To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Atewologun, Hussain and Robinson.

Members are required to declare any disclosable pecuniary, personal or personal and prejudicial interests they may have and the nature of those interests relating to items on this agenda and/or indicate if S106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applies to them.

There were no declarations of interest.

To determine whether there are any additional items of business which, by reason of special circumstances, the Chair decides should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.

There were no urgent items of business.

To determine any items on the agenda, if any, where the public are to be excluded from the meeting.

That agenda Item No. 10 be considered as exempt reports.

Members are requested to approve the minutes of the meetings held on 16^th November 2022 (to be circulated) and 27^th February 2023.

Resolved: That the minutes of the meetings held on 16^th November 2022 and 27^th February 2023 be approved as a correct record.

To consider a report of the Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate / Assistant Director, Workforce and Organisational Development.

Consideration was given to a report of the Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate / Assistant Director, Workforce and Organisational Development that provided details of the Council’s Menopause Policy and approval was sought by the Committee to approve the Council’s Menopause Policy.

The Strategic Lead (HR/Pay Operations) informed the Committee that the Menopause Policy and guidance would be made available to employees and managers.

The Committee was advised that the Council had signed up to the Menopause Workplace Pledge, which meant it had committed to recognising that the menopause could be an issue in the workplace and that women needed support, talking openly, positively and respectfully about the menopause and actively supporting and informing employees affected by the menopause.

Guidance had been available to all employees since 2019 but had now been updated to include more detailed information on definitions, symptoms, reasonable adjustments, managers/employees responsibilities, advice to managers on supporting menopausal workers and contacts for useful information.

It was advised that having a policy alongside the guidance reinforced the Council’s commitment to supporting workers experiencing menopausal symptoms.

It was noted that the Menopause policy was an important policy to develop and implement as the Council had a dominant female workforce as well as an aging workforce and the policy would provide affected employees with support at work.

The Chair thanked the Officer for the report and invited comments and questions from the Committee.

Members commented that introducing a supportive policy would help to make Rochdale Council an attractive working environment in a challenging job market. Members noted that it was important to have an open and respectful policy about a natural part of life which affected a large proportion of the workforce.

It was queried if there were figures for the Council which showed a lack of menopause support or difficulties with menopause symptoms were reasons for employees leaving the workforce. It was advised that this was not a part of the leaving discussion unless voluntarily mentioned by the employee but was not part of monitored leaving data.

Resolved:

1.    That the Council’s Menopause Policy be approved by the Employment and Equalities Committee.

To consider a report of the Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate / Assistant Director, Workforce and Organisational Development.

Consideration was given to a report of the Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate / Assistant Director, Workforce and Organisational Development that provided details of the Council’s health related absences for Q1-Q4, 2022/23.

The Strategic Lead (HR/Pay Operations) reported that there had been a 12% improvement in the number of days lost between 2022/2023 and the previous financial year; 10.15 days and 11.53 days respectively. There was an overall improvement between Q3 and Q4 of 0.5 days lost per FTE.

Members were informed that the split between long and short term remained consistent with previous years at 64% due to long-term absences and 36% due to short-term absences.

The Chair thanked the Officer for the report and then invited comments and questions from the Committee.

Members highlighted that whilst improvements were being seen, sickness levels had not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels. The Officer advised that there was still an ongoing impact of Covid sickness as well as other contributing factors such as recruitment and retention issues which are a factor to long-term sickness. A number of initiatives were being developed to try to improvement recruitment and retention which would in turn improve sickness levels.

Resolved:

1.    That the Council’s Q1-Q4 position in relation to health related absence for 2022/23, be noted.

To consider a report of the Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate / Assistant Director, Workforce and Organisational Development.

Consideration was given to a report of the Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate / Assistant Director, Workforce and Organisational Development that provided details of the Council’s Employment and Equality Report, 2022/23.

The Assistant Director (Workforce and Organisational Development) reported that the Council was seeking to ensure the composition of its workforce reflected the diverse local community, and to offer equality of opportunity in employment. The Council was compliant with the requirements of the Public Sector Equality Duty to publish equality information of the workforce and the report illustrated progress made.

The report provided information for the financial year ending on 31st March 2023 and demonstrated the progress and achievements in increasing the composition over time to show how the workforce diversity had changed, and how this compared to the demographic of Rochdale Borough. A key component of the Strategy was equality, diversity and inclusion in employment that looked to address areas where the Council was under-represented when compared to the local population.

The Assistant Director (Workforce and Organisational Development) advised the Committee that an Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity Manager had been appointed to analyse the data in detail and to start developing an Equality Strategy.

The Chair thanked the Assistant Director for the report and then invited comments and questions from the Committee.

Members raised concerns that a large proportion of the workforce were over the age of 60 which was a huge implication for loss of knowledge and future recruitment. It was advised that an apprenticeship programme was being developed as well as succession planning, including developing more digital working.

A point of concern was noted that the 16 – 24 years old age range had the highest percentage of leavers and members questioned why the authority was not able to retain younger people.

It was commented that there appeared to never be improvement in certain areas, such as recruitment of ethnic minorities and disabled persons and retaining youth. The Committee was advised that measures to improve recruitment and retention overall had been reviewed including removing some unattractive employment terms and conditions in order to make the Council a more competitive employer to other neighbouring local authorities, and that further targeted strategies were in development to improve specific areas of concern.

Members requested that future data analysis included more detail regarding the number of leavers, comparison to previous years’ data and included more details on the age/ethnicity/service/job role of the leaver. Temporary and permanent employee figures should be recorded separately and that they would like to see analysis and metrics regarding the number of jobs advertised, how many of those new starters left within 1 year etc., number of ethnic minorities recruited, age and job roles and if they were still employed in the same role. It was also queried if there was any analysis of the age of employees when they joined the authority, the related service/job role and if they were still employed or the age they left the authority.

Resolved:

1.     That the Council’s position  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To consider that the press and public be excluded from the remaining part of the meeting pursuant to Section 100(A)4 of the Local Government Act 1972 on the grounds that discussions may involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the provisions of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 and public interest would not be served in publishing the information.

Resolved: That, in accordance with the provisions under Section 100(A) (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, the press and public be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the following items of business.

Reason for the Decision: Should the press and public remain during consideration of the items, there may be a disclosure of information that was deemed to be exempt under Part 3 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

To consider a report of the Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate / Assistant Director, Workforce and Organisational Development.

Consideration was given to a report of the Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate / Assistant Director, Workforce and Organisational Development that provided details of the Council’s draft Flexible Retirement Policy.

Alternatives Considered:

Not to agree the proposals set out in the report. This would mean that the Council would not have a written policy on how it would deal with flexible retirement applications.

Resolved:

1.     That the recommendations as set out in the report be approved by the Employment and Equalities Committee.