Agenda item

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 financial sustainability of the authority.

She highlighted that organisational stability during times of significant change and challenge was key to ensuring that this council maintained the capacity and skills to deliver services to the people of Cheltenham into the future. Members were already familiar with Pat Pratley’s knowledge, skills and expertise having worked closely with her in her role of Deputy Chief Executive and now Head of Paid Service for a significant number of years. As a senior officer, Pat Pratley had played a key part in many of the major changes the authority had already gone through including the setting up of GO Shared Services, her work to date with Publica, and her leadership of the organisation following the departure of the former CEO in 2016 until present day.

The Chair of the Appointments and Remuneration Committee proposed an additional recommendation as follows :

Requests that the Chief Executive Officer undertakes a review of the Senior Leadership Team (Phase 1) and Service Managers (Phase 2) to ensure that the Council has the necessary capacity, skills and behaviours within the executive and service management organisational delivery model and budget to deliver the Council’s vision.

The Chair of the Conservative group fully supported the appointment of Pat Pratley to the post of Chief Executive which would provide stability for the future of the organisation. He did however question the process in terms of the changes to the title of the post although recognised the reasons for this.

Members believed continuity was really important for the organisation and the title of Chief Executive reflected the importance of the authority. There was no doubt of Pat Pratley’s ability to undertake the role. They also supported the inclusion of the additional recommendation to ensure that management was robust and could drive the agenda of the council forward.

A question was raised with regard to the costs of redundancy of the former Chief Executive amounting to £178 900 as a statement at the time had been made that the full severance cost would be met by the 2020 programme fund and not directly by the council. It was asked whether partners in 2020 had discussed this current proposal. In response the Leader explained that at the time the Chief Executive post and the Deputy Chief Executive post had been merged into one post of Head of Paid Service, a title that was a legal requirement in local government. He highlighted that the savings achieved of merging the 2 posts had not changed. The 2020 project had received £3.7million in central government funding to support the process. No issues had been raised with the other councils involved in 2020 as the debate at the time focussed on the services included in 2020.

Members praised the current HOPS for her hands on approach to ward issues in the town and gave the example of her ward visits with newly elected councillors where she had taken forward issues which had been raised.

A Member expressed concern that it was only 18 months since the former Chief Executive had left the organisation and at the time Members were assured that this was the only way forward. It was suggested that overview and scrutiny examine how the thinking and decision making process to change things had developed so quickly over that period. In response the Chair of the Appointments and Remuneration Committee explained that at that point a decision had been made to involve more services in the 2020 project but subsequent negotiations in the October led to Cabinet deciding not to fully submit all services. This was a legitimate change in circumstances and it was now time to look forward and it was important to have the right structure in place to deliver for the town.

A Member also questioned why there had been a fundamental change in opinion and that the savings identified for 2020 of £156k and the £50k redundancy costs could have been used for other purposes. In response a Cabinet Member explained that savings were in any case being achieved in the framework of the REST project.

In summing up the Chair of the Appointments and Remuneration Committee thanked Members for their support for the recommendations.

RESOLVED (unanimously) that

1.    a post of Chief Executive Officer (to include the statutory roles of Head of Paid Service & Returning Officer) is created as set out in this report.

2.    the appointment of Pat Pratley to the post of Chief Executive Officer with effect from 1 August 2017 be approved.

3.    the Chief Executive Officer be requested to undertake a review of the Senior Leadership Team (Phase 1) and Service Managers (Phase 2) to ensure that the Council has the necessary capacity, skills and behaviours within the executive and service management organisational delivery model and budget to deliver the Council’s vision.