13 January 2025 – Minutes (draft)

THAME TOWN COUNCIL

Minutes of the Personnel Committee Meeting held on Monday 13 January 2025 at 3:00pm in the Meeting Room, Thame Town Hall.

Present:

Town Mayor, Cllr A Gilbert
Deputy Mayor, Cllr D Dawson
Chairman of Corporate Governance, Cllr M Dyer
Chairman of Community Services, Cllr P Cowell
Chairman of Environment & Assets Committee, Cllr A Dite

Officer:

M Sturdy (Town Clerk)
L Fuller (Committee Services & Processes Officer)

 

1) Apologies for Absence

There were no apologies for absence.

 

2) Declarations of Interest and Dispensations

There were no declarations of interest or dispensations.

 

3) Public Participation and Public Questions

There were no applications to address the Committee.
There were no questions put to the Committee.

 

4) Minutes

The Minutes of the Committee Meeting held on 23 September 2024 were confirmed as a correct record, and were signed by the Chairman.

 

5) Exclusion of the Public

RESOLVED:

  1. That under Section 1, Paragraph 2 of The Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960 the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business because publicity would be prejudicial to the public interest by reason of the confidential nature of the business to be transacted.

 

6) Apprenticeships

The Committee Services & Processes Officer gave an update and review to the committee on the successes and lessons learnt during the recent apprenticeship process. Options for future apprentices were discussed as well as offering a Councillor as a mentor.  The committee agreed that we should continue to investigate apprenticeship recruitment opportunities in the year ahead.

The type and level of apprenticeship will be reviewed and taken back to this committee later.

RESOLVED:

  1. To support future recruitment of an administration apprentices later in the year

The Committee Services & Processes Officer left the meeting.

 

7) Sickness Monitoring

The committee noted the introduction of the Bradford Factor scoring method to assist with the monitoring and support of staff absences and reviewed the latest staff data.

 

8) Staffing Matters

The Clerk updated the committee on staffing matters including:

  • Staff training –
    • IPAF, chainsaw and first aid, PA01 & PA6 chemical training for members of the Maintenance Team.
    • FixMyStreet superuser training for staff to better support the community at no extra cost to the community.
  • Recruitment exercises and request for flexible working
  • Extended leave request – one member of the team has requested leave for over two weeks in June. This has been approved by the Clerk and cover will be arranged.
  • Christmas closure period for 2025/26, the option to extend the closure to 4 days due to the way the bank holiday days fall is being discussed with staff. The committee questioned the need for emergency cover over the period and whether this should be arranged more formally. The Clerk explained the current informal process which will be reviewed during the year.

The committee noted that the new caretaker, Tyron Johnson, commencement employment on 1 November 2024

RESOLVED:

  1. To note the report

 

9) Staff Handbook

The committee noted the staff handbook has been updated with changes to legislation.

RESOLVED:

  1. To commission our HR consultant to provide a short presentation to Council on the legislative changes relating to Non-harassment and Bullying.

 

The meeting concluded at 4:51pm.

 

 

 

Signed …………………………               Date: ……………

Chairman