Agenda item

A report from Councillor J Kelly, Cabinet Member (Corporate Affairs and Regulatory Service) is attached

Geoff Little, Chief Executive presented a report from the Cabinet Member for Corporate Affairs and Regulatory Services.

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee had requested an update in respect of recruitment to senior positions within the Council and the use of external consultants/advisors.

Geoff explained that in response to funding reductions the Council had reduced the workforce by 565 staff since 2010, 165 of these being at a Senior Management level.

Geoff had come into post in mid July 2018 and had put in place an initial set of changes to begin the process of strengthening the Council’s managerial capacity. All of the most senior roles reporting to the Chief Executive are currently held on a temporary basis which causes insecurity to the organisation and the individuals concerned. This needs to be resolved if the Council is to be served by a more confident and dynamic management style.

Geoff explained that as well as his appointment as Chief Executive he has also been appointed as the Chief Officer of Bury NHS Clinical Commissioning Group which will enable the acceleration of a single commissioning function for all Local Government and NHS commissioning across the borough.

Geoff reported that senior positions were in the process of being filled permanently and a number of new positions had been created some of which were currently being recruited to:

·         Executive Director for Strategy and Transformation – the role has been advertised internally and externally and if the recruitment process is successful, the post will be offered by the end of December 2018.

·         Executive Director of Children, Young People & Culture – Following a rigorous recruitment process the position has been offered to Karen Dolton.

·         Growth and Investment Directorate – The recruitment of two new Director Posts is currently under way, if successful these posts will be offered by the end of December.

·         Operations Directorate

Geoff explained that the use of consultants is standard practice in local government but only where it can be justified:-

• To address peaks in workload
• To undertake specific time limited projects
• To address areas where specialist skills/capacity are not available in house

During 2017/2018 the spend on consultants was reported as £1.6 million. The forecast spend for the current year is £1.2 million.

Those present were given the opportunity to make comments and ask questions and the following points were raised:

• Councillor Harris referred to the recruitment of the new posts and development of the Strategic Leadership Team and asked how long it would be before the results were seen.

Geoff explained that he had listened intently to all staff and Councillors and had received support from external partners such as the LGA who had carried out 4 reviews across the Council:-

• Finance
• Adult Social Care
• Children’s Services
• Peer Review

The Peer Review had been undertaken across the Council during the previous week and had involved staff and Councillors across all levels in the Council. The reviews had highlighted areas were improvements could be made immediately, over the next 3 years and over the coming 5 years. The LGA were due to carry out a further review in 5 years’ time.

• Councillor N Jones referred to the LGA reviews that had been carried out and asked what their findings were in relation to the Council’s finances.

Geoff explained that working practices would be updated, the capacity to use capital would be increased and investment would be made in capital growth. It was clear that we could do better and the LGA recognised that there were pressures on budgets and the Council would have to work hard to remain financially stable. Geoff stated that he would be more than happy to attend a future meeting of Overview and Scrutiny with Steve Kenyon to present a more detailed report in this area.

• Councillor Hankey referred to the new director posts that were being appointed and asked whether these appointments would free capacity for current directors.

Geoff explained that the Director of Transformation and Strategy would be bringing together a corporate core of services by combining HR/OD, finance, procurement, communications, ICT support, performance intelligence and research from across all directorates and the CCG and would be funding through the deletion of the post of Executive Director of Resources and Regulation and a contribution from the CCG. The growth directorate posts will be delivering the growth strategy which will involve leading on regeneration and housing and influencing GM to support major development programmes. These posts are essential if the Council is to secure new income and reduce its reliance on central government funding.

• Councillor Bayley referred to the information provided in relation to the use of external consultants and stated that it would have been more helpful if it was broken down further to show departments/timescale/projects/costs etc. Councillor Bayley stated that he was glad to see that the amount spent had reduced.

Geoff confirmed that he would be able to provide more of a breakdown for Members.

• Councillor Caserta asked what further benefits there would be from the Combined Authority.

Geoff explained that the Council needed to ensure that it was in a position to engage with the Combined Authority to ensure that it could take advantage of all funding that they had to offer. To make sure that this was the case the Council had to have the right people in position, that schemes were ready to go and that appropriate investment had been carried out where required. The Council had invested in health and social care which had then unlocked the £19 million Transformation Fund which would be used to improve services and deflect demand.

It was agreed:

1.         That the Chief Executive provide an update to the Committee in 12 months.

2.         That the Chief Executive be thanked for his attendance.