Agenda and draft minutes

To agree the minutes of the previous meeting held on 31^st March 2026.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on the 31^st March 2026 were agreed.

Guidance is available online to Councillors and co-opted members on making declarations of interest

None.

None.

Information on matters of urgency is available online

None.

To agree any items to be dealt with after the public (including the Press) have been excluded.  There are no items which officers recommend should be dealt with in this way.

None.

The Committee considered the Annual People Data Report and Learning and Development Annual Report for 2025/26.

The report provided an overview of the Council’s workforce data, including headcount, recruitment, vacancies, turnover, learning and development, apprenticeships, sickness absence, employee relations and workforce profile.  Highlights from the report included:

• Headcount of 566 and full-time equivalent staffing of 528.17, with headcount increasing slightly by 1.61% compared with 2024/25, but remaining below the budgeted FTE level.
• The workforce profile remained concentrated in operational and middle-management grades, with Grade 4 continuing to be the largest employee group. The average pay level compared favourably with the wider local government sector average.
• Salary costs increased by 10.56% during 2025/26, reflecting both increased employee numbers and the nationally negotiated pay award. The 2026/27 pay position remained subject to national negotiation and was identified as an ongoing budget planning risk.
• Market supplements continued to be used for hard-to-fill roles, with 21 posts in receipt of a supplement at year end. These are reviewed annually to ensure continued evidence of labour market pressure.
• Staff travel costs reduced to £96,481, a 23.07% decrease on the previous year, with associated travel emissions also reducing by approximately 18%.
• The Council recruited 80 new starters during 2025/26. Recruitment advertising spend reduced to £133,156, compared with £180,848 in 2024/25, with the previous year having included significant executive search costs.
• 75 recorded vacancies at year end, compared with 38 in 2024/25. The was explained as partly due to a revised approach to recording vacancies, whereby posts remain open while aligned to budget provision. On an actively recruiting basis, the vacancy position was closer to 7.7%.
• Agency worker numbers remained unchanged at 29, with agency cover used particularly in Streetscene and other hard-to-fill areas to maintain service delivery.
• Voluntary turnover reduced slightly to 10.50%, compared with 10.93% in 2024/25. Overall turnover, including non-voluntary leavers, was 13.17%, broadly in line with the previous year and comparable with wider local government trends.
• Exit questionnaire feedback highlighted retirement as the largest single reason for leaving, with other themes including career progression, management relationships, workload and resourcing pressures, communication, and consistency of one-to-one meetings.
• Sickness absence remained above the Council’s target of no more than 9 days per employee, increasing slightly to 10.58 days per FTE. Total days lost rose to 5,555, driven mainly by medium- and long-term absence.
• Long-term absence accounted for 40.03% of all absence, with stress, anxiety and mental health-related absence remaining a significant contributor. Stress-related absence accounted for 1,708 FTE days lost, or 30.7% of all sickness absence.
• The Council continued to manage absence through return-to-work meetings, absence reviews, Occupational Health referrals, reasonable adjustments, Employee Assistance Programme support, flexible working arrangements and manager training. A Power BI dashboard was being developed to improve service-level sickness absence reporting and targeted intervention.
• Employee wellbeing support remained a key focus, including counselling, the Employee Assistance Programme, the Happy Healthy Here programme, health campaigns, webinars, financial wellbeing support and increased engagement with the wellbeing portal.
• Employee relations activity included 10 dismissals,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Committee received an HR update aligned to the Council’s People Focused strategy themes of Connect, Grow and Thrive.  This included:

• Total Reward Booklet is now live, providing staff and managers with a single resource on pay, pensions, leave, wellbeing support and wider benefits.
• Staff-led activity is progressing, including the “How we connect” group, planned monthly walks, a summer picnic lunch, and ongoing Coffee & Connect sessions.
• The revised “We Grow” learning and development offer for 2026–27 has been completed, based around six pillars: mandatory training, managers’ mandatory training, management and leadership development, employee development, wellbeing and inclusion, and health and safety.
• Phase 1 of the Managers Hub is progressing, with recruitment pages being tested and further space developed for learning resources and Performance Excellence Framework materials.  The committee were shown the web pages of the Hub as part of the presentation of the report.
• The One Team East Devon mentoring programme has launched, responding to staff feedback and supporting collaboration, knowledge-sharing and workforce resilience.
• Work Experience Week will take place from 6 July 2026, with eight students attending from schools across the district; further work is also underway to support employment opportunities for care-experienced and vulnerable young people.
• The refreshed Performance Excellence Framework launches on 1 July, with a stronger focus on regular check-ins, quality conversations, wellbeing, career development and consistent manager guidance.
• A staff wellbeing pulse survey launched on 10 June and will run until 1 July, ahead of the next full annual staff survey in September.
• The Safe and Supported staff-led group has met and will be promoted further to encourage wider participation.
• Further change and resilience workshops are planned for July and September, following lower-than-anticipated attendance at the most recent session.
• The Council is responding to national apprenticeship funding reforms due during 2026, with stronger governance and prioritisation required to manage future funding risks.
• Local Government Reorganisation remains a key focus, with staff briefings, workshops and workforce data collection underway; HR capacity will continue to be reviewed as demands increase.

