There were no declarations of interest in accordance with the code of conduct.

To confirm the minutes of the Support Services Overview and Scrutiny Panel held on 4 March 2013.

Agreed the minutes of the meeting held on 4 March 2013.

There were no items of Chair’s urgent business.

The panel noted their tracking resolutions; there were no further comments.

To receive the panel’s work programme for 2012/2013.

The panel noted their work programme

To receive information within the terms of reference of this panel with regard to –

·         Budget

·         Performance

·         Delivery plans

·         Value for money

Simon Arthurs, Strategic Finance Manager, Andrew Loton, Performance and Research Officer and Emma Rose, Head of Health, Safety and Wellbeing, provided the panel with an update on budget and performance monitoring for the Corporate Services Directorate.

In response to questions raised it was reported that – 

The panel thanked the officers for the report and raised concerns that the monitoring of delivery plans was an important issue and should be scrutinised in the future.

To receive information on staff sickness levels, targets and action plans.

Emma Rose, Head of Health, Safety and Wellbeing provided the panel with an update on staff sickness.

The panel was informed that –

(a)        a three month project had taken place with the aim to review and improve the Council’s sickness absence levels;

(b)        in January 2013 a HR consultant was appointed on a temporary three month basis to lead the project primarily focused on reducing the top 100 current long term sick cases;

(c)        60 long term sickness cases were reviewed, 48 have subsequently been resolved and 11 cases remain open;

(d)        during the course of the project there had been an overall reduction in full time equivalent absence and this enhanced case management has contributed towards that;

In response to questions raised it was reported that –

(e)        one of the four major underlying factors that contributed to on-going long term sickness absence evidenced through the three month project was lack of management competence in managing the cases. The HR management team were reviewing the actions identified through this project to enhance the work already underway to achieve required sickness absence targets;

(f)         thresholds were used as a key indicator to manage sickness levels and monitoring;

(g)        assessing managerial ability was an on-going piece of work through annual appraisals where sickness absence thresholds would be included;

(h)        stress was a contributing factor to sickness absence however the Council provided multiple areas of support to assist individuals in coping with work pressures;

The panel praised the Head of Health, Safety and Wellbeing for her report and highlighted their concern that this issue should continue to be monitored in the future by scrutiny.

Information on Government policy changes can be found on the new Plymouth City Council ‘Policy Hub’.

http://www.plymouth.gov.uk/policyhub

The panel noted that the new reporting procedure for Government policy changes could be accessed on the new Plymouth City Council ‘Policy Hub’ webpage.

To receive for information a copy of the Revenues and Benefits monthly position statement.

The panel noted the Revenues and Benefits Performance Update.

Agreed that the Chair would write a letter to the Revenue and Benefits department thanking staff for their hard work involved with the restructure and welfare reform preparatory work.

There were no items of exempt business.