Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Albon, substituted by Councillor Scobie.

To receive any declarations of interest. Members are advised to consider the advice contained within the Declaration of Interest advice attached to this Agenda. If a Member declares an interest, they should complete the Declaration of Interest Form

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve the Minutes of the meeting of the General Purposes Committee held on 4 November 2022, copy attached.

Councillor David Saunders proposed, Councillor Bob Bayford seconded and Members agreed the minutes as a correct record of the General Purposes Committee meeting that was held on 4 November 2022.

Colin Carmichael, Interim Chief Executive introduced the report and made the following comments:

• This was an important subject that needed progressing as part of implementing the recommendations from the Independent Monitoring Officer’s report;
• Currently the Chief Executive had the authority to make decisions on the appointment of Heads of Service and Directors;
• The General Purposes Committee was being asked to endorse the recommendations in the CEx’s report regarding the restructure of the senior management structure;
• With the agreement of members the CEx will proceed with the new proposed structure and replace the current temporary arrangements with the new permanent staff structure;
• Adoption of the new structure would enable the CEx to recruit to any vacancies;
• A two stage consultation was carried out with all the staff as part of the formal exercise.
• Officers who working in an acting capacity to these vacant roles were working hard in those roles and the level of commitment had been impressive;

• There were a number of projects that the Council was implementing that included the Levelling Up Funds and Town Deal projects. These projects had significant fund allocations and required a stable senior management team to implement them successfully;
• There was a need to set up an Appointment Sub Committee of the General Purposes Committee whose role would be to appoint Chief Officers. This sub committee was quite traditional in Local Government;
• It was important to establish a good structure for the incoming CEx;
• The CEx also proposed that Director of Service titles be replaced by Heads of Service job titles. This would eliminate any confusion that currently existed by the use of Corporate Director and Service Director titles. This proposal was supported by most of the staff who responded to the CEx’s consultation on the matter;
• The responses from the staff consultation on the senior management restructure was pleasing;
• A new structure chart proposed in Annex 1 to the committee report, would be populated with officer names to the new roles.

Members asked questions and made comments as follows:

• One Member said that this was an excellent and detailed report. Members were in agreement with the principles relating to Member involvement in the recruitment process of senior council officers (i.e. chief officers);
• Since GPC did not have the authority to change the scheme of delegations, any changes to the terms of reference of the GPC or the creation of the Appointment Sub Committee would need to be approved by Full Council, with changes also being made to the Council Constitution;
• Establishing a politically balanced sub committee although appropriate, would not necessarily guarantee inclusion of all political groups that make up the council;
• Could Members be involved in the temporary appointment to the director roles or would they only be involved in the permanent appointment to these roles?
• Previously Members were not involved with the appointment of interim senior officers;
• This proposal for Member involvement in the recruitment of directors was an excellent approach which brought the TDC process more in line with how  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26.