Family Leave for Elected Members
North Lanarkshire Council · 29 September 2022
Back to Policy and Strategy Committee — 29 September 2022 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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North Lanarkshire Council Report Policy and Strategy Committee Does this report require to be approved? ☒ Yes ☐ No Ref Date 29/09/22 Family Leave for Elected Members From Head of Legal and Democratic Solutions E-mail rosean@northlan.gov.uk Telephone 07951 409714 1. Background 1.1 The Family Leave Guidance issued by COSLA sets out some key principles which local authorities may wish to adopt to support their Elected Members during periods of maternity, paternity, shared parental and adoption leave. 1.2 The desired objective of the guidance is to ensure that, insofar as is possible, Elected Members can take appropriate leave at the time of birth or adoption, that both parents are able to take leave, and that reasonable and adequate arrangements are in place to provide cover for portfolio holders and others in receipt of Special Responsibility Allowances (SRA) during any period of leave taken. Executive Summary In September 2019, COSLA Leaders agreed to the circulation to councils, for voluntary adoption, its Family Leave Guidance. The final version of the guidance was subsequently circulated in April 2020. Recommendations (1). that the Family Leave Guidance, as issued by COSLA, be adopted by the Council, and (2). that it be acknowledged that adoption of the Guidance by the Council does not confer any legal and/or contractual rights on either the Council or Elected Members. The Plan for North Lanarkshire Priority Improve the health and wellbeing of our communities Ambition statement (24) Review and design services around people, communities, and shared resources
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2. Report 2.1 At the outset, it is important to clarify that there is no legal right to family leave of any kind for people in elected public office. As such, the guidance requires to be implemented on a voluntary basis and confers no contractual, nor worker/employment status. Key Highlights of the Guidance 2.3 The guidance provides explanation as to how leave would operate and touches on the matter of remuneration. For the attention of the committee, below are listed some key areas:- • Members giving birth are entitled to up to 6 months maternity leave from 28 days before their due date • Members shall be entitled to take a maximum of 2 weeks paternity leave if they are the biological father or nominated carer of their partner/spouse following the birth of their child(ren) • A Member who adopts a child through an approved adoption agency shall be entitled to take up to six months’ adoption leave from the date of placement. • The legal requirement to attend a meeting of the Council within a six- month period is unaffected • All Members shall continue to receive their Basic Allowance in full whilst on maternity, paternity or adoption leave • The payment of SRA, whether to the primary SRA holder or a replacement, during a period of maternity, paternity, shared parental or adoption leave shall continue for a period of up to six months • Unless the Member taking leave is removed from their post whilst on leave, or unless the Party to which they belong loses control of the Council during their leave period, they shall return at the end of their leave period to the same post, or to an alternative post with equivalent status and remuneration which they held before the leave began 3. Measures of success 3.1 Promotion and development of the diversity of Elected Members by removing the identified key barrier of absence of formal family leave preventing individuals from standing or re-standing for elected office. 4. Supporting documentation Archie Aitken Head of Legal and Democratic Solutions
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5. Impacts ( http://connect/report-template-guidance ) 5.1 Public Sector Equality Duty and Fairer Scotland Duty Does the report contain information that has an impact as a result of the Public Sector Equality Duty and/or Fairer Scotland Duty? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Positive impact in that it removes the identified key barrier of absence of formal family leave. If Yes, has an assessment been carried out and published on the council’s website? https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/your-community/equalities/equality-and-fairer- scotland-duty-impact-assessments Yes ☐ No ☒ 5.2 Financial impact Does the report contain any financial impacts? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, have all relevant financial impacts have been discussed and agreed with Financial Solutions? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Any costs are, as yet, unable to be quantified. However, it is considered unlikely that the Council would need to incur additional costs given that any SRA to be paid would either continue to be paid to the Member or, at the request of that Member, allocated to another for the duration of leave. There would not be any additional monies paid should an alternative Member be appointed to undertake duties. 5.3 HR policy impact Does the report contain any HR policy or procedure impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant HR impacts have been discussed and agreed with People and Organisational Development? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Whilst there are no direct HR implications, it should be reiterated that the adoption of the COSLA Guidance on Family Leave for Elected Members confers no contractual nor worker/employment status. 5.4 Legal impact Does the report contain any legal impacts (such as general legal matters, statutory considerations (including employment law considerations), or new legislation)? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, have all relevant legal impacts have been discussed and agreed with Legal and Democratic Solutions? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Adoption of the guidance by the Council does not confer contractual rights to the elected member. 5.5 Data protection impact Does the report / project / practice contain or involve the processing of personal data? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, is the processing of this personal data likely to result in a high risk to the data subject?
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Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, has a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) been carried out and e- mailed to dataprotection@northlan.gov.uk Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.6 Technology / Digital impact Does the report contain information that has an impact on either technology, digital transformation, service redesign / business change processes, data management, or connectivity / broadband / Wi-Fi? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Where the impact identifies a requirement for technology, has an assessment been carried out (or scheduled) by the Enterprise Architecture Governance Group (EAGG)? Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.7 Environmental / Carbon impact Does the report / project / practice contain information that has an impact on any environmental or carbon matters? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.8 Communications impact Does the report contain any information that has an impact on the council’s communications activities? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.9 Risk impact Is there a risk impact? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the key risks and potential impacts, highlighting where the risk(s) are assessed and recorded (e.g. Corporate or Service or Project Risk Registers), and how they are managed?