Issue - meetings

Report of the Chief Executive

The Chief Executive introduced the report and reminded Members that in July 2017 Council had resolved that a phased approach to the review of the authority’s senior leadership team and service managers be undertaken. This report aimed to put in place the key building blocks for an executive board structure with the necessary skills, capacity and capabilities for the future.

She highlighted that going forward it was important for Members to have confidence that the council’s finances continued to be managed well and that officers safely navigated through issues such as business rate retention and the fair funding regime. It was also important that the necessary skills were in place to strike a balance between taking more commercial opportunities whilst maintaining our reputation of strong financial stewardship. The first key building block therefore related to financial sustainability and was reflected in the post of Executive Director-Finance and Assets.

The Chief Executive went on to say that the proposed executive board structure reflected the broader approach to place shaping in its widest sense which was not simply limited to economic growth and developing the physical place in a way that was sustainable but also reflected an ambition for inclusive growth as well as contributing to the sense of place and how Cheltenham felt as a place. This was reflected in the second key building block in the post of Managing Director Place and Growth.

She then highlighted that gaps had been identified in the current executive board team principally in relation to capacity coupled with experience and capabilities in authority-wide service modernisation and organisational change. Work was currently underway to consider what the future service management organisational model could look like  and that a very high level initial business case was being developed. She highlighted that the potential level of change should not be underestimated and therefore the third key building block was reflected in the new post of Executive Director People and Change.

The final issue which arose from her assessment was that of capacity at executive director level to both manage and deliver key corporate projects whilst also delivering authority wide modernisation. The need to address both these issues had therefore informed the proposal to create the new Executive Director post. This would result in the Director of Resources and Corporate Projects post being deleted, and with his agreement, the current post-holder flexibly retiring and his appointment to a new transitional, part-time role of Director-Corporate Projects.

The Chief Executive reported that formal consultation had taken place with those directly affected and this was reported to the Appointments and Remuneration Committee in January. The financial implications of this phase 1 review were outlined in the report with the flexible retirement approach being of less cost to the authority than compulsory redundancy as well as retaining for a period of time a very experienced director. In addition, she explained that the budgetary cost of recruitment to the new Executive Director post would also need Council approval.

Finally she stressed how vital  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9