Exempt appendices 8 and 9 to item 3 – Recruitment to Chief Officer Posts and Structure Changes, are attached.

These appendices are exempt by virtue of paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

The Committee considered the exempt appendices to the report regarding a request for early retirement from the Executive Director of Strategy.

Having regards for all the circumstances including the best interests of the Council the Chief Executive proposed that the Committee agree to this request for early retirement. 

This request provided an opportunity for the Council to make some changes to managerial arrangements in the strategic hub and also achieve a reduction in salary costs. It was proposed that the Executive Director role would therefore be re-designated as Director of Strategy and Partnerships at a lower level.

The Council had undertaken some benchmarking of similar roles at Director level. The Executive Recruitment Consultancy, Penna, had advised that a competitive market rate for this role would be circa £110,000. Therefore it was proposed the salary range for this post was Director 1 (£103,606-£115,117).  This was at a lower level than the current post. An external recruitment process, (assuming a standard notice period of a successful candidate at this level) might take around 6 months which was a further cost saving. However, there would need to be some management arrangements in place in the hub and therefore it was proposed that there would be an opportunity for a 6 month internal acting up at Director 1 level.

There were no severance costs associated with the request for early retirement. There would be a significant difference in costs to the Council arising from release of pension if it was part of a redundancy situation. The cost to the Council of pension release with employer consent under the ’85 year rule’ would be £105,000, however, with the SD post being held vacant for 6 months there would be a saving of £79,389 (including oncosts), the cost of a 6 month internal acting up would be approximately £15,000 (including oncosts), so the overall cost to the Council of early release of pension would be £40,612.

Councillor Blakeley, although not disagreeing with the request for retirement, commented that he did not see a need to employ somebody else to do this job and that this should be a saving for the Council.

The Chief Executive responded that there was a need to fill this post at a Director level to provide leadership for the Council on key strategies.

On a motion by Councillor Phil Davies, seconded by Councillor Mooney, it was –

Resolved (4:3) –

(1)  That the request for Early Retirement with employer consent from the Executive Director of Strategy, be agreed.

(2)  That it be agreed to recruit immediately to the post of Director of Strategy and Partnerships at salary D1 ((£103k-115k).

(3)  That it be agreed that the arrangements set out in paragraphs 2.2 to 2.5 of the report are applied to this post.

The Assistant Director: Law and Governance informed the Committee that they should now consider removing the exemption in respect of the financial information in the appendix as it was in the public interest for this to be made known where public funds were being used.

Resolved (unanimously) –

That the exemption be lifted in respect of the financial implications and costs of pension release and that this be published in the minutes of the meeting.