to use their entitlement to annual leave within the annual leave year. 

The revised Domestic Abuse Policy now highlighted the new Third Party Abuse and Harassment Policy and the Abuse and Harassment Report Form for reporting incidents of harassment and unwanted contact at work.  It also introduced a contractual right to ten days’ paid safe leave in a 12 month period for those fleeing abusive relationships.

The Special Leave Policy had been reviewed and updated to widen the definitions of family to take account of different family and cultural obligations.  The Policy also now noted that some protected groups may need more  special leave if travelling outside the UK when bereaved. In addition, the circumstances where foster carers may request paid special leave of up to ten days in a 12 month period had been defined. This was to support the Council becoming one of the Fostering Network’s Foster

Friendly Employers

Comments on these proposed changes had been received from the Trade Unions and noted by the Committee

Decision

The Committee approve the new and revised policies