Agenda, decisions and minutes

The agenda and reports associated with this minute can be viewed here.

Please note that if any changes are made to this minute at the point of approval, these will be outlined in the subsequent minute and this document will not be retrospectively altered.

The Convener advised Members that Les Tarr had stepped down from his Trade Union role and would therefore no longer be participating in meetings of the Committee.  She thanked Mr Tarr for his participation and advised that Mark Musk had taken up the adviser vacancy for UNISON.  She further advised that Jason Currie would now be one of the SSTA Trade Union advisers and welcomed Mr Currie to the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Committee had before it the minute of its previous meeting of 28 September 2021 for approval.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       to note that the information requested at the last meeting in relation to re.cru.it had been circulated to Members and Trade Union advisers outwith the meeting; and

(ii)       to approve the minute as a correct record.

The Committee had before it the committee business planner as prepared by the Chief Officer – Governance.

It was noted that item 8 (Risk Register) would now be presented to the meeting of the Committee in June 2022, rather than February 2022 and Members asked whether this was in line with the reporting arrangements for other risk registers to Committee.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       to note that the risk register would now be presented in June 2022 and that the Chief Officer – People and Organisational Development had undertaken to confirm that this was in line with the reporting to other committees; and

(ii)       to otherwise note the planner.

The Committee had before it the annual committee effectiveness report by the Director of Commissioning for consideration.  The annual effectiveness reports were introduced in 2018/19 following a recommendation from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) as part of the Council’s work towards securing that organisation’s accreditation in governance excellence.

Members asked a number of questions on the report, firstly in relation to the Trade Union adviser vacancies and whether officers were being given time off to attend meetings; and then in respect of the SGC Terms of Reference and whether the committee was currently operating as a safety committee in terms of legislation.  Members also highlighted that the committee composition table was displaying half numbers and suggested this could be reviewed for future reports.

The report recommended:-

that Committee –

(a)      provide comments and observations on the data contained within the annual report; and

(b)      note the annual report of the Staff Governance Committee.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       to thank the Trade Unions for their contributions to the Committee during the reporting period;

(ii)       to note that the Clerk had advised that she would follow up with Trade Unions in relation to the current vacancies to the substantive and substitute adviser roles to try to ensure a full complement of Trade Union representation;

(iii)      to note that the Clerk would review the formatting of the committee composition table for the next report;

(iv)      to note the query in relation to whether the Committee was fully acting as a safety committee within s2(7) of the Health and Safety at Work Act etc 1974 (as referred to in the Terms of Reference) and that the Chief Officer – People and Organisational Development would discuss this outwith the meeting with the Chief Officer – Governance and the Corporate Health and Safety Lead to ascertain whether any amendments were required to either the reports presented to Committee or to its Terms of Reference; and

(v)      to note the report.

The Committee had before it a report by the Chief Officer – Governance which provided a summary of statistical health and safety performance information for the three month reporting period July to September 2021 to provide the Committee with the opportunity to monitor compliance with health and safety legislation.

Members asked a number of questions on the report, with particular reference to the figures around incidents occurring in the Education service, and there was discussion of the survey previously issued to staff by the EIS as well as a new survey which had recently been circulated with results to be made available later in the year.

The report recommended:-

that Committee note the report and provide comment on the health, safety and wellbeing policy, performance, trends and improvements.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       to request that future reports include comparison where available with data from before the pandemic as could be difficult to evaluate the data against a time when it may have been affected by COVID-19;

(ii)       to note that the EIS had issued a further survey to school staff and that Mr Constable had offered to present the findings once the data was available to Elected Members who might be interested;

(iii)      to note (a) the comments made in relation to the wellbeing of staff and learners and whether a report on this could be presented to the Education Operational Delivery Committee (EODC), and (b) that the Chief Officer – People and Organisational Development had undertaken to discuss this outwith the meeting with the Convener and relevant officers, taking into account the remit of both committees and noting also that EODC received regular updates on Supporting Learners which might already address this matter;

(iv)      to note that the Corporate Health and Safety Lead would liaise with colleagues in Data and Insights to try to resolve the formatting issues in future reports for those using digital agendas;

(v)      to request that the Corporate Health and Safety Lead liaise with colleagues in Data and Insights in relation to the presentation of the figures in the appendix, as different figures were currently presented as the same size in the charts; and

(vi)      to note the report.

- COUNCILLOR YVONNE ALLAN, Convener