Agenda item

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

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 fourth year of monitoring was presented for the Committee’s consideration.

The Director of Function (Council Business)/Monitoring Officer highlighted the following –

·         The nine core policies currently included in the core set as listed in paragraph 1 of the report. These nine core policies are subject to acceptance every two years but will be compulsory for new staff throughout that time. Due to Covid 19, the process was suspended in March, 2020 but was re-started on 1 September, 2021.

·         The five policies listed in paragraph 3.1 of the report which have been subject to re-acceptance since 1 September, 2020. Compliance data per service as at 11 August 2021 is shown in Appendix 1 to the report. The table at paragraph 3.1 compares the average compliance rates reported to this Committee over the past four years.  

·         Declining compliance levels within Housing Services was questioned by this Committee at its meeting on 1 September, 2020 and was subsequently brought to the attention of the Head of Housing Services after which the average compliance rate for the Service significantly improved overall. Nevertheless the data in Appendix 1 shows a marked decline in Housing Services’ acceptance of the last policy issued which is down to 76%. However, compliance reports to the SLT indicate that there is more of a time lag for policy acceptance within Housing Services which is possibly due to the higher number of technical rather than clerical/office based staff within the service.

·         A pilot commenced on 14 September, 2020 which required middle managers to accept three HR policies with each policy assigned to relevant officers nominated by each service. Compliance data per service for the papers issued is set out in Appendix 2 to the report. The final paper – guidance for designating language skills for internal and external posts – will be issued for acceptance in the coming weeks.

·         The compliance issue in connection with staff without access to the Policy Portal. Staff who are not AD users - estimated at around 700 employees - who include those listed in the table at 3.3 - are not part of the policy acceptance process. The Policy Portal’s reliance on the Council’s Active Directory (AD) has been recognised as a weakness from the outset and was recognised as a risk by this Committee at its meeting in September, 2020 when it sought assurance that the matter was being pursued at the highest level. Whilst the matter has been receiving corporate consideration, this specific aspect of corporate policy acceptance remains on hold and will remain so indefinitely until a digital and cost effective solution becomes available. A proposal to trial a paper based process with Adults’ Services whereby staff would attend Council Headquarters to be briefed on the polices after which they would sign up to them was suspended due to the pandemic and is unlikely to be implemented in the near future. Until or unless the situation changes the matter will no longer be reported to the Committee. It should be noted however, that many of the areas covered by the core set policies are also included within corporate induction and training programmes although this does not provide the same degree of assurance as the Policy Portal.

·         Policy acceptance for partnership and/or agency staff who are not technically employed by the Council. In order to be assured that staff who are not directly employed by the Council are aware of and comply with the corporate policies set out in paragraph 3.4 of the report, services have been provided with a template containing a declaration to be signed by staff categorised as such. The policies are available to them in the Portal to read beforehand but completing the process in the portal is optional.

·         Next steps. The Equality and Diversity Policy will shortly be subject to re-acceptance to be followed by the Corporate Safeguarding Policy which has been re-scheduled from March, 2021 to ensure it incorporates the requirements of the Wales Safeguarding Procedures 2019 before it is re-accepted. All nine polices in the core set (paragraph 1 refers) will then have been issued for re-acceptance and will be subject to a report to the SLT to confirm whether or not all nine of the policies are to be retained as part of the compulsory acceptance process.

The Committee considered the report and in the ensuing discussion, the following points were raised –

• The position with regard to policy familiarisation and acceptance for new employees of the Council. The Director of Function (Council Business)/ Monitoring Officer advised that new employees who are on the Council’s Active Directory and have access to the Policy Portal, are recognised by the system one day after they have joined and the policy acceptance process will begin for them at that point. Those staff who are not on the AD system will receive training in the role as part of their job but they will not have access to the facilities of the Policy Portal.
• Whether the compliance issue linked to the staff without access to the Policy Portal has been formally registered as risk on the Corporate Risk Register and if so, what is its RAG status? The Director of Function (Council Business)/ Monitoring Office advised that  while she was able to confirm that this specific compliance issue has been included as a risk within the Corporate Risk Register she did not have information about its RAG status to hand but would report back to the Committee after consulting with the relevant officer.
• Whether other local authorities have been approached about their response to the compliance issue with regard to staff without access to the Policy Portal. The Director of Function (Council Business)/Monitoring Officer advised that most councils do not use a Policy Portal system in the way Anglesey does; where they do have such a system e.g. in a neighbouring council she understood that the portal is utilised more as a policy library and does not operate the click to accept facility.

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