Issue - meetings

Report of the Chief Executive

Andrew North, the Chief Executive, introduced his report.  The report explained how Cheltenham Borough Council had evolved over the last few years to become a major commissioner of services, resulting in a smaller amount of staff who were directly employed by the council and a smaller budget to support those remaining directly providing services. This together with the climate of current financial austerity had made it appropriate to consider the potential for reducing the amount of senior management in order to reduce costs. He explained that the process had started with a consideration of the type of organisation that the council aspired to be in terms of its vision and organisational culture. He also highlighted the main features of the "Cheltenham Futures" programme that had been set up to manage these changes going forward. He now sought approval from Council to formally consult on the proposed changes to the structure of senior management and authority for the Borough Solicitor to make technical changes to the Constitution to facilitate implementation of the new structure.

In responding to questions from members, the Chief Executive made the following responses:

• He reminded members that some years ago he had been involved in exploring the possibility of a shared Chief Executive with Tewkesbury Borough Council. He confirmed that active consideration was being given to sharing the Chief Executive post across the four councils involved in the GO partnership as they increasingly worked more closely together.  A proposal was currently being put together to apply for government funding to progress the transition still further.
• He reassured members that the one-off payments referred to in section 2.3 of the report related to contractual entitlements only and followed the council’s redundancy pay policy; though this was more generous than the statutory minimum redundancy payment, it had not been enhanced in any way. 
• Asked whether he was sure that the council could effectively monitor and influence the performance of providers in commissioning arrangements, he responded that the council had already learned from mistakes made. They had certainly learnt from the experiences with Ubico during the period of heavy snow and the importance of clarifying the decision-making process.
• He confirmed that scenario planning was very important. With increasing reliance on particular providers such as GO and Ubico it was important to plan for the risk of service failure and have the necessary backup arrangements in place.
• He agreed that it was very important to support staff through the process. Staff were already living with the implications of a three year pay freeze and this years limit of 1% plus the loss of benefits such as free staff car parking. He was very pleased to note that throughout a period of radical change, staff had maintained a high morale and commitment to their work and he attributed this to the high quality of staff and management being open with them about the need for change. A section on the intranet was now dedicated to the Cheltenham Futures Programme and suggestions and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8