People and Customer Committee (PCC) terms of reference
Terms of Reference agreed: November 2023
Next review date: September 2024
Purpose
The People & Customer Committee (PCC) is a committee established to provide the Board with timely advice and assurance in relation to its remit and to make specific decisions and undertake specific functions as delegated to it by the Board.
The remit of PCC includes, therefore: people management; reward; strategic organisational development; health, safety and wellbeing; customers; complaints and commendations; stakeholders, Welsh language, communications, digital services, equality, diversity and inclusion; and organisational change on behalf of the Board.
Scope
The PCC is required and authorised by the Board to:
Have oversight of the pay and conditions and overall pay strategy for all staff employed by NRW, pension scheme provision, wellbeing, health and safety, equality and diversity and development of the Welsh Language;
Approve the annual staff pay award;
Advise on strategic organisational development, ensuring there is a clear strategy in place, effective and affordable organisation design and learning and development, and effective management of major change initiatives, with the intention of ensuring a well-motivated, high performing inclusive and innovative workforce;
Advise on strategic communications for the organisation, ensuring that our communication and engagement activity helps deliver our organisational priorities, building trust and enhancing NRW’s reputation;
Oversee the delivery of the customer experience and digital strategies and provide strategic advice as NRW transforms to being a service-centred organisation that designs its services around its users and customers;
Scrutinise and provide assurance to the Board on performance towards the Corporate Plan Wellbeing Objectives as relevant to the PCC.
Responsibilities
The responsibilities of the PCC are to:
Reward:
Oversee the overall reward strategy, job evaluation scheme and terms and conditions for all staff employed by NRW including the Chief Executive and the Executive Team;
Review performance against objectives for the Chief Executive, together with the Chief Executive’s assessment of the Executive Team’s performance;
Approve any annual pay awards for staff;
Review and scrutinise the Remuneration Report included within the Annual Report and Accounts;
Consider any other matters relating to reward, terms and conditions and people management referred to the PCC by the Chair or the Board
People:
Provide assurance to the Board that NRW’s people policies and its people strategy support the delivery of the organisation’s strategic purpose; and that its conditions of employment are in line with the law and relevant guidance issued by the Welsh Government, HM Treasury, and the Cabinet Office as appropriate;
Oversee and scrutinise aspects of business transformation relevant to the PCC’s people remit
Talent and Succession:
Review Executive Team succession planning and related organisational resilience issues, including training and development;
Oversee the Executive Team structure and recruitment to this team
Pensions:
Oversee the strategy of pension provision in relation to staff benefits and administration ;
Accept the delegated responsibility from the NRW Board in respect of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) Discretionary Policy Statement - for consideration and approval of matters relating to employer discretions under LGPS regulation
Exit Arrangements:
Consider and ratify Executive Team exit applications and severance payments;
Maintain an overview of exit arrangements such as redundancies and analysis of exit interview insight;
PCC Chair to review and ratify severance payments for staff up to and including Leadership Team
Wellbeing, health and safety:
Provide scrutiny and give assurance to the Board that effective strategy, plans, and policies are in place;
Review key risks and monitor wellbeing, health and safety of staff, contractors, and members of the public accessing the NRW Estate to ensure effective management by the Executive, reporting to the Board on any significant issues
Welsh language:
Provide strategic guidance to the organisation in pursuit of its ambitions towards becoming a bilingual organisation, and providing evidence-based assurance to the Board that relevant legal and regulatory requirements are being met;
Approve the Welsh Language Annual Report prior to publication;
Consider the Welsh Language Commissioner’s requirements and the Executive’s plans and responses
Equality and Diversity:
Provide strategic guidance to the organisation in pursuit of its ambitions towards becoming an inclusive and diverse organisation, and providing the Board with evidence-based assurance that relevant legal and regulatory requirements are being met;
Approve relevant reports, including the Diversity and Inclusion Report and the Gender Pay Gap Report;
Scrutinise the annual Modern Slavery report prior to approval by the Board;
Consider the Commissioner’s requirements and the Executive’s plans and responses
Customer Experience:
Oversee NRW’s Customer Experience & Engagement Strategy and Digital Strategy, providing strategic guidance to the organisation in pursuit of its ambitions towards becoming an organisation that embeds a culture of excellent customer experiences and ensures NRW puts the customer at the heart of all it does;
Consider all relevant reports on how NRW listens to people and customers, to shape services and become a user-led organisation, including but not exclusively:
- Freedom of Information annual report
- Complaints and Commendations annual report
- Annual UKSCI benchmarking report
Oversee and scrutinise aspects of business transformation relevant to PCC’s customer experience remit
Organisational Development:
Oversee NRW’s Strategy to develop the organisation, its teams, and people to ensure clarity of purpose, effective leadership and cultural change, and report to the Board on progress;
As part of the strategy implementation, to:
- review feedback from staff, including staff surveys and the Executive’s actions and progress, and consider how this is assessed and implemented;
- advise on the development of a strategic workforce plan;
- provide advice on cultural change, leadership development, organisational design, and strategic change;
- oversee organisation-wide change, scrutinise plans, risks, and progress;
Monitor and review delivery and benefits of key business cases and the benefits realisation plan as part of post-vesting evaluation
Stakeholder:
Oversee the delivery of NRW’s Customer Experience & Engagement Strategy, providing strategic guidance to the organisation in pursuit of its ambitions towards becoming an organisation that embeds a culture of excellent stakeholder engagement across NRW
Consider all relevant reports on how NRW engages with people and stakeholders, how it influences, and advocates change through its communication and relationship management and how it listens to people and customers, to shape services and become a user led organisation;
Oversee and scrutinise aspects of business transformation relevant to the PCC’s stakeholder remit
Communications:
Oversee NRW’s communications strategy, providing strategic advice to help steer the direction of travel in support of the corporate plan delivery. This includes corporate communications, advocacy, brand development and colleague communications
Scrutinise performance in the above areas through quarterly communications reports, using insight to help steer future direction
Digital services:
Oversee the delivery of NRW’s digital strategy, providing strategic advice to help steer the direction of travel
Scrutinise performance in service improvement and organisational performance on the delivery of the strategy
Oversee and scrutinise aspects of business transformation relevant to PCC’s digital services remit
Other:
Consider, and provide advice and guidance in relation to the development and review of policy that falls within the remit of PCC as required, ensuring it is fit for purpose and complies with relevant legal and statutory requirements (to include specifically NRW’s Safeguarding policy)
Provide assurance to the Board that such policies are compliant with legal and regulatory requirements and are consistent with NRW’s values and wellbeing objectives
Meetings
PCC will aim to meet four times per year.
The Chair of the Board or Chief Executive/Accounting Officer may ask PCC to convene further meetings to discuss issues where PCC’s advice is desirable.
Membership
PCC will be chaired by Mark McKenna.
Membership will include four non-executive Board members (inclusive of the Committee Chair).
The Executive Director of Communications, Customer and Commercial, and Executive Director of Corporate Strategy and Development will also normally attend meetings.