To present the report of the Head of Function (Council Business)/Monitoring Officer.

The report of the Director of Function (Council Business)/Monitoring Officer was presented for the Committee’s consideration. The report provided details of compliance for the second round of policies introduced for acceptance via the Council’s Policy Portal management system as well as the Learning Service’s compliance levels for the first round of policies. The data presented is based on the information available at 16/17 and 19 July, 2019.

The Director of Function (Council Business)/Monitoring Officer reported on the main points as follows –

•           That 8 policies – Data Protection Policy; IT Security Policy, Financial Procedure Rules, IT Acceptable Usage Policy, Safeguarding Policy, Officers’ Code of Conduct, E-mail  and Instant Messaging Usage Policy and the Whistleblowing Policy – were made available  for acceptance  between 2 July, 2018 and 3 June, 2019 as determined by the Senior Leadership Team (SLT).The final policy in the current series – Equality and Diversity Policy – was introduced for acceptance on 29 July and the six week acceptance period will close on 9 September, 2019.

•           Details of compliance levels for the 8 policies both across the Council and by service are   provided in Appendix 1 to the report. Average compliance for all policies across the Council is 95% which is the same as last year. This is compared with an average of 87% at the end of the six week acceptance period set for each policy which is an improvement on last year’s 79%.

•           That it was reported last year that compliance in Children’s Services had improved significantly with an average compliance rate of 99% as at 24 July, 2018 compared with an average of 57% at the end of the six week acceptance period. The service has continued to improve and has achieved a compliance rate of 100% for all 8 policies and 100% at the end of the six week acceptance period for the last 4 policies.

•           A significant improvement can also be seen in Adults’ Services as at July, 2019 with the service achieving a 92% compliance average compared with 78% as July, 2018.The Learning Service staff have been part of the corporate process since July 2018 and were required to catch up by accepting the first 7 policies in addition to accepting the second round of policies as they are released for acceptance. Appendix 2 sets out the service’s compliance levels showing an average compliance rate of 99%.

•           Following review by the SLT, the number of policies in the core set will be reduced from 16 to the 9 policies listed in paragraph 4.1 of the report. These 9 policies will be subject to acceptance only once in every 2 year period but will be available throughout that time for new staff.

•           The Policy Portal relies on the Council’s Active Directory (AD) and includes around 1,000 active users. The Portal’s reliance on the AD was recognised as a weakness from the outset with this Committee raising concerns that staff who are not AD users are not included in the process. It has been acknowledged that different approaches may be required to reach the various categories of non-AD connected staff, and in order to progress this issue, discussions will take place with each relevant Head of Service to identify the highest categories of risk and possible workable and proportionate solutions to address the risk.

•           Staff who are not technically employed by the Council who work for agencies partnerships etc. are expected to work in accordance with the Council’s policies and procedures particularly in terms of data protection, security, confidentiality and conduct. The Authority therefore needs assurance that these individuals are aware of and comply with key Council policies. To this end, it is proposed to introduce a statement asking staff who are not technically Council employees to ensure that they are aware of and abide by certain corporate policies. 

The Committee sought clarification of how compliance levels are monitored across the Council. The Director of Function (Council Business)/Monitoring Officer confirmed that compliance levels on a service by service basis are submitted to the SLT at the end of the 6 week acceptance period assigned for each policy. Weekly e-mail reminders generated by the Policy Portal automatically list all outstanding policies for each user. All Heads of Service also have direct access to the Portal to monitor compliance within their own services. However, the Policy Portal is not used by schools’ staff who have their own system to reflect the different policies that apply within schools.

It was resolved to accept the report and to note the current position with regard to policy acceptance across the Council.

NO ADDITIONAL ACTION WAS PROPOSED