On a motion by Councillor George Davies, seconded by Councillor McLachlan, it was –

Resolved – That Councillor Phil Davies take the Chair of this Panel.

Members are asked to consider whether they have any disclosable pecuniary or non pecuniary interests in connection with any item(s) on this agenda and, if so, to declare them and state the nature of the interest.

Members of the Panel were requested to declare whether they had any disclosable pecuniary interests and/or any other relevant interest in the item on this agenda and, if so, to declare it and state the nature of such interest.

No such declarations were made.

Further to minute 4 of the Employment and Appointments Committee (27/1/14) the Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development presented a report on recruitment process for the appointment of a new Chief Executive and Head of Paid Service.

The report gave details of issues for consideration and decision, including:

·  Appropriate salary for the role

·  Role of Returning Officer and Electoral Registration Officer

·  Requirements of the role as defined in the Job Description and Person Specification

·  Proposed selection process and timetable

·  Interim arrangements

With regard to the salary for the role, appendices to the report gave comparative data for Chief Executive salaries and population size; by workforce size and across different types of local authorities. The workforce size data had become less relevant for comparative purposes. This was because Councils of similar scope and size in terms of population and community chose to organise differently in terms of the way they employed people to deliver the work e.g. commissioning, outsourcing models. There was therefore wide variance in the ‘per fte’ figure.

Comparative salary data for Chief Officers reporting to Chief Executives in North West Authorities was also attached as an appendix, as applicants for the Chief Executive role at Wirral were likely to come from the next tier of Chief Officers. The Council therefore needed to consider the tier two salaries compared to Wirral’s Chief Executive salary to ensure that it attracted suitable candidates.

The Chair introduced the external advisors for the Panel, Martin Denny from the Local Government Association and David Slatter from Penna Recruitment Consultants.

Mr Slatter said that with regard to the salary range there were two point that needed to be addressed, first, the need for it to be at a level to attract quality candidates, and secondly that it was at a level to retain in post the appointee for, he suggested at least five years. He recommended a range of between £155,000 to £175,000, although an appointment did not necessarily have to be made at the top of the range. Mr Denny concurred with the need to set a suitably salary range to attract quality candidates.

Responding to a query from Councillor Gilchrist, the Head of Human Resources and Organisational Development stated that the figures for salaries of senior officers (appendix 3) showed these as percentages of the current Chief Executive salary and would not be fixed that they would automatically increase based on a higher Chief Executive salary. There were no recommendations to alter these salaries.

In respect of comparative data and the ratio of average salaries to the Chief Executive’s (appendix 8), Wirral’s lowest salary was £14,736 p.a. as an employer which paid the living wage, this was higher than some other authorities which paid at the starting point of the Local Government pay scale from £13,500. This data was provided by every Local Authority in their published Pay Policies.

Councillor Green commented that with oncosts of approximately 22 per cent the Council would, with the proposed salary increase, be looking to spend  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.