Agenda and minutes

Chief Officer Appointments Panel - Friday 4 July 2025 10.00 am

Venue: Council House

Contact: Jake Metcalfe  Email: democraticservices@plymouth.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

To receive apologies for non-attendance submitted by Panel Members.

Minutes:

There were apologies from:

 

·         Councillor Laing, Councillor Lowry substituted

·         Councillor Aspinall, Councillor Dann substituted

2.

Declarations of Interest

Members will be asked to make any declarations of interest in respect of items on the agenda.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

3.

Chair's Urgent Business

To receive reports on business which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be bought forward for urgent consideration.

Minutes:

There were no items of chairs urgent business.

4.

Recruitment to the role of Chief Operating Officer pdf icon PDF 253 KB

Minutes:

Chris Squire (Service Director for HROD) presented the report to the Panel and highlighted the following key points:

 

a)     

An extensive search and selection process had taken place in which a search agency were asked to also look for candidates within the private sector;

 

b)     

There had been two previous recruitment processes for the Chief Operating Officer role which were unsuccessful;

 

c)     

Three candidates were selected for interview following completion of the assessment centre.

 

In response to questions raised it was reported that:

 

d)     

References for candidates are used to supplement the recruitment process;

 

e)     

The assessment centre was reported to be very rigorous and candidates go through a number of different stakeholder events;

 

f)      

The successful candidate would be required to go through a six month probationary period.

 

The Panel agreed to:

 

1.    Note the content of this report;

 

2.    Undertake formal interviews for the role of Chief Operating Officer.

 

 

 

5.

Exempt Business

To consider passing a resolution under Section 100(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972 to exclude the press and public from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1, 2 and 4 of Part I of Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended by the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Minutes:

The Panel agreed that under Section 100(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972 to exclude the press and public from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined n paragraphs 1, 2 and 4 of Part 1 of Scheduled 12A of the Act, as amended by the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

6.

Recruitment to the role of Chief Operating Officer

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Panel adjourned for further discussions at 3.56pm and the meeting would be re-convened on 07 July 2025 at 1pm.

 

Councillors Coker, Dann and Lugger did not return to the meeting following the adjournment.

 

Following an interview process, the Panel agreed to appoint candidate Si Bellamy to the position of Chief Operating Officer subject to Cabinet agreement and the necessary pre-employment checks.