Agenda and minutes

Venue: Conference Room 4B - Tŷ Hywel. View directions

Contact: Liz Jardine 

Items
No. Item

1.

Introductions, apologies and declarations of interest

Minutes:

1.1     Apologies were received from Nicola Callow (Director of Finance), Mike Snook (Head of People and Places) and Dave Tosh (Director of Assembly Resources).

1.2     Chris Warner declared an interest in the matter of the future pay strategy, as he would be leading on pay negotiations for the FDA.

2.

Communication note to staff - Adrian Crompton

Minutes:

2.1     Adrian Crompton would draft a note of the Management Board discussion for the news page.

 

3.

Minutes from 5 October meeting - to be circulated by e-mail

Minutes:

3.1   The minutes of 5 October meeting were agreed as a correct record.

4.

HR Strategy and Resourcing meeting

  • Recruitment and appointment framework and policies (papers)
  • Future Pay Strategy (no papers other than appendix 4)
  • Light touch Capacity Planning
  • AOB

 

Minutes:

4.1   The Management Board had agreed to dedicate the meeting to Human Resources matters, led by Lowri Williams, who had met with Board members individually to discuss concerns, raised during the last capacity planning round, that workforce policies were creating pressures on the ability to deliver business. HR had developed proposals to address this and also to respond to comments from staff that had been captured through the staff survey and recruitment audit.

5.

Recruitment and appointment framework and policies

Minutes:

5.1   Leanne Baker introduced a paper outlining proposals for procedural changes to a number of policies linked to the Recruitment Policy, including allowances, secondments, priority postings and pay and reward policies.

 

5.2   The purpose of the Recruitment Policy was to ensure the Commission was able to recruit and retain the people it needed to deliver outstanding parliamentary support to the Assembly. The changes were developed in line with the recruitment principles agreed in March 2015 of merit, fairness and openness.

 

5.3   In particular, the Board discussed: rationalising the payment of allowances for taking on additional responsibilities; arrangements for secondments and internal transfers without unnecessary impact on capacity planning and colleagues; the policy on priority postings to support employees without a substantive post to return to; and the approach to permanent recruitment to vacant posts.

 

5.4   The Board agreed that the policies were a reasonable balance of consistency and flexibility, subject to some minor clarifications.

 

5.5   The Board also agreed that it was important to regularly scrutinise and challenge resourcing and remuneration decisions collectively, to understand the actual practices in different parts of the organisation and ensure that policies remained workable.

 

5.6   The proposals would be discussed in detail with the Trades Unions.

 

5.7   Actions:

    Lowri Williams to meet with Heads separately to revisit detailed points raised; and

    Management Board to receive regular management information.

6.

Future pay strategy

Minutes:

6.1   Wayne Cowley outlined a possible approach to staff pay when the current agreement ended in October 2016. The Board discussed the implications and asked for further work to be done to ensure there was the right balance between positive change and affordability.

7.

Capacity planning

Minutes:

7.1   The next meeting of Management Board on 23 November would be dedicated to the capacity and resource planning discussion. A pack of HR data would be available to inform the Board ahead of the meeting.

 

7.2   Action: Management Board members to contact Lowri Williams if further help was needed to prepare for the meeting.

8.

Fifth Assembly dashboard update

Minutes:

8.1   The Board received the latest dashboard indicating work in progress, key issues and risks.

9.

Any other business

Minutes:

9.1   Financial Management Report – the report for October had been prepared and Claire Clancy advised the Board that the end of year forecast was currently for an underspend. The Investment and Resourcing Board would scrutinise the budget in detail at their next meeting and make appropriate investment decisions.

 

9.2   Performance and Management Development Reviews – as at Friday 30 October, 79% of staff had completed their reviews.

 

9.3   Elections order – Non Gwilym advised that the certificates received from the Returning Officers notifying the Assembly of elected Members at the point of election, could now be signed and forwarded electronically.

 

9.4   The Board thanked Lowri Williams and her team for all the effort that had gone into the policy and pay work and preparations for the meeting.

 

9.5   The next Management Board would be held on 23 November.