To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 14 February 2024.

Decision

The Committee approve the minutes of the meeting held on 14 February 2024

Report of the Director of Human Resources, Organisation Development and Transformation attached

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Human Resources, Organisation Development and Transformation, which provided details on two senior leadership roles that were currently vacant and outlined the arrangements to fill these positions.

The Chair advised that following an external recruitment process, Paul Marshall had been appointed as Deputy Chief Executive. Paul held the position of Strategic Director Children’s and Education Services and the statutory responsibility of Director of Children's Services as defined by Section 18 of the Children Act 2004.  To allow Paul to take up the role of Deputy Chief Executive, Sean McKendrick had been appointed as the Acting Strategic Director Children’s and Education Services (and statutory Director of Children's Services) for a period of approximately six months pending the role being recruited to permanently.  In addition, Dave Ashmore left his role of Director of Housing in April 2024. Acting up arrangements had been made from within the service for a period of approximately six months pending the role being recruited to permanently.

These were two key leadership roles in the Council’s senior management structure and the report sets out the approach to permanently filling these existing positions. 

The Director of Human Resources, Organisation Development and Transformation advised that some minor changes had been made to update the role profile of the Strategic Director Children’s and Education Services, but the main responsibilities of the position had not changed and the job evaluation for the position confirmed its grade at SS5 with a salary range of £135,976 to £155,898, with a pay award pending from April 2024.

Likewise, some minor changes had been made to the role profile of Director of Housing since it was last recruited to in October 2021, but the main responsibilities of the position had not changed and the job evaluation for the position confirmed its grade at SS4 with a salary range of £105,566 to £116,346 with a pay award pending from April 2024.  However, a pay benchmarking exercise of comparable Director of Housing roles had highlighted that the Council might not be able to offer a competitive salary for the role. As such, it was proposed that it may be necessary to consider offering a market rate supplement of up to £5000, in line with existing policy.  This would only be applied at the discretion of the Director of Human Resources, Organisational Development and Transformation (in discussion with the Chief Executive) based on the calibre of the candidate selected by the appointment panel.

Decisions

The Committee:-

(1)      Agree to establish, a sub-committee of Personnel Committee to act as an appointment panel for the purposes of recruiting and appointing a Strategic Director Children’s and Education Services.  The membership of which will include the Lead Member for Children’s Services amongst other committee members and be politically balanced.

(2)      Endorses the outlined approach to the recruitment of Strategic Director Children’s and Education Services and Director of Housing.

(3)      Endorses the recruitment to the role of Director of Housing at its current substantive grading level  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Report of the Director of Human Resources, Organisation Development and Transformation attached

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Human Resources, Organisation Development and Transformation, which outlined revisions to employment policies following legislative changes, specifically the revised Flexible Working Policy, Special Leave Policy and Family Friendly Policy Framework.

The revisions to these policies had been made to comply with employment law changes which came into effect in April 2024.  Some of the secondary legislation was not published until March 2024, and with the timings of Personnel Committee, it had been decided to make the changes under the delegation of the Director of Human Resources, Organisation Development and Transformation with Trade Union agreement

Decision

The Committee note the changes to the policies as detailed in the report

Report of the Director of Human Resources, Organisation Development and Transformation attached

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Human Resources, Organisation Development and Transformation, which sought approval of a new  Manchester City Council Sponsorship Policy.

The purpose of creating a Sponsorship Policy was to set out the approach and specific criteria that determined when sponsorship was appropriate to enable consistent decision making about sponsorship of new and existing employees across the Council and to ensure that the Council had both a fair recruitment process whilst complying with Home Office requirements.

The number of employees within Manchester City Council who were, for immigration purposes, sponsored to work had risen over the last 24 months and there was a cost to the Council and a set of administrative responsibilities arising from the sponsorship of employees and it was now common for the Council to receive applications for a role from candidates who would require such sponsorship. Consequently, Managers required a clear policy to make informed and consistent decisions during recruitment episodes.

Councillor Johnson sought clarification as to whether there would be any impact on present employees who were sponsored for work following implementation of this policy.

Decision

The Committee approve the new Sponsorship Policy.