Agenda, decisions and draft minutes

Councillor Thomson made a general statement of transparency by virtue of her membership of UNISON Grampian Health Branch, but did not consider that this required a declaration of interest to be made in respect of any of the items of business.

The Committee had before it the minute of its previous meeting of 21 April 2025 for approval.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the minute as a correct record.

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

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       in relation to item 11 (Staff Travel Plan and Policy), to note that the draft Council Travel Plan had not been considered at the June Net Zero, Environment and Transport Committee and would now be presented to the September NZET meeting, and that there was an instruction within that report that the Staff Travel Policy be updated;

(ii)       to note the reasons for delay in relation to items 4 (Family Friendly Policies), 5 (Employee Experience Survey), 8 (2025 Update on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan) and 11 (Staff Trave Plan and Policy); and

(iii)      to otherwise note the planner.

The Committee had before it a report by the Executive Director Corporate Services which provided a summary of statistical health and safety performance information for the 3-month reporting period January to March 2025 to provide the opportunity to monitor compliance with health and safety legislation.

The report recommended:-

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

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       in relation to the charts showing health and safety incident causation, to note that officers would liaise with colleagues in Data Insights to review the colour-coding and the possible inclusion of a key to provide clarity to Members;

(ii)       to request that officers provide some narrative in future reports in relation to causations such as ‘medication error’ and ‘unacceptable behaviour’ to give additional clarity to Members; and

(iii)      to otherwise note the report.

With reference to article 6 of the minute of its meeting of 22 April 2024, the Committee had before it a report by the Executive Director Corporate Services which sought approval for a new policy combining three closely linked policies, procedures and approaches relating to Zero Tolerance, Violence and Aggression, and Unacceptable Actions.  The report advised that this excluded pupil behaviour in schools as this was governed by national policy and guidance.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)      approve the implementation of the Citizen Interaction Policy and note the accompanying procedure, which together promoted positive citizen engagement, promoted employee and Elected Member safety, and provided clear guidelines for managing challenging citizen interactions;

(b)      instruct the Chief Officer – People and Citizen Services to make the Citizen Interaction Policy and supporting Managing Citizen Interaction Procedures easily accessible to employees, managers and elected members; and

(c)      instruct the Chief Officer – People and Citizen Services to publish the Citizen Interaction Policy, Zero Tolerance Pledge and Managing Citizen Interaction Procedure externally on the Council’s website.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       to request that officers notify Members of any customer who had been given a single point of contact, including where to direct them should they then be contacted by that person; and

(ii)       to approve the recommendations.

The Committee had before it a report by the Executive Director Corporate Services which presented an update to the Mental Health Action Plan for 2025, and set out progress and activity undertaken for the period January to December 2024.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)      note the continuing progress made on the Mental Health Action Plan and the proactive actions taken to address and support positive employee mental health during the last 12 months; and

(b)      approve the updated Mental Health Action Plan for 2025.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       to note that the Chief Officer – People and Citizen Services had undertaken for officers to investigate the peak in psychological issues between July and September 2023 and provide an update to Members outwith the meeting should any specific causation be found;

(ii)       in relation to the pie chart at page 67 of the report, to note that officers would review this for future reports to ascertain if any further detail could be identified in the ‘other’ section, noting the comments from Members that for example those with disabilities did not seem to be reflected in the chart; and

(iii)      to approve the recommendations.

The Committee had before it a report by the Executive Director Corporate Services which presented the Assurance Map in accordance with Staff Governance Committee Terms of Reference to provide assurance that workforce related risks were being managed effectively within the People and Citizen Services Cluster.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee note the assurance map set out in Appendix 1 to the report.

The Committee resolved:-

to note the report.

-                COUNCILLOR NEIL COPLAND, Convener