j. Staffing committees

As a corporate body the whole council makes decisions about recruitment and management of staff.  A single councillor has no statutory authority to make decisions.  

An effective way of managing this is for councils to set up a staffing/personnel committee to deal with employee related issues.  As with all committees (or sub-committees) the council should include any delegated authority in clear terms of reference.  Some councils also have a staffing sub-committee to deal with matters such as performance, discipline or grievances.  This is a very useful way of dealing with what will always be confidential matters as public notice is not a requirement for meetings of a sub-committee.

It should be noted that responsibility for decisions made by a committee remain with the council.  Often the clerk has line management responsibilities for any other employees of the council, many councils do select one member for day-to-day contact with the clerk for support.

To access a staff committee template use this link to go to our templates directory use the search function for "Staffing Committee Terms of Reference" or use the drop down category function and select managing people - scroll down to the template "Staffing Committee Terms of Reference".