Agenda and minutes

Councillor S Stavrou.

I Willett made a declaration of interest concerning the draft report of the Head of Paid Service and the report on voluntary redundancy set out in the Part 2 section of the agenda.  He gave a general declaration of interest in the presentation by the Chief Executive concerning the new directorate structure and a specific declaration of interest in relation to the report on voluntary redundancies which referred to his post.

He indicated to the Panel that he would withdraw from the meeting at the conclusion of the public session business and that P Maginnis would keep a record of discussions in private session which would then be formulated into a minute for that part of that meeting.

P Maginnis made a declaration of interest concerning the draft report of the Head of Paid Service but would remain in the meeting as adviser to the Panel as her post was not specifically the subject of any proposals in reports.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 29 August 2013 be confirmed and signed by the chairman as a correct record.

(Chief Executive) At the last meeting, members of the Panel requested a further report on a three Directorate option. A new version of the Draft Head of Paid Service report, incorporating a three Director option and enclosing a summary of consultation responses will follow.

The Chief Executive gave an oral report on the current position concerning his Head of Paid Service report on a new directorate structure for the Council.

The Panel noted that his original intention had been to prepare the Head of Paid Service report for consideration at the September meeting of the Council but the request by members at the last meeting for a review of the possibility of a three Directorate structure (as opposed to the four directorate structure originally suggested) had delayed matters.  He had also engaged a legal adviser and would be receiving advice on the process to be adopted for pursuing a three or four director option at an initial consultation meeting with the appointed adviser. He pointed out that officers were currently preparing background information for legal adviser who was a member of the legal team at Essex County Council.

The Chief Executive explained that for these reasons his Head of Paid Service report was not available for this meeting and presented the following material for discussion at the meeting, namely:

(a)        an itemised summary of feedback from staff consultation;

(b)        a draft Directorate structure comprising three Directorates together with an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of that option and further work which had been undertaken on the costing of new structures and voluntary redundancies the latter being the subject of a private session report; and

(c)        a digest of subjects raised in representations received.

The Chief Executive pointed out that approximately 40 consultation responses had been received from individuals and teams within the Council which he considered to be an encouraging response.  In general terms, responses had been generally supportive to the concept of change and new values and behaviours.

He referred back to the discussion which had taken place at the last meeting regarding issues which had attracted more negative comments.

Firstly, the title “Director of Place” where he was currently thinking of adopting a different title possibly “Service Delivery” or “Locality”.  He would still accept views on this particular point.  On the “Directorate of Community Services”, he preferred that title  He was anxious that new ways of matrix working and the new structure should be reflected in new Directorate titles to demonstrate the change in approach to the provision of services.

The Chief Executive went on to explain the option of a three Directorate structure indicating the pros and cons of this structure.  His view that a three Directorate could work but one outcome of this would be that the Chief Executive would have to take direct responsibility for certain key service areas at the corporate centre.  He was not convinced about whether this was the correct approach to adopt as access to the Chief Executive did not, in his view have to be linked to line management responsibility.

He stated that further work was still to be done on the question of Executive Assistants for Directors and on centralised administrative support within the Council.  He did not accept the principle of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

Exclusion: To consider whether, under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press should be excluded from the meeting for the items of business set out below on grounds that they will involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the following paragraph(s) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act (as amended) or are confidential under Section 100(A)(2):

The Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006, which came into effect on 1 March 2006, requires the Council to consider whether maintaining the exemption listed above outweighs the potential public interest in disclosing the information. Any member who considers that this test should be applied to any currently exempted matter on this agenda should contact the proper officer at least 24 hours prior to the meeting.

Confidential Items Commencement: Paragraph 9 of the Council Procedure Rules contained in the Constitution require:

(1)        All business of the Council requiring to be transacted in the presence of the press and public to be completed by 10.00 p.m. at the latest.

