To receive a briefing note

Members received a briefing on proposed changes to future reporting at Employment Panel. The Head of HR reminded Members that in November 2016, subject to Full Council approval, the Panel agreed to delegate authority to Directors, in conjunction with the Head of HR, payments relating to employment matters up to £25,000. This impacted on future reporting to the Panel in that reports would only come forward if payments totalled more than £25,000 or there was a significant restructure, defined as five or more employees.

Members noted two further proposals as detailed in paragraph 2.3 of the report relating to requests to appoint Directors, Deputy Directors and Heads of Service.

·      A new role is created as part of a restructure. In these cases it was recommended that the Employment Panel report setting out the proposed restructure would seek to delegated responsibility to create the position and undertake recruitment to any new Head of Service role. The delegation would be to the relevant Lead Member and the Chair of Employment Panel, in consultation with the Managing Director and the Head of Human Resources

·      Like for like replacement following the resignation of the post holder. The recruiting manager would obtain agreement from the relevant Lead Member, Chair of Employment Panel, Managing Director, Head of Human Resources and Director to recruit.  If a suitable candidate were identified, make an offer of employment as long as it was within the salary band and agreed budget for the service.

Additionally, Members were asked to consider removal of the requirement in the constitution that ‘an offer of employment as a Director or Deputy Chief Officer shall only be made where no substantial and justified objection from any Member of the Cabinet has been made to the appointment’. It was noted that there had been no recorded incidents when Cabinet had disagreed with a decision by the Panel.

Councillor Saunders highlighted that a comma was required after the word ‘Cabinet’ as below:

a) Employment Panel will appoint Directors and Deputy Chief Officers in accordance with the provisions set out in the Local Government & Housing Act 1989. Employment Panel may delegate the recruitment of a Director or Deputy Chief Officer, where it is a ‘like for like’ recruitment with the same grade and salary scale being used, to the relevant Lead Member, who should also be a member of Cabinet, and the chair of Employment Panel, in consultation with the Managing Director, Head of Human Resources and service Director.

Councillor Saunders asked whether the intention at the last meeting to increase the value of payments where Panel approval was required was to allow for up to four payments of up to £24,999? It was agreed that this was not the intention and therefore the wording of i) and iv) of D5.1 would need to be amended. It was also requested that reference to pension costs be included.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That Employment Panel agree to the revised wording to the constitution, subject to delegated authority to the Chairman in conjunction with the Managing Director and Head of HR to amend D5.1 i) and iv), and subject to full Council approval.