Minutes of an HR Committee meeting held on Thursday 9 February 2023 at Ruskington Parish Office at 10.00am.

Present: Cllr O Ditch (Chairman), Cllr P Cunningham, Cllr AE Jennings

Also in attendance: Kathryn Locke (Clerk to Council)

Apologies: Cllr Cox

No members of the public or press were present.

The Chairman opened the meeting at 10.08am.

1. To receive and accept apologies where valid reasons for absence have been given to the Parish Clerk prior to the meeting.

Cllr Cox was unable to attend the meeting and had sent valid apologies.

Action: The Committee unanimously RESOLVED to accept Cllr Cox’s apologies.

2. To receive declarations of interest and to consider applications for dispensations in relation to DPIs.

None were declared at this time.

3. To approve as a correct record the notes of the last HR Committee meeting held on 20 December 2022.

Action: The Committee unanimously RESOLVED to accept the notes of the meeting held on 20 December 2022 as accurate Minutes.

4. To review the job description for the Deputy Clerk & RFO.

The Deputy Clerk and RFO had been involved with writing their job description and agreed with the final draft.

Action: The Committee unanimously RESOLVED to recommend the draft job description to the Council at its next meeting on 14 February 2023.

5. To agree who will undertake the appraisal of the Clerk.

This could not be an individual councillor.

Action: The Committee unanimously RESOLVED to recommend to Council that Cllr Tonge, as the Vice-Chairman of Council, and Cllr Cunningham would undertake the clerk’s appraisal with Cllr AE Jennings observing and taking on this role at further appraisals.  Councillors may also observe the appraisal of employees by the Clerk.

6. To agree the date and members to undertake staff consultations on changes to job descriptions.

Action: The Clerk to ask the relevant employees for convenient dates and times for the meetings.

7. To consider allocating the additional day of annual leave as agreed by government as part of the NJC pay award, for staff members not employed on an NJC contract.

Action: The Committee unanimously RESOLVED to recommend to Council that all employees would be allocated an additional day’s annual leave (or the equivalent for part time staff), commencing on 1 April 2023.

8.  To resolve whether to exclude the public and press, in accordance with the Public Bodies (Admissions to Meetings) Act 1960, to discuss the following staffing matters.

Action: The Committee unanimously RESOLVED to exclude the public and press.

The Chairman closed the meeting at 10.37am. At this point, the Clerk left the meeting. The meeting re-convened at 10.41am.

9. To consider the Clerk and RFO, as local government officers with local government (NJC) contracts, being enrolled into the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).

Action: The Committee RESOLVED to recommend to Council that all employees be enrolled into the LGPS from 1 April 2024, after consultation with, and agreement from, the employees.

   9.1.  To consider the correspondence from a staff member regarding their pension provider.

Action: The Committee unanimously RESOLVED that the employee could continue to pay into their previous pension scheme, if that was possible, but Ruskington Parish Council would not pay the employer’s contribution.

The Clerk re-joined the meeting at 10.47am.

10. To receive and consider medical information and agree reasonable adjustments for supporting a staff member at work.

The Clerk had discussed and agreed the reasonable adjustments with the employee.

Action: The Committee RESOLVED to recommend the reasonable adjustments to the Council. The employee could purchase their own uniform and PPE and the costs would be reimbursed by Council on delivery of receipts. Council logos would be applied retrospectively. Evidence that the PPE complied with relevant and current health and safety standards must be provided by the employee.

The Chairman closed the meeting at 11.31am.