Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - South Cambs Hall. View directions

Contact: Laurence Damary-Homan  01954 713000 Email: democratic.services@scambs.gov.uk

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for Absence

To receive Apologies for Absence from Committee members. 

Minutes:

Apologies for Absence were received Councillor William Jackson-Wood.

 

Councillor Anna Bradnam was elected unopposed as Vice Chair for the meeting.

2.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

None.

3.

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 138 KB

To authorise the Chair to sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 23 February 2023 as a correct record.

Minutes:

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 23 February 2023 were agreed as a correct record, subject to the amendment of the penultimate sentence of the main paragraph of minute 5 to read “… with workers in the waste depot making up a large proportion of lower quartile staff.”

4.

Public Question

Minutes:

Mr Daniel Fulton congratulated the Chief Executive on her PhD regarding the working of a four-day week but he asked whether this information should have been shared publicly and he questioned why it had been kept secret. The Chair stated that this question differed from the statement provided and that Mr Fulton would receive a written answer.

5.

Results of the Four-Day Week Trial and Next Steps pdf icon PDF 120 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor John Williams presented this report on the results of the four-day week trial, which proposed that the Committee recommended that Cabinet agree to extend the trial up to March 2024. He stated that the trial demonstrated that a four-day week could assist the Council in the recruitment and retention of staff, which would reduce the cost of agency staff. He reported that there had been no decline in performance due to the four-day week. He corrected a recent report in the press by stating that the Council would remain open for five days a week.

 

The Chief Executive thanked the Bennett Institute for Public Policy for their extensive evaluation of the Council’s performance during the four-day week trial.

 

Councillor Mark Howell stated that it was not unusual for senior officers to undertake post-graduate courses on their own time and then apply the knowledge they obtained from those studies to their work for the Council. He concluded that the Committee should question members of the Cabinet on the Council’s proposed policies.

 

Councillor Daniel Lentell asked if the fact that the Chief Executive was undertaking a PhD was potentially withheld from Members, the public and officers and whether the Committee had been aware of it. Councillor Lentell also asked if a political decision had been taken to decide not to disclose the Chief Executive’s PhD to the public and if so whether the Committee would support an investigation into that decision. Councillor Lentell was promised a written response to his questions.

 

Minor amendment – cost of agency staff

The Committee noted that the number “£2,065.000” for the annual cost of agency staff in paragraph 12 of the report should be “£2,065,000”. Jeff Membery explained that the Council was competing with other authorities and the private sector in the recruitment of officers in posts that were hard to fill, hence the high cost of agency staff. It was hoped that by retaining staff through the four-day week, these costs would be reduced.

 

Responding to Members’ queries

Jeff Membery stated that there was no specific performance indicator for responding to queries from Members, beyond the general expectation that either an answer would be provided, or an explanation why this was not possible, within 48 hours. He encouraged members to use the online form, as this would allow questions to be tracked.

 

Assessing impact of the trial

Nina Jorden, from the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, explained that they had used the Council’s Key Performance Indicators to assess the authority’s performance during the trial period. She suggested that staff could be trained on how to make better use of digital tools to improve their productivity. It was noted that assessing the productivity of staff, if the trial period was extended, would require input from managers and was not a straight forward task.

 

Developing teams

Jeff Membery explained that a toolkit was being produced for managers to assist them in leading their teams. It was noted that all teams were being encouraged to meet up  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Date of Next Meeting

Wednesday 28 June 2023 at 2 pm.

Minutes:

It was noted that the next meeting was scheduled to take place on Wednesday 28 June 2023 at 2 pm.