Issue - meetings

Setting up of a Investigating and Disciplinary Committee (IDC)

Meeting: 05/09/2018 - Personnel Board (Item 43)

43 Setting up of an Investigating and Disciplinary Committee (IDC) pdf icon PDF 96 KB

To consider a report regarding the setting up of an Investigating and Disciplinary Committee (IDC)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Board considered a report proposing the setting up of an Investigating and Disciplinary Committee (IDC) to deal with disciplinary matters relating to the three statutory Officers i.e. Head of Paid Service, Section 151 Officer and Monitoring Officer.

 

Andrew Moulton went through the report and advised that the process being proposed was in line with the Model Disciplinary Procedure and Guidance and drew Members attention to the Model Procedure Flow Diagram which set out the process that would be followed.

 

Andrew tabled a revised Terms of Reference and advised that because the IDC was being set up as a committee of the Personnel Board its membership must be drawn from those Members who had been appointed to Personnel Board, including substitute Members, and therefore the first sentence of section 2 had been amended to read:  “The Investigating and Disciplinary Committee shall consist of three Members drawn from the membership of the Personnel Board, including substitute Members.”  Andrew further confirmed that the membership must be politically balanced and include at least one member of the Executive.

 

Members discussed the Terms of Reference in detail and in order to be open and transparent put forward that Personnel Board itself should agree the membership of the IDC and not the Group Leaders.  Members were also unhappy that the IDC was only now being set up when the Model Guidance had been in existence for some time.

 

In line with the other bodies that were included in the Model Procedure Flow Diagram Sarah Swindley tabled a draft Terms of Reference for a Personnel Board Appeals Sub-Committee which would consist of five Members.    The Board was unhappy with the proposal that Members could sit on more than one body to hear the same matter and asked that the last sentence of section 2 be deleted from the TOR.

 

With regard to the Appeals Sub-Committee Terms of Reference Members again felt that the selection process was not as open and transparent as it could be.  Following consideration of alternative selection methods it was agreed that eligible Members would be contacted by Democratic Services about their availability and from those that responded the Lead Specialist HR, in the presence of a Democratic Services Officer, would by anonymised ballot randomly pick the membership of the Sub-Committee.  A substitute member for each category outlined in section 2 would also be picked.  Any Member selected through this process would need to confirm in writing that they had no conflicts that would prohibit them sitting on the Sub-Committee. The Personnel Board asked that this selection process also be replicated in the IDC Terms of Reference.

 

It was agreed that Officers would amend the Terms of Reference for the IDC and the Appeals Sub-Committee, taking into account the comments made at the meeting, and circulate them to Personnel Board members for approval

 

RESOLVED that:

 

1)         an Investigating and Disciplinary Committee be established and authority be delegated to the Committee to deal with disciplinary matters relating to relevant senior Officers i.e. Head  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43