Agenda and draft minutes

1.  APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

No apologies for absence were received.

No declarations were received.

No questions or deputations were received.

To consider for approval the draft public Minutes arising from the Resources and Delivering Value Scrutiny Board meeting held on 6^th March 2023.

The Minutes should show that Councillor Allen was present at the Resources and Delivering Value Scrutiny Board meeting held on 6^th March 2023.

Councillor Gibbin requested that an update note be provided to Members of the Resources and Delivering Value Scrutiny Board regarding the status of a recommendation arising from the Resources and Delivering Value Scrutiny Board meeting held on 6^th March 2023 concerning the Solihull Town Centre Low Carbon Energy Network, specifically the recommendation:

‘To RECOMMEND to Full Cabinet at its meeting scheduled for 9^th March 2023 that consideration be given to appointing a Member of the Council to the Energy Services Company (ESCo) Board with full voting rights via the Annual Council meeting appointments process’.

The Resources and Delivering Value Scrutiny Board:

RESOLVED:

To agree the Resources and Delivering Value Scrutiny Board Minutes arising from the meeting held on 2^nd February 2023 as a true record.

The Scrutiny Board received an introduction to the report from the Assistant Director, Business Systems. Members were advised that the report before the Scrutiny Board provided a twelve - month update since the last Smarter Ways of Working (SWoW) report had been received. 

Following the presentation of the report, Members of the Scrutiny Board raised a number of questions pertinent to the report, which in summary included the following matters:

Councillor Allen sought clarification as to whether the SWoW focus group and survey findings currently being analysed would be made available to the Scrutiny Board. Members were informed that survey findings and recommendations arising could be reported to a future Scrutiny Board meeting if requested by Board Members.

Councillor Gibbin queried whether any special attention had been given to the SWoW arrangements in Childrens Services social care and whether any children’s social care cases were being managed by social workers at home, if so, were they contactable when working from home and how were face-to-face interactions being facilitated between social workers and families. Councillor Gibbin sought detail as to how these matters were being addressed.

The Assistant Director (Business Systems) drew Member’s attention to paragraph 3.10 of the report, which stated staff attendance on the workplace varied across directorates and services. The Children’s Services staff had been treated as special cases, however, with the provision of 100% desk capacity available in the Council House for all Children’s Services social workers to access as they preferred/required i.e. desk provision was above the 40% capacity as applied to all other service areas.

In respect of the Focus Group and survey findings, Councillor Moses queried whether the survey addressed mental health and well-being matters arising from the Councils hybrid working arrangements.

The Assistant Director (Business Systems) confirmed that staff well-being matters had been addressed and that clarification would be provided to the Scrutiny Board concerning the mental health component of the survey. Members were reminded that any staff member could elect to work from the office as frequently as they wished to do so, especially if doing so supported their mental health. 

Councillor Moses sought further clarity as to how new employee probationary arrangements were working in practise via SWoW.  Members were advised that new employees were located in the office with colleagues for two to three weeks until they had been introduced to all their peers.  They were then introduced to hybrid working arrangements and would seamlessly transfer across to hybrid working arrangements in line with their team/service area working arrangements. Councillor Moses requested that a further SWoW update report detailing the focus group and survey findings be provided to a future meeting of the Board.

Councillor Adeyemo noted that the report detailed 34% of employees were experiencing working from home challenges and queried what allowances were made for staff to actively work full-time from the office and what accommodation was in place for such employees with no dedicated desks available to employees.  The Assistant Director (Business Systems) confirmed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The meeting is not open to the public during discussion of the following items because the reports contain exempt information as defined in Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972.

The meeting was not open to the public during discussion of the following items because they contained exempt information as defined in Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972.

To consider for approval the draft private Minutes arising from the Resources and Delivering Value Scrutiny Board meeting held on 6^th March 2023.