Decision details

Amendments to Senior Management & Departmental Arrangements

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: Yes

Is subject to call in?: Yes

Decisions:

Further to the meeting of the Cabinet held on 28th June 2016, Members considered a report of the Chief Executive proposing amendments to the senior management structures and departmental arrangements.

 

Arising from consideration of the report, the Chief Executive referred to the impending departure of Sally Holland (Corporate Director for Corporate Services) and thanked her for her excellent service to the Council. He also confirmed that Nick Harris (Head of Culture) would also shortly be leaving the Council and thanked him for his valuable contribution to the work of the authority.

 

On behalf of Members, the Leader of the Council expressed his appreciation and gratitude to Sally and Nick for their sterling work and conveyed his best wishes to them both for the future.

 

Recommended:

 

1.    That the revisions to the senior management structure set out in the submitted report be approved.

 

2.    That the Public Health function be incorporated within the Department for People as described in the report.

 

3.    That employment titles are amended as described in the report and that an additional management level be introduced in order to provide additional leadership capacity and to support staff retention and succession planning.

 

4.    That the detailed allocation of functions and implementation of other arrangements be delegated to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader of the Council, subject to no substantive adverse response to consultations.

 

5.    That appropriate amendments be made to the Constitution to reflect the new senior management structure once implemented.

 

6.    That the Chief Executive develop proposals in respect of senior officer remuneration (including the new management level) to be considered by the Council's PRP Panel later in the year.

 

Reason for Decision

 

The Council last approved modifications to the senior leadership team and structure in 2013.  Since that time the Council has continued to experience marked reductions in its finances and has approved budgets which have continued to reduce the overall staff complement.  The Council continues to face reductions in available finance and the leadership structure needs to both reflect the overall staffing reduction and be fit to cope with leading the organisation over coming years.

 

The Council received the public health function from the NHS some three years ago and now needs to more fully incorporate and integrate public health into the Council operational structure and further its purposes, as suggested by the 2015 Peer Review. 

 

Other Options

 

1.    Given the slim and competitive current senior management structure the Council could decide to not amend and reduce the number of senior management posts, allowing continued capacity to address and deliver the challenges facing the Council.  This alternative option would, however, not reflect the continued reduction in staffing overall within the Council as a result of financial challenges.

 

2.    The Council could decide to not review and refresh the public health function but this would not address the recommendations of the Peer Review and would not properly ensure the targeted and effective functioning of the service nor address adequately the reducing resource base.

 

3.    The Council could carry out a complete review of the entire senior leadership structure, but this would cause unnecessary and potentially damaging uncertainty and disruption to the delivery of services.  A wholescale review would also ignore that the current and proposed structures reflect best practice across unitary councils.

 

This is a Council Function

Called-in to Policy and Resources Scrutiny Committee

Executive Councillor – Lamb

 

Publication date: 29/09/2016

Date of decision: 20/09/2016

Decided at meeting: 20/09/2016 - Cabinet

Effective from: 01/10/2016

Accompanying Documents:

 

Get the best from this site

We use simple text files called 'cookies'. Some of these cookies are essential to make our site work and others help us to improve by giving us some insight into how the site is being used. For more information, including how to turn cookies off, see more about cookies - or simply click the Continue button to use this site as normal.