The Committee considered a report presenting one new Employment Policy which had been reviewed jointly and agreed with the Joint Trade Unions. The following documents were attached to the report:

The report explained that the Fostering Friendly Policy had originally been developed by Brighter Futures for Children (BFfC) and following discussion with the Corporate Management Team it had been agreed that the Council should adopt the same Policy.  The Council understood that foster carers who did other work in addition to fostering needed some flexibility in their working arrangements in order to meet the needs of their fostered child and the Council was committed to support any staff member who was a foster carer or an approved kinship carer.  The Policy had been written with the following principles in mind:

1.         It must reflect current employment law and the ACAS Codes of Practice and/or guidance where relevant;

2.         It must be easy to understand and written in plain English;

3.         It should be concise.  Any information which was not germane to the operation of the policy had been removed;

4.         There should be a consistency of approach across related policies;

5.         It should use gender neutral language.

The report included a table that set out in summary terms for the revised policy the issues which had been addressed together with any additional key changes that had been agreed with the Joint Trade Unions. Once the policy review had been completed hyperlinks would be added to the policy where they were cross-referenced with other Policies.

Resolved:       That the following new HR Policy, as set out in in Appendix A attached to the report, be approved:

·               Fostering Friendly Policy.