Members are reminded to consider the categories of interest in the Code of Conduct for Members to determine whether they have an interest in any agenda item and any action they should take. For further details, please see the attached note from the Monitoring Officer.

Members are reminded to declare the nature of the interest and the agenda item it relates to. Please note that ultimately it’s the Members’ responsibility to declare any interests and to update their register of interest form as required by the Code.

If in doubt as to the nature of your interest, you are advised to seek advice prior to the meeting by contacting the Monitoring Officer or Democratic Services

Councillor Denise Jones declared a personal interest on item 4.1, Local Authority Governor Application, on the basis that one of the applicants, Ms Kathleen Darby was known to her.

To agree the unrestricted minutes of the General Purposes Committee meeting held on 8^th and 21^st December 2020.

RESOLVED

That the unrestricted minutes of the General Purposes Committee meeting held on 8 December and 21 December 2020 be agreed.

To review the Committee’s work plan for the current municipal year.

The General Purposes Committee Work Plan was discussed, and the following was noted;

Action List

Action Point 2 - A report on Members Enquires Process had been scheduled for General Purposes Committee on 04 May 2021.

23 February 2021 Meeting

The report on Communication Strategy for Elections 2021 is to be removed from the workplan because the Communication Strategy is still in working progress and will be circulated to Members of GPC once it has been approved.

The report on Financial Regulations and Procedure Rules is to be removed from the workplan, as the Interim Corporate Director, Resources, has reviewed the Financial Regulations and Procedures rules and is content they do not require any changes and if there are any minor changes to be made these can be included in the regular constitution update report.

04 May 2021 Meeting

Democratic Services Officer to rearrange the meeting date to a suitable date after the 06 May 2021 Elections.

RESOLVED

That the Work Plan be noted

The order of business was varied at the meeting, the minutes are set out in the agenda format for ease of reference.

Runa Basit, Head of School Governance and Information, introduced the regular report on Local Authority School Governor appointments. The report contained one re-appointment and two new proposed appointments. Members noted the information set out in the exempt appendices.

Members considered the report and agreed the nominations.

RESOLVED

1.    To agree the nominated applicants to the positions set out for local authority governors at maintained schools in Tower Hamlets.

Robert Curtis, Head of Elections, introduced the report which set out the administrative progress and preparation being undertaken for the Polls to be held on Thursday 6 May 2021.

Mr Curtis referred to the report and highlighted the following;

·       The hierarchy for the Polls remained the same as previously reported at the last Committee meeting.

·       There would be three GLA elections and two referendums.

·       That the prescribed questions on the ballot paper for the Governance Referendum and the Neighbourhood Planning Referendum had been set and detailed in the report.

·       Administrative preparations had started and was moving at a fast pace and all liaison with stakeholders, internally and externally have continued to take place.

·       The count venue had been confirmed as the Excel Centre for all Polls.

·       The count for the referendums will be held on a separate day to the count for the GLA elections. Currently waiting for confirmation of date, in order to recruit staff. 

·       All polling places had been booked, of the 75 places booked, 44 places were schools, the legal ability to require schools to provide space continued to be in force.

·       Due to the supplier no longer having units available, two portacabin polling places have been reassigned to Mulberry Place and Marriot Hotel. The changes will be subject to additional communications, and signage set up at the old locations redirecting to new locations. 

·       In conjunction with the NHS, 25,000 people have been sent out postal vote applications, these were people living in the borough who were sent shielding letters from the NHS. However, it was unclear how many of those people were on the electoral register and eligible for postal votes.

·       PPE had been ordered for all staff working on the election and will be provided for free.

·       That the Council would also be eligible for a £20k in funding that government will be providing for neighbourhood planning referendums which would be claimed by Planning and be offset against the expenses made.

·       Communications Team working on a communication strategy which would be in place shortly.

Members welcomed the report and thanked Mr Curtis for the update. Members raised a general concern around the need for extra security at polling stations in order to prevent a repeat of past elections, it was noted that there would be an additional challenge at this election as social distancing would be in place. Members were also assured that Will Tuckley, Chief Executive and Borough Returning Officer was eager to speak to the Metropolitan Police about security at polling stations and would be looking into this as a priority.

Accordingly, the General Purposes Committee;

RESOLVED

1.    The report be noted.

Amanda Harcus, Divisional Director of HR, introduced the report explaining that under section 38(1) of the Localism Act 2011, the Full Council is required to adopt a Pay Policy Statement for each financial year. She detailed the proposed 2021/22 Pay Policy statement in Appendix 1 of the report and highlighted that this would be going to Full council on 4^th March 2021 and would need to be agreed and adopted by 31 March 2021.

It was noted that the London Living Wage (LLW) was set at £10.85 per hour and the lowest paid staff in the Council were currently paid on spinal column point 1 which equates to £11.95 which was already above the new LLW rate.

Ms Harcus briefly highlighted the changes proposed for the Pay Policy 2021/22 statement in relation to starting salaries, salary progression and other amendments to include other payments for recruitment and retention purposes and market supplements.

It was noted that following the public sector exit payment regulations 2020, which had came into force on 4^th November 2020 and introduced a £95k cap on the total value of exit payments, an extensive review of the application of the cap was undertaken. Subsequently, the Government concluded that the cap may have had unintended consequences and the Regulations were revoked on 12 February 2021 and therefore be treated as if the regulation was never applied.

