The committee noted the reports on the 2023/24 Early Retirement and Voluntary Redundancy scheme, the update on senior recruitment, and the quarterly review of employee relations casework. The committee also noted the proportionality calculations for the membership of the Appointments Sub-Committee and agreed to amend the membership arrangements to reflect them.

Corporate Directors Update

The Corporate Director for Place, Mr Simon Baxter, gave a verbal update on the directorate. He announced that the recruitment process for four director-level roles had started: Director of Public Realm, Director of Regeneration, Housing and Supply and Assets, Director of Housing Neighbourhoods and Customer Services, and Director of Areas. Mr Baxter is currently undertaking a review of the Place directorate that will, among other changes, slim down the Public Realm department, which he considers far too big. He argued that changes are necessary in part because of the results of the Council's annual resident survey, which showed dissatisfaction with the Council's performance on public safety.

“If you look to the annual resident survey, a lot of things have gone the right way, but safe communities wasn't one of those. So, again, that's another driver for change.”

Councillor Abdal Ullah expressed concern about how the restructuring of the directorate would impact on the Council's Climate Emergency response:

It doesn't make sense why it now does not have any connection to public realm. So that's a worry for me.

The Deputy Chief Executive, Julie Lorraine, said that the restructure would enhance or prioritise the Council's work on the Climate Emergency. Councillor Ullah said that she would like to see a report on the impact of the restructure on the Climate Emergency at a future meeting.

Update on Senior Recruitment

The Deputy Chief Executive, Julie Lorraine, presented a report on the update on senior recruitment (Supplemental Pack - Senior Recrutiment Update 12th-Dec-2024 18.30 Human Resources Committee).

Councillor Asma Islam asked about the value for money represented by interim appointments.

So, with that, now that, with that piece, are we making the best use of public money here?

Ms Lorraine argued that acting up arrangements represent good value for money, and that interim arrangements are used while permanent recruitment processes take place. She also noted that some posts are kept as interim appointments while organisational changes affecting them are underway.

Councillor Abdi Mohamed asked what the average length of an interim appointment at Tower Hamlets was, and requested that future reports include data on the average tenure of interims. He also asked what steps were being taken to ensure that interims have cultural competency and experience of working in Councils similar to Tower Hamlets. Ms Lorraine replied that the Council advertises all interim posts publicly and that appointments are made on merit.

2023-24 ER/VR Scheme Update

John Harrison, the Director of Corporate Efficiency, presented the 2023-24 ER/VR Scheme Update. The Council saved £2.78 million as a result of the scheme. The scheme involved one-off costs of £3.2 million, but Mr Harrison argued that the scheme represented good value for money because this cost would be recovered within 1.15 years.

Councillor Mohamed asked about the projected savings from the scheme over its lifetime. Mr Harrison responded that the scheme was expected to deliver savings of over £8 million by year three.

Councillor Islam asked for clarification on whether the savings were attributable to payouts or if they were attributable to reduced pension contributions. Ms Lorraine said that the savings were mainly attributable to reduced pension contributions, because older staff with longer service tend to be on higher salaries. She explained that the scheme was targeted at those staff.

Employee Relations Casework and Policy Quarterly Review

Pauline Shakespeare, the Interim Director of Workforce, OD and Business Support, presented the ER Casework Policy Dashboard Q2 2024-2025. She reported that there had been 106 formal employee relations cases in quarter two, a significant increase on the previous quarter. 65% of cases had been closed within the Council's 120 day target for resolving cases.

Ms Shakespeare noted that the Committee had previously requested that the report should include the number of staff in each directorate, to provide context for the casework figures.

Councillor Ahmed asked how Tower Hamlets compared to other London Boroughs in terms of the number of employee relations cases, and asked what the target resolution time for a case should be. Ms Shakespeare said that Tower Hamlets was in the middle range for case numbers, compared to other Boroughs. She said that she considered 120 days to be too long, and that the Council should be aiming to resolve cases within 90 days.

Councillor Mohamed asked how the Council learns from disciplinary cases, particularly in relation to gross misconduct and fraud.

So how are we as a council learning from these, you know, these number of cases that, to stop this and to ensure fraud is a perfect example. I'm not talking about any one case, but how do we make sure that there's not a space for that fraud?

Ms Lorraine said that the Council has robust internal audit procedures to detect fraud and that all cases of fraud are investigated thoroughly. Councillor Ahmed suggested that a training session could be held for Councillors on lessons learned from disciplinary cases.

Councillor Islam asked about the high proportion of employee relations cases in the Communities directorate. Ms Lorraine explained that this could be due to a number of factors, including the size of the directorate and the nature of the work that is undertaken there.

I think where you have smaller sort of departments, those individual cases weigh greater percentage points. So sometimes the percentage goes up. And I think within workforces, sometimes you get a joint complaint internally within the department. So it might run through the unions. And so there may be 10, 12 people who are signatories to a particular type of complaint. And that could exponentially raise it as well.

Councillor Ullah asked if the Council has sufficient safeguards in place to protect vulnerable children and adults where an employee with a safeguarding role is facing disciplinary action or a grievance. Ms Lorraine said that the Council always takes appropriate steps to protect vulnerable people in these circumstances.