Agenda and minutes

None.

Mr S E Geraghty was duly elected Chairman

Mr A I Hardman was duly elected Vice-Chairman.

Mr Middlebrough declared that he had a working relationship through the LGA with the Leader of one of the authorities connected with a candidate.

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 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.

Report to follow.

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

Background Information

Panel was aware that Clare Marchant, Chief Executive (who holds the statutory post of Head of Paid Service) had tendered her resignation. The cessation date of employment was June 29 with the last working day being June 27.

The Council is required by law to have a Head of Paid Service (HPS) appointed by full Council, and the law does not distinguish between interim or permanent appointments. There is no legal requirement to have a Chief Executive (CX), but this is the model the Council has operated under to date.  The Council could choose to appoint a CX rather than just a HPS, but it will need to expressly choose the model it wishes at some point (at least before starting the permanent recruitment process). Council could even choose to have a different post for interim and permanent appointments (i.e. interim HPS but permanent CX, or vice versa).

It was not feasible to recruit to a permanent Head of Paid Service by the end of June (given search, select and notice requirements and the need for full Council to approve any appointment) and therefore an interim option needed to be explored to put before May Council to ensure the Council has an interim HPS/CX in position.

Appointing an Interim Head of Paid Service

Given the timescales of the existing incumbent departing, recommendations needed to be made to 25 May Council covering both the post (interim HPS or CX) and who will hold the post. As the July Council was too late, the only other alternative was calling a special Council before the end of June.

The Panel was asked to consider whether to recommend to Council an interim CX or an interim HPS be appointed on the departure of the current CX.

A CX is responsible (as per the accompanying Job Description and Person Specification in Appendix 1 to the report), for 'pay and rations' of staff, the strategic and operational delivery by officers within the Council and for leading work with partners across Local Government, Health, Local Enterprise Partnership and beyond. A Head of Paid Service can be just limited to staff 'pay and rations' for the organisation, or incorporate some responsibilities equivalent to a Chief Executive. (eg ensuring budget is delivered against plans and a cross-council approach taken to this and Corporate support of the Children's safeguarding agenda including experience of liaising with government departments such as DfE)

The Panel needed to consider the nature of the interim post and who should be appointed to this role, and subsequently recommend this appointment to Council. 

There were no internal candidates for Panel to consider but the search for external candidates had identified individuals who had both the experience and availability required. A short list of potential candidates was reported to Panel which was therefore asked to interview the shortlisted candidates in order to determine the suitability for undertaking the interim post until such  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1053.