In response to questions the following was noted;

·       That Members were pleased to note that LBTH was a London Living Wage employer.

·       That any redundancies that took place during the period when the cap was in force would be reviewed and action taken to rectify them if required. 

·       That the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) (Transitional Provisions, Savings and Amendment) Regulations 2014 amended access to the LGPS for Councillors in England. From 1 April 2014, Councillors in England were unable to join the LGPS. Those Councillor Members in England who were in the Scheme on 31 March 2014 could remain in the Scheme until the end of the term of office they were serving on 31 March 2014. Councillors in England are not able to re-join the LGPS in any subsequent term of office.

·       That a detailed analysis on redundancies, would be brought to the next GP Committee.

Accordingly, the General Purposes Committee;

RESOLVED

1.    Agreed to recommend the 2021/2022 Pay Policy Statement for adoption by Full Council on 4^th March 2021.

2.    The Chief Executive in consultation with the Divisional Director of HR, Chair of GP Committee and Monitoring Officer be delegated to make minor changes to the 2021-22 pay policy statement.

3.    The amendments to the Council’s Constitution in relation to the terms of reference for the General Purposes Committee be agreed.

Amanda Harcus, Divisional Director of HR, introduced the report by explaining that the report was asking Members to change the constitutional arrangements for the Employee Appeals Committee to refer dismissal appeals to an Officer panel as set out in the report.

Ms Harcus highlighted the increasing importance that was needed to be given to performance management and to individual senior officers taking accountability for their actions and in this regard it was being suggested that senior officers should be expected to hear final appeals in all staffing matters and take account of their decision-making and that includes explaining that rationale for either overturning a dismissal or for upholding a dismissal in full. It was noted that the current practise was for elected members to consider appeals for staff dismissals and this was thought to sometimes create a misperceptionbetween the role of members and role of officers.

It was noted that there were different practises across the London boroughs and, LBTH was only one of 13 boroughs that continues to have Members involved in dismissal appeals, whereas 20 other boroughs had removed Members from their appeal processes.

Ms Harcus briefly explained alternative models for the appeals process; Senior Management Panels, where a Member is invited to participate in an advisory capacity to oversee and scrutinise and be supported by the management panel; inviting a member of the Trade Union as an observer, however it was noted that Tower Hamlets trade unions had indicated they were not in favour of this option  as Trade Union staff may be perceived as being bias towards management if a desired outcome is not reached.

Ms Harcus stated that having consulted with the Trade Unions on these changes, it was reasonable to say that the Trade Unions main concerns were around ensuring things were fair and whether management had followed due process internally. It was believed that the Council operates much more transparently then perhaps the organisation had historically done and was of the view that all staff are treated fairly and consistently, when it comes to managing grievances hearing disciplinaries or managing capability.

At the request of the Chair, Mr John McLoughlin, speaking on behalf of the Joint Trade Unions addressed the Committee and explained that the report recommended a change to the constitution in regards to staff working for the council and this matter was regarded as very important. He then highlighted the following; 

·       Strongly believed that Councillors had a relatively small but important role in staffing issues, because the role of the Councillors was not just to set policies but also to have some oversight of how those policies work in practice.

·       That there been a small number of dismissals appeals that have been referred to Members, a total of 23 in the last 3 years. The vast majority of dismissals are due to redundancy and redeployment which are excluded from the Members appeals process.

·       There were concerns over the lack of equalities, as a widespread perception and a concern that where  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.4

Amanda Harcus, Divisional Director, Human Resources and Organisational Development, briefly updated the Committee on the recent senior recruitment activity. 

The Committee noted:

·       That recruitment to the post for the Corporate Director Resources and Governance would commence in April 2021.

·       Chief Finance Officer (CFO), - recruitment process was ongoing with Longlisting to take place in February and final interviews to be held in March 2021.

·       Director of Customer Services, - recruitment process ongoing with Longlisting to take place in February and final interviews to be held in March 2021.

·       Director Education, - recruitment process ongoing with shortlisting in February and final interviews to be held in March 2021.

·       That interim arrangements were in place for all the above posts whilst the recruitment process was underway.

Accordingly, the General Purposes Committee;

RESOLVED

1.    Note the current position on the recruitment to senior management vacancies in the Council structure.

Matthew Mannion, Head of Democratic Services, introduced the report and briefly highlighted the changes detailed in the report including in relation to the Cabinet portfolios and the minor amendments to the Human Resources section. It was noted that the changes brought about by the Senior Leadership Structure would be brought to a later meeting once all positions had been recruited to. 

The Committee noted and agreed the changes set out.

Accordingly, the Chair Moved and it was:-

RESOLVED

1.    The amendments set out in Appendix 1 of the report be noted and agreed.

Nil items.

RESOLVED

1.    That in accordance with the provisions of Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985, the press and public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting on the grounds that the remaining agenda item contained information defined as exempt or confidential in Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972.

To agree the exempt minutes of the General Purposes Committee meeting held on 21 December 2020.

The exempt minutes of the General Purposes Committee meeting held on 21 December 2020 were agreed as a correct record.

The exempt appendices setting out the details of the applicants for the school Governor appointments were noted.