Agenda and minutes

Councillor Gee had shared his apologies and Councillor Whittle who was a reserve was called upon as a replacement.

The Committee was adjourned for an hour to ensure Councillor Whittle had time to refresh himself in preparation for the Committee.

Members are asked to declare any interests they may have in the business to be discussed.

No declarations of interest were made.

There were no items of urgent business.

PRIVATE SESSION

AGENDA

MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC TO NOTE

Under the law, the Committee is entitled to consider certain items in private. Members of the public will be asked to leave the meeting when such items are discussed.

The Committee is recommended to consider the following item in private on the grounds that it contains ‘exempt’ information, as defined by the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985, and consequently that the Committee makes the following resolution:-

“that the press and public be excluded during consideration of the following item in accordance with the provisions of Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, because it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information, as defined in Paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, namely information relating to an individual, and taking all the circumstances into account, it is considered that the public interest in maintaining the information as exempt outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information”.

RESOLVED:

            that the press and public be excluded during consideration of the following item in accordance with the provisions of Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, because it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information, as defined in the paragraph detailed below of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, and that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information:

Paragraph 1

Information relating to any individual

The Appellant’s Statement of Case and the Management’s Statement of Case are attached for all parties, along with a collection of background and general information.

The Committee considered an appeal against dismissal from the post of Team manager on the grounds of conduct.

Nicola Graham (Human Resources Team Manager) and Ruth Lake (Director, Adult social care) were present as advisor to the Committee.

The management representative was David Thrussell(Head of Service, Children’s social care). Karen Dawson was present as witness to management and Reena Kapadia was present as HR Advisor to management.

The appellant was present at the meeting and represented by Steve Barney (GMB).

The Committee carefully considered all representations made to it and the written evidence submitted, upon which it was able to ask questions.

RESOLVED:

Management’s decision to dismiss was upheld and the appeal was rejected.

REASON FOR DECISION:

The Committee carefully considered all the representations made to them both written and verbal.  In particular, the Committee were very grateful for the appellants honesty throughout this process, the appellants valued years of service as a social worker and acknowledgement of blameworthiness and recognition of the impact of the appellants actions.

The Committee were satisfied that management had conducted a fair investigation and hearing.  Given the severity of the impact of what had occurred in this case on a non-mobile baby, the panel were of the majority view that David Thrussell had no alternative, but to determine this as gross misconduct and subsequently that dismissal was the only possible outcome in this case.  The panel therefore upheld management’s decision to dismiss the appellant from their role as Team Manager with Leicester City Council and rejected the appeal.