Edenbridge Town Council

Meeting Agenda:

Personnel

Meeting Date:	Monday 20 Feb 2023
Time:	14:00
Councillors	Angela Baker, Michael Gemmell Smith, Alan Layland, Nick Lloyd, Margot McArthur Chair, Stuart McGregor.
Committee:	Personnel
Venue:	Doggetts Barn. 72a High Street Edenbridge, TN8 5AR Kent
Notes:
Summary:

Agenda

View Agenda Onscreen | Public Full PDF | Public Short PDF

Minutes

The Minutes are not currently available.

1 To Receive Apologies for Absence

2 Declarations of Interests or Predetermination

The disclosure must include the nature of the interest. If an interest becomes apparent to a member during the course of a meeting that has not been disclosed under this item, the member must immediately disclose it.

3 To Confirm the Minutes of The Committee Meeting Held on 03 November 2022

4 Matters Arising Not Covered Elsewhere

4.1 Report to Personnel Committee Clerk’s Report Feb 23

Information/general updates
WorkNest: The HR advice and annual Health and Safety monitoring visits are extremely helpful. HR services used in the past year includes: employment contracts, staffing issues, remote working, working hours. H&S service has provided a thorough monitoring check with several action points; risk assessment one day training for 3 employees; updated H&S policy manual and employee manuals (https://www.edenbridgetowncouncil.gov.uk/policies/council-policies/ scroll down to
Health and Safety to view). There are also two packages that we use for monitoring and are part of the overall annual package the Council subscribes to:

SafetyNest – a software package managing compliance and Health and Safety with monitoring check lists in a paperless form and recording effective measures and actions. Check lists are tailed to the task. Evidence documentation can be uploaded. There is also a comprehensive library of guidance documents. All open spaces monitoring is recorded on this with the exception of the cemetery memorials visual checks which remain manually recording sheet. The office staff are using the software for the majority of H&S monitoring, some weekly checks remain on a manual listing.
With the office and buildings recording, there has been numerous teething issues (majority at the user end), but Martin has spent a lot of time resolving these for staff and ensuring that there are suitable tailored documents.
All Risk Assessments remain held in the Council’s IT files with a paper file available. Groundstaff have a paper copy also.
You Manage - personnel software package which holds all employee details, annual leave, absence, disciplinary etc. This has not been being used as hoped as there just hasn’t been the time to invest in fully setting it up properly. It is slow work in progress. Ideally, at some point it can also be used for staff to book their leave.

Health Assured: Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), part for the employer’s duty of care. Council July 2021 supported this service for all employees and councillors to benefit from providing a facility to support all our wellbeing and mental health. Details to sign up have been sent to all employees and councillors a few times. I am not sure it is being used much. The initial three year period will be reviewed Spring 2024.

Training: First Aid at Work, 3-days is provisionally booked for April. All Groundstaff and some office staff will attend (resolution July 22). Attached (by email) are separate Excel spreadsheets for information with all training (these have not been included as part of the papers). To summarise current activity:

Office: Lorraine & I: NAMBA Revitalising highstreets & markets; Allotment Management; Allotment Management Tenancy Agreements and Policies; Cemeteries Memorialisation and churchyard safety; Upcoming: NALC Standards; SLCC Elections
Accessibility training – also attended by Davina and Debbie
CiLCA (resolution December 2022) – Lorraine is looking to enrol on this for the June start. ILCA – Davina is looking at signing up for this (itemised on contract as training).

Groundstaff: Basic Arc Welding planned for March, for all staff.

Medicals: The Groundstaff’s annual medicals have been booked: Audio HSE Cat 1; HAVS; Lung Function. Medicals and Audio are 2 and 3 years; the Audio and HAVS are yearly tests.

Final note: This is likely the last Personnel Committee meeting of this current Council term and I would like to thank you all for your advice and support over the past three-four years, and especially Cllr McArthur for her counsel with the numerous personnel issues.