The Chief Executive presented a report, that sought approval for the following:

• The deletion of the role of the Corporate Director Resources
• The replacement of the current role of Assistant Chief Executive LARS with a new role of Corporate Director of Operational and Partnership Services (and not Operational Services and Partnerships as was outlined in the report)
• Re-designation of the Corporate Director Education and Transformation as Corporate Director Education and Family Support
• The appointment of the Head of Finance and ICT as the Council’s Section 151 Officer

He confirmed that as Members were probably aware, the Corporate Director Resources was soon to leave the Authority and this had allowed him together with support from the Corporate Management Board (CMB), to look at the JNC Officer restructure to include the appointment of a Section 151 Officer.

The Chief Executive confirmed that the proposals of his report would assist in driving forward the Council’s Corporate Plan 2016-20, by providing increased support to the Plan’s Corporate themes, which were to support a successful economy, help people to be more self-reliant, and in particular, make smarter use of Council resources. The report’s recommendations if adopted, would allow for a planned recurring saving of £127k to be achieved with immediate effect under the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS).

He referred to the background to the report, and advised that the resignation of the Corporate Director Resources provided an opportunity to re-allocate the functions of this post between other Directorates and to make adjustments to roles and designations of Corporate Directors, that would include also a re-alignment in terms of the responsibility for certain key service areas.

The Chief Executive confirmed that the Corporate Director Education and Transformation had now defined and established the Council’s transformation programme. Therefore, there was a need to re-designate this role to more clearly reflect the current position and status of the transformation programme.

He went on to state, that the re-allocation of functions of the Corporate Director Resources could be accommodated amongst the remaining members of CMB, thus allowing this post to be deleted. The Chief Executive added however, that additional duties to be allocated to the current Assistant Chief Executive LARS, meant that the portfolio of this position would increase to a scale and complexity consistent with that of a Corporate Director. This was in light of the fact that this post holder would have increased line management responsibility for Housing and Homelessness, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Human Resources and Organisational Development, Customer Service and Communications and Marketing and Project Management, in addition to his existing responsibilities. It was therefore considered that this post be re-designated Corporate Director Operational and Partnership Services to reflect responsibility of these extra Departments and service areas. This would mean that CMB would decrease in number from 6 to 5 Officers.

The Chief Executive continued by advising that there would be no change to the role of the Corporate Directors Social Services and Wellbeing and Communities, but it was proposed that the Director of Education and Transformation be re-designated Director Education and Family Support. There would be some re-alignment of responsibility associated with the role, but this would not necessitate any change to the posts grade/salary.

Finally, confirmed the Chief Executive, the current Head of Finance and ICT would assume the role of Section 151 Officer, which was a large role of the Corporate Director Resources, though the new post would not include responsibility for ICT. The Section 151 Officer would be included as part of CMB in order to report regularly of the financial affairs of the Authority, though this post would still remain a Head of Service and not be classed as Directorship level.

The post of Section 151 Officer was a requirement within local authority, and this post holder would report directly to the Chief Executive.

The Chief Executive added that both the Council’s External and Internal Auditor’s confirmed that that were supportive of the Council’s proposal in respect of the new role of Section 151 Officer.

He further added that the proposals if adopted, would be revisited in 6 months time, in order to see how the restructure was progressing, particularly as by then, further information should be available regarding the re-organisation of local government in Wales, and who the Authority would align with should such proposals transpire.

A Member noted that the grade, designation and portfolio for the post of Assistant Chief Executive LARS had changed and increased so that it was now more expansive than previously was the case. In order to reflect best practise and for reasons of openness, transparency and to seem to be accountable, she asked the Chief Executive if this new position, for these reasons, should have been advertised including externally, as it was in effect a new post.

She also felt that the service area of housing and homelessness would be more in-keeping under the Corporate Director responsible for Family Support, rather than under the new post of Corporate Director Operational and Partnership Services.

Finally, she asked what the added responsibilities were in respect of the new role of Corporate Director Education and Family Support.

The Chief Executive confirmed that advice had been sought off the Human Resources Department in relation to the new post of Corporate Director Operational and Partnership Services, and following such advice the course of action outlined in the report had been followed. The reasons for this, were that even though this was a new post it replaced an existing post at JNC level, and that the alternatives were to either ring fence the post for persons at that level within the Authority to apply for, or to advertise this new post. The former proposal would have probably resulted in the same outcome as that recommended in the report, and if it had not, the Council would have been faced with significant costs in terms of the post being taken off the establishment, which would have in turn led to a case of redundancy with added early retirement costs. The Council would still then have to recruit to the new replacement post. This course of action would have not achieved the recurring saving outlined in the report, and the cost of advertising the post externally would have also resulted in an additional cost to the Authority.

The Chief Executive added that with Managers at JNC and Head of Service level, there was an expectancy that they were equipped with the necessary skills to take on more expansive roles and added service areas, and also  accustomed to this as and when it was considered necessary, in order to make changes to directorship responsibilities, and at the same time achieve savings.

With regard to the Members second question, the Chief Executive advised that the area of housing and homelessness interacted with a considerable number of service areas of the Council, and not just Family Support, and he gave an example of these for the benefit of all Members.

He added that the changes proposed would affect all Directorates to some degree or another, but they would also result in them having a stronger blend of service-specific and corporate-lead responsibilities. The changes recommended were also primarily intended to support BCBC’s emphasis in the Corporate Plan on working as ‘One Council’.

The Chief Executive further added that the revised proposals would also result in every Directorate being directly responsible for a front line service.

He confirmed that the main area of added responsibility for the post re-designated Corporate Director Education and Family Support, would be that of Architectural, Technical and Building Services, Corporate Energy and Corporate Health and Safety. The reasoning behind this change, was that 80% of the work of the Building Maintenance team related to schools, and due to this, it was felt that the Director should have more direct responsibility for these Sections amongst others in her Directorate.

Finally, the Chief Executive advised that there was nothing out of the ordinary attached to the proposals, particularly when an opportunity for savings could be made. He had to bring the report to Council as only Council had the Authority to amend key documents such as the Constitution, and amendments would be required to be made to this as a result of the changes.

A Member asked if the changes would impact in any way on the role of Overview and Scrutiny within the Authority.

The Chief Executive confirmed that they may, though further consideration would be given to this following the changes settling-in, during the 6 month initial trial period.

RESOLVED:                      That Council:

·         Deleted the post of Corporate Director Resources

·         Deleted the post of Assistant Chief Executive and replaced this with the post of Corporate Director Operational and Partnership Services

·         Re-designated the Corporate Director Education and Transformation as the Corporate Director Education and Family Support

·         Re-designated the Head of Finance and ICT as Head of Finance, and appoints the post holder to the role of S151 Officer with effect from 15 April 2016.