Agenda and minutes

Mr Middlebrough attended as substitute for Mrs May.

An apology was received from Mrs May.

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 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 press and public were excluded (this is a fair summary of the proceedings and there are no exempt minutes)

The Chief Financial Officer set out the background to this item.

In December 2015 an Appointments Panel agreed to appoint Steph Simcox to the post of Head of Strategic Infrastructure (Finance and Financial Recovery) on a fixed term basis with effect from 1 April 2016.  To ensure continuity of service delivery and also to maintain a clear focus on improving Children's Services, Panel had approved the extension of the contract for a further 12 months.  This was considered to be paramount in providing the necessary continuity during the period when an interim arrangement was made to the Chief Financial Officer role, prior to the appointment of Michael Hudson to the permanent post.

The Panel noted that the further extension of the contract was proposed to enable the Chief Financial Officer to review the future structure needs; a planned restructure was due early in 2019.  It also enabled consistency of practices and avoided the potential need for agency or severance costs.

The Chief Financial Officer had proposed that the post was extended for 3 months.  Mr Geraghty proposed and the Panel agreed that given the challenges facing the authority, this should be for 6 months to enable proposals for the restructure to be brought forward.

RESOLVED that the extension of the contract be agreed for the Head of Strategic Infrastructure (Finance and Financial Recovery), Steph Simcox, for a further 6 months until 30 April 2019.