Issue - meetings

Chief Officer Structure

Meeting: 10/07/2017 - Council (Item 27)

27 MATTERS REQUIRING APPROVAL OR CONSIDERATION BY THE COUNCIL pdf icon PDF 57 KB

MATTERS REQUIRING APPROVAL

 

To consider any recommendations of the Executive or Council Committees which require the approval or consideration of the Council.

 

A.  Licensing Act 2003 Committee 15 March, 2017

 

Special Cumulative Impact Policy (Minute 14 and Statement of Licensing Policy attached)

The Council is recommended to approve an amendment to the Council’s Statement of Licensing Policy to include a Special Cumulative Impact Policy for the specified area in Birkenhead as identified by Merseyside Police.

 

B.  Employment and Appointments Committee 27 June, 2017

 

Recruitment to Chief Officer Posts and Structure Changes (Minute 3, the report of the Chief Executive and the relevant appendix are attached)

 

The Council is recommended to:

 

(1)  Delegate authority to the Employment and Appointments Committee and its Appointment Panels to formally agree and confirm the appointment of all the posts specified in paragraph 2.2 of the report.

 

(2)  Amend the Council’s Chief Officer pay scales, as set out in the Council’s Pay Policy, to incorporate the proposed salary for the Director for Children’s Services post.

 

C.  Delegated Decision

 

Local Wildlife Sites

Decision of Leader of the Council taken on 26 June, 2017 (decision and report attached)

 

The Council is recommended to:

 

(1)  Adopt the modified terms of reference for the Wirral Local Sites Partnership and Local Wildlife Site assessment procedures (Appendix 1 of the report); and sections 2 (Habitat criteria) and 3 (Species criteria) of the Local Wildlife Sites Selection Criteria for the Cheshire region (Appendix 2 of the report) as the basis for the future selection of Local Wildlife Sites in Wirral; and;

 

(2)  Adopt the revisions to the current schedule of Sites of Biological Importance (Appendix 3 of the report) as a material consideration for use by Planning Committee in the determination of individual planning applications.

 

OTHER ITEMS REQUIRING APPROVAL OF THE COUNCIL

 

Council is requested to approve interim appointments in respect of statutory officers (details to follow in the Council supplement).

 

 MATTERS FOR NOTING

 

The following matters, determined by the Cabinet and a Council Committee are drawn to the Council’s attention in accordance with the Constitution (a copy of the related reports can be provided for Council members on request).

 

D.  Cabinet – 26 June, 2017

 

Financial Monitoring Out-turn Reports for 2016/17 (minute 16 attached)

 

E.  Audit and Risk Management Committee – 12 June, 2017

 

Audit and Risk Management Committee Annual Report 2016/17 (minute 7 attached).

Additional documents:

Minutes:

In accordance with Standing Order 5(2) six matters had been submitted for approval or consideration by the Council (see minutes 28 to 33 post).


Meeting: 27/06/2017 - Employment and Appointments Committee (Item 3)

3 Recruitment to Chief Officer Posts and Structure Changes pdf icon PDF 120 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair advised that the Committee would be invited to consider the open part of this agenda item first prior to a proposal to move into exempt session for item 10 on the agenda, the exempt appendices to the report.

 

The Committee considered the report of the Chief Executive on recruitment to Chief Officer posts and structure changes following two recent resignations and a request for early retirement at Chief Officer level. He had also been notified of a planned retirement.

 

The requirement to recruit to a number of key posts also provided an opportunity to review how the Council was best organised at senior management level to deliver its plans at this time. The Council had made appointments to a number of senior positions since November 2016 and was continuing to improve its capacity to deliver the Wirral Plan, deliver transformation plans and explore the best models to deliver services to residents of Wirral. 

 

The report recommended recruiting to the vacant post of Director for Children, the forthcoming vacant post of Assistant Director: Law and Governance and a newly configured Director of Finance post (following retirement). The report also gave details of recommended salaries for these roles based on external benchmarking and advice.

 

In addition, the report set out some changes to reporting lines for some functions in response to the evolving nature of the operating model; to enable the Council to reorganise capacity and to meet future requirements.

 

Councillor Rennie, expressed support for some of the proposals within the report, including the proposals that the Director for Care and Health report directly to the Chief Executive and that the recruitment to a re-designated post of Director of Finance would not just be focussed within the local government arena but the search would also encompass potential candidates from the commercial sector. She did, however, express concern at the proposed increase in the salary for the Director for Children’s post.

 

Councillor Phil Davies, referring to the comparator salaries for other Authorities’ Director of Children’s Services posts, spoke of the need to pay an appropriate salary to enable the recruitment of the highest quality candidate. He acknowledged that the Council should always be prudent in its expenditure of Council Tax payers’ monies but this was the most important job for the Council to recruit to.

 

Councillor Gilchrist posed the question as to what had the creation of the Strategic Director posts achieved. He also referred to the fact that it was only recently that the Council had recruited a Director of Transformation, and queried why there was a need to change the role and title of this post now.

 

The Chief Executive stated that he would be happy to have a one to one with Councillor Gilchrist to talk him through the proposed changes to the structure. He had also spoken with the recruitment consultants, Penna, on the need to have a wider field of candidates from both the public and commercial sectors for the Director of Finance post.

 

The Assistant  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3