(2)        At the time appointed under (1) above, the Chairman shall permit the completion of debate on any item still under consideration, and at his or her discretion, any other remaining business whereupon the Council shall proceed to exclude the public and press.

(3)        Any public business remaining to be dealt with shall be deferred until after the completion of the private part of the meeting, including items submitted for report rather than decision.

Background Papers:  Paragraph 8 of the Access to Information Procedure Rules of the Constitution define background papers as being documents relating to the subject matter of the report which in the Proper Officer's opinion:

(a)        disclose any facts or matters on which the report or an important part of the report is based;  and

(b)        have been relied on to a material extent in preparing the report and does not include published works or those which disclose exempt or confidential information (as defined in Rule 10) and in respect of executive reports, the advice of any political advisor.

Inspection of background papers may be arranged by contacting the officer responsible for the item.

            RESOLVED:

            That under Section 100(A)4 of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press should be excluded from the meeting for the items of business set out below on grounds that they would involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the following paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act (as amended) or are confidential under Section 100(A)2.

            Agenda Item             Subject                                    Exempt Information

            No                                                                             Paragraph No

            6                               Applications for Voluntary       1 & 2 – information relating

                                             Redundancy                            to an individual or which is

                                                                                             likely to reveal the identity

                                                                                             of an individual

The Panel considered whether maintaining the exemption listed above outweighed the potential public interest in disclosing the information.  The Panel concluded that the proper officer was right to place the remaining item on the agenda in private session in view of the sensitive personal information contained therein about post holders within the Council

(Chief Executive) To consider the attached report on responses to an open invitation Directors and Assistant Directors concerning voluntary redundancy/early retirement (To follow).

The Chief Executive presented a report on the results of an invitation to Directors and Assistant directors to request voluntary redundancy. He advised the Panel that recommendation (1) regarding the approval of such requests should be amended, the Panel  being asked simply to note the requests at this stage as any approval of  voluntary redundancies must follow the Council’s approval of the structure.

The Panel noted that there would not be a need for compulsory redundancies if a four Directorate structure were agreed and that five applications for voluntary redundancy had been received.

In the chief executive’s report, the table of redundancy costs in paragraph 4 was amended to clarify the financial cost of one redundancy payment as these had not been presented clearly and gave the impression that the sum involved was higher than the actual entitlement if the redundancy were approved. Members received an explanation of the individual figures quoted, including the figure relating to “strain” on the Pension fund which applied to one case was also outlined.

The Panel made no adverse comment on the voluntary redundancy requests at Director level. They agreed that in one request at Assistant Director level could not be entertained as there was no change in the substantive post between the existing and new structures and a redundancy was not therefore applicable.

In relation to two other voluntary requests at Assistant Director level, the Panel accepted one case as a clear redundancy existed but, on the second case,  acknowledged that the request could only be considered further once the proposed structure had been finalised. Further legal advice is being taken on this case.

The Panel noted that one Director seeking voluntary redundancy was prepared to stay on beyond the 31 March 2014 implementation date for the new structure for operational reasons.

RESOLVED:

That the position concerning voluntary and compulsory redundancies as reported be noted.

The Panel considered a report showing the cost implications of a three or four director structure. This recognised that there would be salary increases for the Director roles which they will consider at a future meeting when there was fuller attendance at the Panel.

The Chief Executive was asked to review the position of the Assistant Directors and report back on cases where there was a clear increase increases in post responsibilities and roles as a result of the new structure and those where there were unlikely to be such changes. The Panel was mindful of the market research conducted by GatenbySanderson who had indicated that benchmarking data indicated case for differential ranges at that level.

They asked that the Chief Executive asked for a further report to the next meeting on salary options at the Directors and Assistant Director levels.

RESOLVED:

That a further report be submitted to the next meeting on options for Director and Assistant Director salaries with a view to the preferred option being appraised in financial terms in the Chief Executive’s Head of Paid Service report.

The Panel requested a meeting in November 2013 to receive further information on the remaining aspects of the Head of paid service report.