Agenda item

The Shadow Executive Committee is seeking to facilitate the creation of a brand new council. Recruiting to senior posts is a significant part of setting the culture of the new authority and presents an exciting opportunity for the new Dorset Council.  Whilst the operating model for the new council has not been finalised, the design principles have been agreed by the Shadow Executive Committee and work is planned to develop the operating model over the next few months. The proposed structure will support these agreed design principles and their further development, as well as to minimise risks to service continuity during a period of significant change moving from six councils to one from 1 April 2019.

A report by the Interim Head of Paid Service will be circulated to follow, which will outline the proposed structure, the rationale supporting this structure, high level role profile descriptions, proposed salary ranges, employee engagement process, communications and the process to recruit to these posts.

(Note: Jonathan Mair and Jason Vaughan withdrew from the meeting for this item.)

The Committee considered a report by the Leader of the Shadow Council and Lead Member for Human Resources on the recruitment of senior posts as a significant part of setting the culture of the new Dorset Council in accordance with design principles. A summary of the design principles, proposed structure, comments from consultation with officers, post requirements, salary ranges, timelines, and decision-making approach were provided.  It was noted that the voluntary redundancy process would be reported to the next meeting on 15 October 2018.

Cllr Peter Wharf as the Lead Member for HR and Workforce explained that there had been differing views expressed by a range of officers including sovereign council Chief Executives to the proposed structure.  He also explained that there may be some variation to the model depending on being able to secure the right people for the right roles.  The role of Director of Public Health would not be included in the recruitment as this was a co-hosted position.

There was also an important need to ensure service continuity and it may therefore be necessary to use contractors or interims to ensure there were no vacancies. It was recognised that it may not be possible to attract ideal candidates to the roles such as those for Adult and Children’s Services as they were for a Council which did not yet exist.  

Reference was made to the need to be prepared to fully justify the reasoning for the roles being six times the Dorset average salary of £20k and to explain what tax payers would ‘get for their money’.

At the end of the debate it was clarified that a report would be considered at the next Shadow Dorset Council meeting on 27 September 2018 to outline the member-led appointment process and to seek approval to make the necessary recruitment arrangements including confirmation of the salary ranges. 

Decision

1. That the proposed tier 2 structure and one tier 3 post, for the purposes of engaging with employees be agreed.

2. That delegated authority be granted to the Interim Head of Paid Service, working in conjunction with the Leader of the Shadow Council and Shadow Executive Member Theme lead for HR and Workforce, to:

a. Finalise and agree the job titles, role profiles and the allocation of service responsibilities;

b. Arrange for the roles to be fully evaluated and to propose final salary recommendations to the Shadow Council at their meeting on 27 September 2018;

c. Run an engagement process with employees, enabling their views on the structure to be considered;

d. Agree the recruitment process and support to be made available to internal applicants; and,

e. Recruit and appoint an agency to support the selection centre process as set out in the report 4.1 to 4.3.

3. That the recruitment process be started from October 2018, once the employee engagement process is complete and appropriate comments/feedback have been taken on board.

4. That a report be considered at the 15 October 2018 Shadow Executive Committee on the Voluntary Redundancy principles and process.

Reason for Decisions

Not filling these posts would create high risk for the new council to operate effectively without statutory officer posts in place.