Item 06 - Minutes of Joint Consultative Forum
West Dunbartonshire Council · 22 May 2024
Back to Corporate Services Committee — 22 May 2024 and its agenda
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JOINT CONSULTATIVE FORUM At a Meeting of the Joint Consultative Forum held in Civic Space, Council Offices, 16 Church Street, Dumbarton on Thursday, 14 March 2024 at 2.00 p.m. Present: Councillors David McBride, Michelle McGinty, Karen Murray Conaghan and Martin Rooney; James Halfpenny (EIS); David Scott (GMB); Claire MacKenzie (SSTA); David Smith (UNISON); and Connor Farmer and Alec Johnson (Unite). Attending: Victoria Rogers, Chief Officer – People and Technology; Amanda Graham, Chief Officer – Citizen, Culture and Facilities; Laura Mason, Chief Education Officer; Claire Cusick, Senior Education Officer; Gillian Gall, Head of Human Resources, West Dunbartonshire Health & Social Care Partnership (HSCP); Alison McBride, Strategic People and Change Manager; Fraser Jephson, Corporate Project Manager (ICT); Lisa MacGregor, People and Change Partner; Michael McDougall, Manager Legal Services; and Scott Kelly, Committee Officer. Apologies: Apologies for absence were intimated on behalf of Councillors Daniel Lennie, Gordon Scanlan and Hazel Sorrell; Peter Hessett, Chief Executive; Alan Douglas, Chief Officer – Regulatory and Regeneration; Gail Macfarlane, Chief Officer – Roads and Neighbourhood; Laurence Slavin, Chief Officer – Resources; Sylvia Chatfield, Head of Mental Health, Learning Disabilities and Addiction; Fiona Taylor, Head of Health and Community Care, HSCP; and Lesley James, Head of Children's Health, Care and Criminal Justice, and Chief Social Work Officer, HSCP. Mr David Smith in the Chair CHAIR’S REMARKS Mr Smith, Chair, welcomed all those present to the meeting and in particular Connor Farmer and Alec Johnson, Unite, who, it was noted, were attending their first meeting of the Forum DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST It was noted that there were no declarations of interest in any of the items of business on the agenda. ITEM 6
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MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING The Minutes of Meeting of the Joint Consultative Forum held on 14 December 2023 were submitted and approved as a correct record. PRESENTATION: MICROSOFT 365 UPDATE Fraser Jephson, Corporate Project Manager (ICT), gave a presentation providing an update in relation to the implementation of the Microsoft 365 project. The main points covered in the presentation were:- • A reminder of the vision for the project. • An overview of the achievements over the past year, including the migration of over 3,000 corporate mailboxes to the cloud and the secure management of over 2,000 desktop/laptop devices via Intune. • The project priorities for the coming year, including the migrations of all remaining corporate mailboxes to the cloud, and deployment of the full features of Microsoft Office 365 including MS Forms and Power BI. • That the introduction of collaboration technologies such as SharePoint would be preceded by a data remediation exercise which would involve the rationalisation of files held on shard drives and the setting-up of flatter and more efficient folder structures, and that digital champions would assist with the delivery of this. • The benefits of the 365 project for employees. Following discussion and having heard the Corporate Project Manager and relevant officers in answer to Members’ questions, the Forum agreed to note the contents of the presentation. Councillor McBride, Chair, thanked Mr Jephson for his informative presentation. PRESENTATION: PEOPLE FIRST – RECRUITMENT AUDIT Lisa MacGregor, People and Change Partner, gave a presentation in relation to ‘People First: Recruitment Audit’. In this respect, a report on the Recruitment and Selection Audit for 2022/23 was submitted for information. The main points covered in the presentation were:- • The reasons for carrying out the audit and its aims. • The categories of people who qualify for the Guaranteed Interview Scheme. • The methodology used in the audit to measure outcomes in terms of sex, disability and race. • That the audit did not identify any barriers to recruitment and selection for females accessing full-time employment or traditionally male gendered roles.
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• That there may be some barriers within the Councils’ recruitment and selection processes which impact on disabled applicants entering employment but that reasons for not being selected did not show trends suggesting discrimination. • That there may be some barriers within the Councils’ recruitment and selection processes which impact on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) applicants entering employment but that statistical analysis was difficult because only a small percentage of applicants declared a BAME background. • The actions arising from the audit. Following discussion and having heard the People and Change Partner and relevant officers in answer to Members’ questions, the Forum agreed to note the contents of the presentation and the report on the Recruitment and Selection Audit for 2022/23. Councillor McBride, Chair, thanked Mrs MacGregor for her informative presentation. TRADES UNION ISSUES The Forum noted that the Trades Union had not provided, in advance of the meeting, any issues that they wished to raise. The meeting closed at 3.45 p.m.
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