Agenda and minutes

Chief Officer Appointments Panel - Monday 31 March 2014 12.00 pm

Venue: Council House (Next to the Civic Centre), Plymouth

Contact: Nicola Kirby  Email: nicola.kirby@plymouth.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

62.

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 made by councillors in accordance with the code of conduct in relation to items under consideration at this meeting.

 

CHAIR'S URGENT BUSINESS

63.

Minutes

Minutes:

Agreed the draft minutes of the meeting held on 20 March 2014 with the removal of wording (Minute ?? refers): in the details of attendees.

 

64.

Cities of Service Update

Minutes:

Members were provided with an update about the progress on appointment to the Chief Service Officer (Cities of Service).  Members agreed the shortlisting already undertaken by council officers and that they would consider the selection of a candidate at an Appointments Panel as soon as possible.

 

(In accordance with Section 100(B)(4)(b) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the Chair brought forward the above item for urgent consideration because of the need for a Member decision).

 

 

65.

EXEMPT BUSINESS

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

Minutes:

Agreed that under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public are excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph1of Part 1of Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended by the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

66.

REPORT ON RECRUITMENT AND APPOINTMENT OF THE ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF STREET SERVICES (E1)

The Chief Executive will submit a report on the recruitment and appointment of the Assistant Director of Street Services.

Minutes:

Members had previously received a briefing on the content of the report on 28 March 2014 and heard that this was a deputy chief officer post. 

 

The panel decided:

 

(1)

to recommend the termination of the existing interim arrangement in respect of the Assistant Director of Street Services providing the required period of notice as referred to in the contract;

 

(2)

for there to be a formal interim appointments process to test and approve the suitability of the current interim post holder to undertake the post of Interim Director for Street Services;

 

(3)

the current interim post holder would be invited to an Appointments Panel on 25 April 2014 for this to take place;

 

(4)

the on-going recruitment process for the appointment of a permanent post holder to continue with an update on progress for the Appointments Panel on 25 April 2014;

 

(5)

the likely start date of any appointment would probably be September/October 2014 at the earliest and it was likely that the interim arrangement would be required until then;

 

(6)

The situation would be monitored so that notice periods could be activated at the earliest opportunity.

 

67.

REPORT ON RECRUITMENT AND APPOINTMENT OF THE SHARED ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCES / ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT / INFORMATION COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY (E1)

The Chief Executive will submit a report on the recruitment and appointment of shared Assistant Director of Human Resources / Organisational Development / Information Communications Technology.

Minutes:

Members had previously received a briefing on the content of the report on 28 March 2014 and heard that this is a Deputy Chief Officer post. 

 

The panel heard that this was a shared arrangement with a partner organisation rather than an appointment to Plymouth City Council of an interim Assistant Director.   The person undertaking the arrangement remains an employee of the Clinical Commissioning Group.

The Panel heard that this arrangement would be required until September 2014 when the situation in respect of DELT and other partnership working arrangements would be clearer.

 

The panel decided:

 

(1)

that in principle they wished to continue a secondment arrangement with Clinical Commissioning Group until at least September 2014;

 

(2)

this means that their HR Director will undertake the role of Assistant Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development at Plymouth City Council on a seconded basis for 2 days a week until at least September 2014 when this position would be reviewed by the Appointments Panel;

 

(3)

 

that they would like to test and approve the suitability of the person currently undertaking the shared role and that this would take the form of an interview before the Appointments Panel on 25 April 2014;

(4)

 

if it is decided to continue with this arrangement, the employee will continue to have a contract of employment with the New Devon CCG and they will invoice PCC for the pro rata salary.  This remuneration level is in line with the council’s existing Pay Policy.

 

68.

REPORT ON THE TRANSFORMATION PROGRAMME AND PROJECT TEAM MEMBERS (E1)

The Chief Executive will submit a report on the Transformation and Project team members.

Minutes:

Members had previously received a briefing on the content of the report on 28 March 2014 where the methods used to acquire the skills and capability required to undertake the Transformation Agenda had been explored.

 

The panel decided:

 

(1)

that the process used to recruit and appoint members of the Transformation team members was appropriate. 

(2)

that the Council does not have a suitable Pay Policy for remuneration of interims and noted that a revised Pay policy would be considered by Council on 31 March 2014.

(3)

that the posts of Head of Portfolio Office and Head of Business and Technology Architecture should be evaluated and graded in line with Plymouth City Council’s process and their appointment should be undertaken by the Appointments Panel.

(4)

that the controls put in place for managing the resources for the council’s transformation programme are robust and represent value for money; and to endorse those controls.

 

These controls are:

 

Transformation Costs and Benefits

 

(a)

Provide regular updates on variations against the three year transformation budget as detailed in the Cabinet budget papers issued on 11 December 2013. Cabinet to approve any major changes to the three year balanced budget;

 

(b)

Published monitoring throughout 2014/15 against the stated £5.3m costs and £6.5m revenue benefits as detailed in the budget papers approved by Full Council on 24 February 2014;

 

(c)

Transformation Outline Business Cases have been published that detail resource requirements and estimated benefits. Monthly profiling of anticipated costs and benefits for all individual programmes to be reported to the Members Transformation Board, Transformation Portfolio Board and individual Programme Boards; 

 

(d)

A “live” risk register is in place that supports the Council’s three year budget which will mitigate spend commitments on transformation in the event of estimated benefits not being realised;

 

Engagement of Interim Support

 

(e)

When interims are required for a role, the costs of these are subject to competitive marketplace processes.  HR and Procurement staff will be fully involved in, and made aware of, all interim appointments to ensure compliance with relevant legislation and council policies; 

 

(f)

Interims have been commissioned with notice periods ranging between two weeks and one calendar month.  The Member Transformation Board will regularly review the target end dates for the use of interim support and take corrective action where relevant.  Where practical, we will seek to backfill interims with fixed term contract appointments in order to reduce costs where possible;

 

(g)

Amended Pay Policy Statement presented to Full Council on 31 March 2014 that sets out a policy for payments to interims and regular reporting arrangements for spend.

 

Independent Assurance

 

(h)

Co-ordination of all spend and forecast information on transformation will be through an independent Portfolio Accountant who reports directly to the Council’s Section 151 Officer;

 

(i)

As detailed in the Transformation report approved by Cabinet on 25 March 2014, an independent quality assurance review will be commissioned in April 2014 to validate, and advise on, the overall structure, (with associated costs), that the Council has adopted  ...  view the full minutes text for item 68.