Minutes for Cabinet Member - Corporate Services meeting, Nov 11 2009, 10.00AM official page

An apology for absence was received from Councillor Tweed.

Members and Officers are requested to give notice of any personal or prejudicial interest and the nature of that interest, relating to any item on the agenda in accordance with the relevant Code of Conduct.

No declarations of interest were received.

Minutes of the meeting held on 14 October 2009

RESOLVED:  

That the Minutes of the meeting held on 14 October 2009 be confirmed as a correct record.

Report of the Personnel Director

Further to Minute No. 18 of 24 June 2009, the Cabinet Member considered the report of the Personnel Director providing monitoring information about the Council's workforce covering the first half of 2009/10 (from 1 April 2009 to 30 September 2009), to provide an overview of the workforce and to assist in identifying areas for improvement and the development of policies and strategies.

Annexes A to E of the report provided detailed statistical information about staffing levels, composition of staffing and so on; and the key points identified from the report indicated that:

·             Turnover for the first half of 2009/10 was comparatively low.  It seemed likely that in the current economic situation, given the slow job market, the number of people leaving the Council's employ voluntarily would decrease further.

·             The age profile continued to show that the Council had an ageing workforce.  There were a number of initiatives to address this, such as the apprenticeship scheme and ongoing work with the Sefton Education Business Partnership.  However, it was important to recognise that, demographically, the life expectancy of the UK population had increased and people wanted to remain in employment longer.  Again, there were initiatives in place to retain employees for longer, such as flexible retirement and the removal of the retirement age.  It therefore continued to be a matter of striking a balance between these two groups of the workforce.

·             Work was continuing with the Sefton Equalities Partnership to increase the proportion of employees from minority ethnic backgrounds.

RESOLVED:  

That the report be noted.

Report of the Personnel Director

Further to Minute No. 19 of 24 June 2009, the Cabinet Member considered the report of the Personnel Director providing information on sickness absence levels for all Council staff, including those based at schools, for the 1st quarter of 2009/10, together with proposals on improvements in sickness absence management and current initiatives.

RESOLVED:  

That the report, particularly in respect of current management action and initiatives in relation to sickness absence, be noted.

Report of the Legal Director

The Cabinet Member considered the report of the Legal Director indicating that the Legal and Administrative Services Department had recently been successfully re-accredited in Lexcel, the Law Society's quality Kitemark and industry standard for best practice.

RESOLVED:  

That the report be noted.

Report of the Legal Director

The Cabinet Member considered the report of the Legal Director on the successful outcome of a Service Delivery Inspection of the Registration Service, which was undertaken by the Registrar General's Inspectorate in July 2009.  The report indicated that an overall Assessment of "Good" had been awarded and that an Action Plan which addressed particular recommendations arising from the Inspection would be submitted to a future meeting of the Cabinet Member.

RESOLVED:   That

(1)       the report be noted and staff within the Registration Service be congratulated on the results of the Inspection; and

(2)       the Legal Director be requested to submit to a future meeting an Action Plan setting out timescales for addressing the recommendations arising from the Inspection report.

To consider passing the following resolution:

That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.  The Public Interest Test has been applied and favours exclusion of the information from the Press and Public.

RESOLVED:

That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it may involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.  The Public Interest Test had been applied and favoured exclusion of the information from the press and public.

Report of the Finance and Information Services Director

The Cabinet Member considered the report of the Finance and Information Services Director on whether or not to grant discretionary rate relief to one organisation under the provisions of Section 47 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988.

RESOLVED:  

That discretionary rate relief be not granted to the organisation referred to in the report in respect of the premises indicated.

To receive a presentation from the Coroner for Sefton (Mr. Chris Sumner)

The Cabinet Member received a presentation from Mr. Chris Sumner on his role as the Coroner for Sefton.

RESOLVED:  

That Mr. Sumner be thanked for his interesting and informative presentation.