Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors G Middleton and A M Morrison.

To approve the minutes of the Resources and Performance Panel held on 2 June 2015 (previously circulated).

The minutes of the Resources and Performance Panel on 2 June 2015 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Please indicate if there are any interests which should be declared.  A declaration of an interest should indicate the nature of the interest (if not already declared on the Register of Interests) and the agenda item to which it relates.  If a disclosable pecuniary interest is declared, the Member should withdraw from the room whilst the matter is disclosed.

These declarations apply to all Members present, whether the Member is part of the meeting, attending to speak as a local Member on an item or simply observing the meeting from the public seating area.

There were no declarations of interest.

To consider any business which, by reason of special circumstances, the Chairman proposes to accept as urgent under Section 100(b)(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

There was no urgent business.

Members wishing to speak pursuant to Standing Order 34 should inform the Chairman of their intention to do so an on what items they wish to be heard before the meeting commences.  Any Member attending the meeting under Standing Order 34 will only be permitted to speak on those items which have been previously notified to the Chairman.

There were no Members present under Standing Order 34.

There was none.

To receive comments and recommendations from other Council bodies, and any responses subsequent to recommendations, which this Panel has previously made.  (N.B.  some of the relevant Council bodies may meet after dispatch of the agenda).

Panel Members noted the responses made by Cabinet at its meeting held on 10 June 2015 to the recommendations made by the Resources and Performance Panel at its meeting held on 2 June 2015 in respect of the following item:

·        Review of Overview and Scrutiny.

The Panel will receive the Staff Sickness Absence 2014/2015 Annual Report.

The Safety and Welfare Adviser presented the annual sickness report and explained that the headline figure this year was an increase in the overall average sickness per employee from 7.57 days for 2013/2014 to 9.69 days for 2014/2015.

The Panel was provided with background information.  The Safety and Welfare Adviser explained that sickness absence was categorised by short term, long term and industrial injury.  Short term absence covered absences less than 20 days with longer periods being classed as long term.  Absences were further categorised into thirteen categories of sickness, to match benchmarking standards.  Long term absences were shown as the total number of day’s absence with the number of individuals involved.  Industrial injuries were shown by the number of day’s absence and the number of accidents.

Members were informed that all absence were calculated as full time equivalent (FTE) days.

The Safety and Welfare Adviser explained that the report was structure with five appendices as set out at section 1.3 of the report.

The Panel’s attention was drawn to section 2 of the report – Absence Rates.  The Safety and Welfare Adviser highlighted the key points as set out below:

·        The number of FTE days lost to short term absence increased to 2225.96 from 1830.58, an increase of 22%.

·        The number of FTE days lost to long term absence decreased to 2181.13 from 2327.83, a decrease of 6%.

·        With the transfer of staff with the creation of Alive Leisure and the associated Alive Management, this was set against a reduction in FTE staffing from 549.57 to 462.13, a decrease of 16%.  This did mean that the average short term absence per FTE employee actually increased from 3.33 to 4.82 (an increase of 45%) and the average long term absence per FTE employee also increased from 4.24 to 4.72 (an increase of 11%).

·        The number of accidents reduced to 3 (from 6), but saw the total number of days lost to industrial injury increased from 59 to 70 (after an increase last year from 54.5 to 59 days).

·        Appendix B showed that absence rates increased by 20% for part time employees, (last year this decreased by 25%) and the absence rate for full time employees increased by 31% (last year decreased by 7.8%.

·        Appendix C set out the most common occurring absences by percentage – musculoskeletal, stress/anxiety/depression, stomach/iiver, etc, viral/colds/flu, back problems, eye/ear/nose/mouth/dental/sinusitis, chest-asthma/bronchitis, disability.

It was highlighted that this year saw 14 long term cases account for 1,140 days of the overall figure which accounted for 52% of the long term sickness and 25% of the overall sickness figure.  Of those 14 long term cases, there were seven cases under the category of musculoskeletal and surgery, two individuals with cancers, one individual suffered a heart attached and one individual off with mental health issues.  In balance though only three individuals were still off at the end of the period, of the other 11, three had left the Council’s employment, one was on maternity leave and the  ...  view the full minutes text for item RP20:

To consider the attached Work Programme.

N.B. In considering the Work Programme, Members’ attention is drawn to the attached Forward Decisions List.

The Panel noted its Work Programme and the Cabinet Forward Decisions List as it related to Resources and Performance.

Councillor Devereaux referred to the monitoring of the Corporate Business Plan and asked why Quarter 1 had not been included on the Panel’s Work Programme.  In response, the Assistant Director undertook to ask Management Team why Quarter 1 had not been included and email a response direct to the Panel.

To note that the next meeting of the Resources and Performance Panel will take place on Tuesday 21 July 2015 immediately following the Audit and Risk Committee commencing at 5.30 pm in the Committee Suite, King’s Court, Chapel Street, King’s Lynn

The next meeting of the Resources and Performance Panel would be held on Tuesday 21 July 2015 immediately following the Audit and Risk Committee commencing at 5.30 pm in the Committee Suite, King’s Court, Chapel Street, King’s Lynn.