Agenda item

Policy Acceptance - Year 3 Compliance Data

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

 

Minutes:

The report of the Director of Function (Council Business)/Monitoring Officer setting out the level of compliance in relation to policy acceptance via the Council’s Policy Portal Management system for the third year of monitoring was presented for the Committee’s consideration.

 

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

 

           That on 10 June, 2019, the Senior Leadership Team decided to reduce the number of policies in the core set from sixteen to the nine policies listed in the report. The first of these policies (Display Screen Equipment Policy) was introduced for re-acceptance on 1 October, 2019. The nine policies will be subject to acceptance once in every two-year period but will be compulsory for new staff throughout that time.

           The process of re-introducing policies for acceptance was suspended on 23 March, 2020 owing to the need to re-prioritise the Council’s work to respond to the Covid-19 emergency although the Portal remained open for access to policies for information. As a result of the decision to suspend the process only the Display Screen Equipment Policy and the Corporate Health and Safety Policy have been re-introduced for acceptance to date. The report also includes compliance data for the final policy in the previous series – the Equality and Diversity Policy – which was introduced for acceptance on 29 July, 2019 but not included in last year’s report because the six-week acceptance period had not ended.

           Compliance data as at 28 July, 2020 for the three policies is set out in Appendix 1 to the report. A comparison of the average compliance rates for each service for the past three years is provided within the report (the policies reported upon in 2018 and 2019 are listed in Appendix 2)  and shows that whilst the majority of services have maintained high compliance levels, compliance in Housing Services is on a downward trend.

           A pilot requiring middle managers to accept certain policies that are not applicable under the click and accept arrangements to other members of staff was re-scheduled from January to March, 2020 but was further delayed because of the Covid-19 emergency; this is now due to commence in October, 2020.

           Ensuring compliance by staff who do not have access to the Policy Portal because they are not users of the Council’s Active Directory remains an issue and is unresolved despite discussions to identify workable and proportionate solutions to address the risk.

           A system has been developed to provide the Council with assurance that staff who are not technically employed by the Council who work for agencies, consultancies and partnerships etc. are aware of and comply with the key corporate policies listed. It is proposed to introduce a statement asking those staff to ensure that they are aware of and abide by the policies. 

 

In noting a year on year decline in the policy acceptance compliance level in the Housing Service over the past three years the Committee queried whether the Head of Housing Services had been able to provide an explanation for why the compliance level in the service has tailed off. In response to confirmation by the Director of Function (Council Business)/ Monitoring Officer that there had been no specific explanation, the Committee requested that the Head of Service be asked to provide a response as a matter of information to the Committee at its next meeting bearing in mind also that all Heads of Service have direct access to the Portal to monitor compliance within their own services.

 

It was resolved to accept the report and to note the current position with regard to policy acceptance across the Council and the proposal to re-start the requirements as form 1 September, 2020.

 

ADDITIONAL ACTION: The Head of Housing Services be asked to provide the Committee with a response to the declining policy acceptance compliance level within Housing Services.

Supporting documents: