Report of the Director of Human Resources, Organisation Development and Transformation attached

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Human Resources, Organisation Development and Transformation, which provided details on two senior leadership roles that were currently vacant and outlined the arrangements to fill these positions.

The Chair advised that following an external recruitment process, Paul Marshall had been appointed as Deputy Chief Executive. Paul held the position of Strategic Director Children’s and Education Services and the statutory responsibility of Director of Children's Services as defined by Section 18 of the Children Act 2004.  To allow Paul to take up the role of Deputy Chief Executive, Sean McKendrick had been appointed as the Acting Strategic Director Children’s and Education Services (and statutory Director of Children's Services) for a period of approximately six months pending the role being recruited to permanently.  In addition, Dave Ashmore left his role of Director of Housing in April 2024. Acting up arrangements had been made from within the service for a period of approximately six months pending the role being recruited to permanently.

These were two key leadership roles in the Council’s senior management structure and the report sets out the approach to permanently filling these existing positions. 

The Director of Human Resources, Organisation Development and Transformation advised that some minor changes had been made to update the role profile of the Strategic Director Children’s and Education Services, but the main responsibilities of the position had not changed and the job evaluation for the position confirmed its grade at SS5 with a salary range of £135,976 to £155,898, with a pay award pending from April 2024.

Likewise, some minor changes had been made to the role profile of Director of Housing since it was last recruited to in October 2021, but the main responsibilities of the position had not changed and the job evaluation for the position confirmed its grade at SS4 with a salary range of £105,566 to £116,346 with a pay award pending from April 2024.  However, a pay benchmarking exercise of comparable Director of Housing roles had highlighted that the Council might not be able to offer a competitive salary for the role. As such, it was proposed that it may be necessary to consider offering a market rate supplement of up to £5000, in line with existing policy.  This would only be applied at the discretion of the Director of Human Resources, Organisational Development and Transformation (in discussion with the Chief Executive) based on the calibre of the candidate selected by the appointment panel.

Decisions

The Committee:-

(1)      Agree to establish, a sub-committee of Personnel Committee to act as an appointment panel for the purposes of recruiting and appointing a Strategic Director Children’s and Education Services.  The membership of which will include the Lead Member for Children’s Services amongst other committee members and be politically balanced.

(2)      Endorses the outlined approach to the recruitment of Strategic Director Children’s and Education Services and Director of Housing.

(3)      Endorses the recruitment to the role of Director of Housing at its current substantive grading level of SS4 (£105,566 to £116,346)

(4)      Supports the proposal of an optional inclusion of a market rate supplement up to a fixed maximum of £5,000 to be applied at the discretion of the Director of Human Resources, Organisational Development and Transformation

(5)      Recommends that the Council agree that a £5,000 market rate supplement may be applied, at the discretion of the Director of Human Resources, Organisational Development and Transformation, in respect of the recruitment to the Director of Housing role.