Agenda and minutes

None.

None.

Mr M Hart was elected Chairman.

Mrs F Oborski was elected Vice-Chairman.

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 press and public be excluded 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.

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.)

The Panel considered a report setting out the current situation regarding senior management arrangements in the Directorate of Children, Families and Communities and seeking authority to recruit to two posts.

Appointment to Assistant Director (Education and Skills)

The post of Strategic Commissioner (Education and Skills) was currently being filled on an interim basis following the departure of the previous post holder at the end of September 2017.  The Panel was asked to agree to fill the post on a permanent basis to ensure consistency of service provision and focus on service delivery/quality and improvement for all education and skills services at a time when considerable change would be taking place within the Directorate.

If the Panel agreed to this it was proposed that the title of the post was changed so that it better reflected the seniority of the post and range of responsibilities.  The proposed new title of Assistant Director of Education and Skills was approved by the Panel.

The Panel approved the job description and person specification for the post and the salary for a 35 hour contract with a salary range for Head of Service Band 1 (£79,659 - £87,741 per annum).  Whist the recruitment campaign would start quickly, the Panel agreed to the extension of the interim contract for the current post holder for up to 5 months, likely to be until 30 April 2018, to allow time for a permanent candidate to be secured.

Appointment to Assistant Director (Early Help and Commissioning)

Members were reminded of a recent decision for Children, Families and Communities to begin work on a full options appraisal and implementation plan for an Alternative Delivery Model (ADM) for parts of the Directorate.  This would be a significant project which would require considerable additional resource and capacity to design, deliver and commission.  It would be led by the Assistant Director (Families, Communities and Partnerships).

Due to the significant additional volume of work this would create and to enable the work to be undertaken it required some of the Assistant Director (Families, Communities and Partnerships) role to be covered temporarily.  This would enable the current post holder to focus on the ADM options appraisal and business case.

The Panel supported the proposal to create an Assistant Director (Early Help and Commissioning) post on a temporary basis, funded by the Department for Education, to cover some of these responsibilities.  This would then create capacity for the Assistant Director (Families, Communities and Partnerships) to focus on leading on the ADM work and enable the Directorate to continue to deliver business as usual and deliver against the Service improvement Plan and financial targets.

It was agreed that the temporary post be appointed on a 35 hour per week contract for 12 – 18 months with reviews at 6 and 12 months.  The Panel was asked to agree an internal secondment  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1095.