Agenda and minutes

Mrs S L Blagg for Mr S E Geraghty.

Mr A N Blagg was elected Chairman.

Mr S E Geraghty gave his apologies.

To authorise the procedure for confirming and signing the Minutes of this meeting.  It is recommended that the Minutes be circulated to Members of the Panel and be signed by the Chairman in light of any comments on their accuracy received within 7 days of their circulation.

RESOLVED: that the minutes of this meeting be circulated to Members of the Panel and be signed by the Chairman in the light of any comments on their accuracy received within 7 days of their circulation.

The Director of Public Health introduced her report, which set out the rationale for introducing a new salary scale for public health consultants.  The number of Public Health consultants (originally transferred from the health service) had been reduced but the Council now needed to recruit, and the market indicated a higher grade than PO 7 was appropriate in order to recruit strong candidates. A unique grade for the very small number involved was recommended, which was higher than the existing Council grades, other than Head of Service grades.

Some members expressed concern over the creation of a separate payscale restricted to these employees, which might split these posts away from the rest of the Council, although it was accepted that the management of non-chief officer related posts was a matter for Directors.

Officers suggested that the proposal was a way of bringing these new posts within the Council's terms and conditions rather than isolating them, but the current payscales were not a good fit, and market forces supplements were only a temporary fix.  It was difficult to evaluate them using the standard process, and the Director pointed out that these posts were an exception to the norm as they had a statutory process to be followed for appointment, and a nationally agreed job description and person specification, regulated through the Faculty of Public Health. One Member asked whether other authorities paid the higher rate. It was established that there were varying rates of pay across the country.

One member thought we should not undervalue these posts and it was not progressive to pay less than our neighbours, especially as the local Public Health service used to be amongst the best in the country, but there may be other funding mechanisms to explore.   

It was suggested that the matter could have come to members earlier.

On being put to the vote, the recommendations were not approved.

The report set out the recommendations and rationale behind them.

The representative of the Head of HR and OD advised Panel that an amended Statement of Policy should be approved, with the only substantive change being to change the frequency of assessment for contributions from annually to monthly.

This change was within the discretion allowed by the Regulations and would permit more accurate contributions. Most comparator authorities had adopted the same approach.

The officer suggested that it would be more appropriate for the CFO to be the consultee in the recommendation, rather than DCOaCH as originally drafted.

RESOLVED: that the Panel

a)    approved the ‘Statement of Policy’ in respect of the discretionary powers under the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) attached to the report as Appendix 1 (noting the proposed amendment); and

b)    approved the application of the policy to be delegated to the relevant Director in consultation with the Chief Financial Officer Director of Commercial and Change and Head of HR & OD and the relevant Director in relation to Regulation 31, 16(2)e, 16(4)d and 30(8) and in consultation with the Head of HR & OD in relation to Regulation 30(6) and 30 (special provisions for deferred members who left before 31 March 2014).

The Panel will be asked to exclude the press and public from the meeting for the following item as it is likely that exempt information relating to any individual will be disclosed and the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure.

RESOLVED: that the public and press be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the following items of business on the grounds that if they were present during such consideration it would be likely that there would be disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in Section 100(I) and Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 relating to any individual and the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosure.

Summary of the proceedings during which the Press and Public were excluded. 

(This is a fair summary of the proceedings and there are no exempt minutes.)

At its meeting on 15 December 2016, the Panel authorised the commencement of the recruitment process for the Assistant Director (Adult Services) and the process to be followed. The Panel approved the job specification for the post, the salary range of Head of Service Band 1 £83,382 - £91,842 for a 37 hour appointment, and also a robust recruitment process to establish a shortlist of candidates for final interview by the Panel.

In December 2016, the Council went out to advert to recruit to the post of Assistant Director (Adult Services).  Following the placing of a national advertisement in the Guardian on-line, the West Midlands Job Portal and an executive search campaign, 15 applications were received by the closing date of 30 January 2017. A long-listing desktop exercise was undertaken by the Director of Adult Services with support from the Lead Recruitment Consultant and the Strategic HR&OD Business Partner. Applications were narrowed down to eight candidates.

A long listing interview process was held on Friday 3 February 2017. The Panel comprised of the DAS, the Strategic HR&OD Business Partner and the lead Recruitment Consultant. Following this interview it was agreed that four people would progress through to a further interview process prior to shortlisting.

On 17 February 2017, two panels took place with a view to then informing shortlisting and to ensure there was a comprehensive selection process to assist the Appointments Etc Panel's decision. The two panels comprised:

a)    A technical interview (including an external expert and Recruitment Consultant); and

b)    A Strategic Leadership Team/Wider Leadership Team interview.

Following this process, it was agreed that two people would progress through to the final interview assessment date, and the panels fed back on the candidates

The final interview day on 3 March 2017 consisted of the following panels:

a)    Service User panel

b)    Stakeholder/Partner panel

c)    Extended DAS leadership team panel

d)    Appointments Etc Panel.

At the Appointments Etc Panel, the Director of DAS and Strategic HR&OD Business Partner briefed Panel members on the feedback from the panels in addition to any matters arising from the first stage interviews and the selection process.

The Appointments Etc Panel remained as a single Panel to interview each candidate, thus allowing the whole Panel to focus on the broad range of requirements for the post and assess each candidate in full.

The Panel interviewed both candidates and debated their respective merits.

.

RESOLVED: that

a)    subject to formal written offer, the post of Assistant Director (Adult Services) be offered to Richard Keble; and

b)    the Director of Adult Services be authorised, in consultation with the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Adult Social Care, to settle the detailed terms of the contract of employment for Richard Keble as the successful candidate.