“In view of the impending elections for members of the new shadow North Yorkshire Council, the fast approaching implementation of local government reorganisation and the inevitable concern of staff about their future employment, could the Chair of Policy and Resources Committee please inform members what progress has been made to convene the first of quarterly Joint Works Group (JWG) meetings, as agreed by full council in February 2021. This to preferably include proposed meeting dates and how participants will be decided – Staff, Unions and Members. With the fourth meeting of the JWG due soon, why is this group still to meet?”
Minutes:
“In view of the impending elections for members of the new shadow North Yorkshire Council, the fast approaching implementation of local government reorganisation and the inevitable concern of staff about their future employment, could the Chair of Policy and resources Committee please inform members what progress has been made to convene the first of quarterly Joint works Group (JWG) meetings as agreed by Full Council in February 2021. This to preferably include proposed meeting date as and how participants will be decided – staff, unions, and members. With the fourth meeting of the JWG due soon, why is this group still to meet?”
Councillor Keal, Chair of Policy and Resources replied:
“Thank you, Councillor Potter, and thank you for giving me notice of this question. You’ll be pleased to hear that despite the long delay in getting the JWG together, there has recently been the first meeting on the 14th of February, and the group is scheduled to meet every quarter going forward until the 31st March 2023. In terms of membership, the group is chaired by Harry Rashid, Head of HR, and group leaders, senior managers, heads of service, and Unison were all asked to put forward two representatives from each respective group. The two Members of this Council who attend are Councillor Duncan and myself.
The delay was for unfortunate reasons really. A report was commissioned following the decision of Council in February, in April 2021 to consider the purpose and setup of the group, and meetings took place at that time with Unison, officers, managers and group leaders, and the report was completed in May 2021. Group leaders were then asked to provide two names of representative in May 2021. Councillor Clark as Chair of Policy and Resources at the time was keen to discuss details with group leaders, but unfortunately due to his passing this didn’t happen, and that is what really resulted in the far too long delay in setting up this committee.
I raised the long-overdue meeting with HR and they continued to follow up. They were sent confirmation of member representatives in December 2021, and following this confirmation the first meeting was organised for February 14th. Thank you.”
Councillor Potter then asked the following supplementary question:
“Now I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that Council had decided that there were to be six members of staff, six members of union, and six Members involved. Is this correct or incorrect, and why is it only two of each? Thank you.”
Councillor Keal, Chair of Policy and Resources then replied:
“I think those figures were changed Councillor Potter, after the report which the Head of HR pulled together in consultation with mangers and with unions. It was felt that that size of meeting would be actually quite unwieldly so I think that’s where that decision came about. The report from the Head of HR went to Senior Management Board and I think that’s where that decision came from. And I think it was felt appropriate for myself to sit on the committee as Chair of Policy and Resources and Councillor Duncan to sit on that committee as Staff Champion.”