The Employment Committee met to discuss several key employment-related matters, including a proposed pay increase for council employees, updates to the council's speeding and substance misuse policies, and the appointment of a new Director of Law & Governance. The committee agreed to recommend additional budgets to fund a 3.2% pay award for council staff and received updates on the council's driving and substance misuse policies. They also moved to exclude the press and public to discuss the appointment of a new Director of Law & Governance and Monitoring Officer.

Pay Award 2025/26

The committee agreed to recommend to the council additional budgets to fund a proposed pay award of 3.2% from 1 April 2025. This will require £244k from the Local Priorities Reserve to fund the General Fund and £76k from the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Priorities Reserve.

The Leader of the Council introduced a report which noted that on 24 April 2025, the National Employers announced a full and final offer for council employees, which included a pay increase of at least 3.2%. While South Kesteven District Council isn't part of the national consultation process, it usually mirrors the outcomes of national negotiations. The report noted that delaying the final pay offer could negatively impact some colleagues financially because receiving a larger lump sum back payment could affect benefit entitlements and payments.

During discussions, it was queried why only a 2% increase had been budgeted for. It was clarified that advice given nationally was to budget for a 2% increase. A member urged the council to overestimate within future budgets. The Head of Paid Service confirmed that SKDC had not been compensated for all of the increase to employer national insurance and therefore this had to be accounted for within the existing budget.

Updates on Speeding and Alcohol & Drug Testing

The committee received an update on incidents of speeding and the outcome of recent alcohol and drug testing. The council's Driving at a Safe Speed Policy focuses on the safety of staff while operating company vehicles equipped with GPS tracking devices. The policy states that any driving related fines or penalties, including speeding, are the driver's responsibility and will not be reimbursed. The policy outlines a series of potential actions that can be taken when cases of speeding are identified:

• Informal conversation for a first instance of speeding where there is only one instance within a month.
• Investigation in line with the Council's Disciplinary Procedure for multiple instances of speeding within a month, or one instance of exceeding the speed limit by a high percentage.
• Further Investigations under the Council's Disciplinary Procedure for further occurrences of speeding after an employee has already had a penalty awarded under the Disciplinary Procedure.

The council's Drugs and Alcohol Policy states that the consumption of alcohol or illegal drugs during working hours or attending work under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs is considered to be gross misconduct. The policy outlines the circumstances in which alcohol and/or drug screening may occur:

• Random and unannounced occasions
• Post Accident or incident at work
• For cause
• Pre-employment
• Assurance as part of re-introduction to workplace plan

Director of Law & Governance and Monitoring Officer

The committee moved to exclude the press and public to discuss the appointment of a suitable candidate to the role of Director of Law & Governance and the statutory position of Monitoring Officer.

SKDC v National Green Book Terms and Conditions of Employment

The Employment Committee were provided with details of the differences between SKDC and National Green Book¹ Terms and Conditions of Employment. The committee noted the differences.

Work Programme 2025 - 2026

The committee agreed to add the following to the Work Programme [Work programme 2025-26]:

• Speeding Policy and the Substance Misuse Policy update (date tbc)
• Practicality of the provision of Employee Health Insurance (date tbc)
• Interview for the Recruitment of a Director of Law & Governance (September)
• Local Government Reorganisation update (November)
• Shared Parental Leave HR Policy (November)

Previous Meeting Minutes and Action Updates

The committee approved the minutes of the meeting held on 9 July 2025 [Minutes of the meeting held on 9 July 2025] as an accurate record. The committee also considered updates on the actions agreed at the previous meeting [Updates from the previous meeting]. The Senior HR Officer had followed up on a query about why stress and mental health related absences were not reflected as being a common reason for days lost due to absence given that stress and mental health was identified as the most common reason for long term absence, and had emailed all committee members on 17/07/25 to update them.