Agenda and minutes

No Declarations of Interest were received.

To receive and approve as a correct record the minutes of the Chief Officers Employment Committee held on 8 June 2016, 13 July 2016, 10 October 2016 and 11 October 2016

The minutes of the Chief Officer Employment Committee meetings held on 8 June 2016, 13 July 2016, 10 October 2016 and 11 October 2016 were approved as a correct record.

A Member of the Committee is asked to move:

“That in accordance with the provisions of Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 the press and public be now excluded from the meeting during the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act and in respect of which the Proper Officer considers that the public interest in maintaining the information outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.”

RESOLVED

That in accordance with the provisions of Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 the press and public be now excluded from the meeting during the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act and in respect of which the Proper Officer considers that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Members were informed that Cabinet had recommended to Committee a restructure of the Corporate Leadership Team. Under these proposals the team would consist of the Chief Executive and four Directors. Three of the Director posts would be substantively the same as the existing Service Directors. As a consequence the current post holders would assimilate to them. The responsibilities of the Deputy Chief Executive (Resources) and Service Director - Corporate Services and Transformation would be combined into that of Director of Resources and Business Transformation.

Members were also informed that the Deputy Chief Executive (Resources) had indicated that he wished to agree a voluntary exit from the Council. If this was achieved then the current Service Director – Corporate Services and Transformation would assimilate to the new post.

The report to Committee recommended that the proposed restructure of the Corporate Leadership Team be approved. Members discussed the report and the proposed restructure. They regretted the necessity to reduce the number of Corporate Leadership posts, but acknowledged the contribution that the restructure would make towards achieving the £1M of savings which the Council had to achieve during the 2017/18 financial year.

Members were also told that the new management structure was likely to provide stability within the Corporate Leadership Team at a time when the Council needed to make important changes to how it works. They were also told that more use would be made of the skills and expertise of Third Tier Officers, which would help to increase the overall management capacity of the organisation. The Committee welcomed this.

RESOLVED

a)    That the Committee approves the revised Corporate Leadership employee structure as appended to the report;

b)    That the Committee approves the job descriptions for the Director roles as appended to the report;

c)    That the Committee authorises the Chief Executive in consultation with the Leader to undertake the necessary Human Resource actions required to implement the revised structure;

d)    That the Committee authorises the Chief Executive as Head of the Paid Service, in consultation with the Leader of the Council, to reach an agreement with the Deputy Chief Executive (Resources) for his voluntary redundancy from the Council arising from the proposed structure change.

Reasons

The new structure will reduce the number of Director posts to four, each reporting to the Chief Executive and enabling an annual financial saving to be achieved.