Questions and comments from the Committee included:

·        If Councillors could be considered to be included as mentors in the mentoring programme;

·        Current workforce had commitments outside of work in both parenting and caring for elderly relatives;

·        Congraulations to Gemma and her team for the work they undertook;

·        Explanation of the levels of apprenticeships; the government focus had now shifted to lover level apprenticeships hence the withdrawal of funding for higher ones.

RESOLVED that the HR update be noted.

The Committee considered a report on the revised Probation Policy, updated in response to employment legislation taking effect from 1 January 2027.  The revisions included:

• reducing the qualifying period for unfair dismissal rights from two years to six months and remove the unfair dismissal compensation cap, requiring earlier and well-evidenced decision-making during probation.
• clearer probation review stages, earlier intervention where concerns arise, formal improvement processes, employee representation rights, and strengthened governance and documentation.
• The policy requires decisions on continued employment, including dismissal where appropriate, to be made by the end of month five, with any dismissals after a probation extension managed under the relevant employment policy.

Approval was recommended to ensure legal compliance, reduce the risk of employment tribunal claims and associated costs, and provide a fair, consistent and transparent process for employees and managers.  Subject to approval, the revised policy would be published and applied to all new hires from 1 July 2026, with existing probation cases managed in line with the new policy where reasonably practicable.

RESOLVED that the revised Probation Policy (June 2026) be approved, for implementation from 1 July 2026.

The Committee considered the Annual Health and Safety Report 2025/26, which reviewed the work of the Corporate Health and Safety Team and the Council’s ongoing legal and moral responsibilities for health, safety and welfare.

Statistics from the report included:

·        57 accidents and near misses were recorded in 2025/26, compared with 117 in 2024/25 and 72 in 2023/24;

·        the increase in reported incidents was considered to reflect improved reporting behaviours and a developing safety culture, particularly within Streetscene;

·        Streetscene accounted for the majority of reported incidents, with 113 incidents recorded, including 38 relating to vehicle, equipment or property damage;

·        Two incidents were reported to the Health and Safety Executive under RIDDOR; no follow-up action was taken by the HSE;

·        Targeted control measures had been introduced in response to incident trends, including in-house strimmer training, use of A-boards and protective netting, and additional operational controls;

·        Violent incidents continued to be monitored, with 27 incidents recorded in 2025/26, continuing the downward trend from 28 in 2024/25 and 53 in 2023/24. Conflict management training had been delivered, with 47 attendees and around 80% of Streetscene operatives trained, with the aim of reaching full attendance by the end of 2026/27;

·        Health and safety training had been delivered across a range of areas, with 293 attendees recorded during 2025/26.

The Corporate Health and Safety Team had undertaken significant work including risk assessment reviews, safe systems of work, depot audits, fire safety work, face-fit testing, vibration monitoring, and development of the new health and safety management system. Improvements had been made at Camperdown and Manstone depots, although hazardous substance and chemical storage remained an area of ongoing focus.

Work continued on health surveillance for Streetscene operatives, completion of mandatory training, and securing more detailed incident information from the RNLI for Council-owned beaches.

Policies reviewed during the year included the Health and Safety Policy, Driving at Work Policy, Fire Procedures and Vibration at Work Policy.

Questions and comments included:

·        Welcomed change of culture to actively reporting both accidents and near-misses;

·        New Health and Safety management system ad lone worker app positive steps in bringing further improvement;

·        Verbal abuse incidents could be subjective, but care was taken over what the perceived level of abuse was when assessing and investigating;

·        Data improvements over coming months will further help monitoring and assessing what actions need to be taken if incidents keep increasing;

·        Lone worker app may be explored further to see if relevant for deployment to Councillors.

RESOLVED that the Health and Safety update be noted.