Issue - meetings

Report of the Chair of the Appointments Committee

The Head of Paid Service left the chamber for this item and the Managing Director Place and Economic Development took her place.

The Chair of the Appointments and Remuneration Committee, Councillor Rowena Hay, introduced the report. She reminded Members that in October 2015 Council approved the creation of a joint partnership committee (now PUBLICA) and as a result of this decision resolved that the council’s revised senior management structure which included the deletion of the post of Chief Executive and Deputy Chief Executive be approved for formal consultation with affected staff.  Following the formal consultation period Council agreed to the deletion of the posts of Chief Executive and Deputy Chief Executive and replaced the two posts with a new single post of Head of Paid Service. This placed both post holders at risk of redundancy. Council agreed to release the Chief Executive by reason of redundancy and to internally recruit to the new post of Head of Paid Service. Following a report to the Appointments and Remuneration Committee in January 2016, Pat Pratley was appointed to the post of Head of Paid Service, as suitable alternative employment, on an interim basis of 18 months, pending the anticipated  changes to the council’s senior leadership team following the creation of the new company, and the need to review the remaining senior management structure during 2017.

The Chair went on to explain that the extent of service provision through a company model was substantially less than originally envisaged following Cabinet’s decision not to include three services but to retain them, therefore the structure of the authority’s services and the number of directly employed staff now remain very similar to the structure and number employed prior to March 2016.

She referred to the significant progress that had been made over the past year in reshaping the council’s service provision. The revenues and benefits service was now the responsibility of the chief finance officer and there were ongoing changes with regard to place and economic development.

The Chair of the Appointments Committee explained that the process of the review leading to this report involved the assistance of the LGA bench marking other similar local authorities senior leadership structures, it also included a comparison between the previous CEO role and those carried out by the Head of Paid service currently with the results showing that there were no significant changes in roles and responsibilities to that of the former Chief Executive.   

She referred to the fact that whilst the term Head of Paid service was well known within local government the post of Chief Executive would carry greater authority when forging relationships and negotiating with external partners and stakeholders.

The reinstatement of the post of Chief Executive would therefore ensure that strategic capacity was in place to further develop the vision for the town in terms of place, and put in place a senior leadership structure which would deliver the outcomes that members would wish to see to secure the future prosperity of Cheltenham and the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12