Minutes:
(With the exception of the Chief Executive Designate and the Senior Democratic Services Officer, all officers left the meeting while this item was under consideration)
The Chief Executive Designate submitted for the Committee’s consideration the undernoted report:
“1.0 Purpose
1.1 The purpose of this report is to agree arrangements for the new Council’s senior management team pending a significant internal change programme which will include organisation restructuring.
2.0 Relevant Background Information
The handover between the existing Chief Executive and the new Chief Executive will be complete at the end of June 2014.
Belfast City Council is facing significant corporate priorities and unprecedented change including:
· Transition and transformation related to local government reform - transfer of assets and staff from Castlereagh and Lisburn, transfer of new functions and powers and new governance arrangements
· Internal change programme (organisation design and development)
· Investment Programme
· Leisure transformation
· Review of Waterfront Hall delivery model
· Efficiency programme
Over the shadow period the management team will not only manage the business as usual/functions of the council and deliver key priorities but also manage the change process.
It is imperative therefore that a senior management team is in place to support the Chief Executive in the delivery of this unprecedented agenda.
Currently the other new councils are considering their senior management teams and structures and creating and filling new posts.
Belfast City Council is however different to other councils - it is not merging with two or three councils but rather extending its boundary. Unlike the other councils Belfast City Council is not in the position of having more than one post in a cluster of two or three councils with only one post being required in the new council.
The Council’s staff are not at risk as a direct result of local government reform and will simply transfer from the existing Council to the new Council on vesting day.
The Council needs however to review its organisational structure to ensure it is aligned to governance arrangements and is fit to deliver members’ ambitions and priorities.
Given the significant agenda of work and the scale of change during the shadow period and the Council’s particular circumstances (i.e that for the purposes of filling posts in the new council Belfast can be seen as a continuing local authority) the following is proposed:
· The existing senior management team will operate in the same way as the agreed arrangements for the new Chief Executive in that directors will undertake duties relating to both the existing and new council.
· Realign the Council’s directors’ pay scale to ensure the appropriate relativity to the new pay scale for the new Chief Executive post.
· Designate one of the existing directors to undertake a full deputising role for the Chief Executive for the shadow period/until the new organisation structure is agreed. Previously the full deputy role for the Chief Executive was assigned to the lead finance role and it is proposed to do so again (no other chief officer has expressed an interest and the post holder was appointed as reserve candidate to the Chief Executive role). This role would not change the functional responsibilities of the Director of Finance and Resources. Rather the Director would undertake additional corporate responsibilities such as Senior Responsible Officer for Local Government Reform.
· Designate the existing post of Head of HR as Director of Organisation Development (OD) (to reflect LGSC advice on the HR and Finance leads in the new councils and LGA advice for Belfast City Council - see Appendix One). Members should note that the current postholder is also managing the functions currently within the Chief Executives department and as agreed at the time of recruitment for the post this arrangement will continue until 31 March 2015 or when the new permanent organisation structure is agreed.
· All director posts (i.e Finance and Resources; Organisation Development ; Property and Projects, Parks and Leisure; Development; and Health and Environmental Services) may be subject to change following the review of the organisation structure and all the existing temporary arrangements within the senior management team may change, cease or be made permanent as a result of the review
Next steps in relation to the Council’s senior management team
The new planning and regeneration functions will require consideration in terms of ensuring we have the appropriate resources and skills as well as where these functions will be placed in the organisation structure. The exercise to procure independent expertise to provide advice on these issues will be completed by September and a report will be brought to Shadow Policy and Resources Committee on proposals at that time
An interim Director of Health and Environmental Services will start on a three day per week basis on 28 July 2014.
Also, the decision to move the Leisure Services function to a trust model will impact on the Parks and Leisure department and consequently the Director of Parks and Leisure post. A report on this matter will be brought to members in the next four months.
The proposed approach to the Council’s senior management team has been independently validated by the Local Government Association (see appendix one)
3.0 Resource implications
The Council’s director scale would be realigned by three performance based annual increments..
The Director of Finance and Resources would, for a full deputising role for the Chief Executive in the first instance be awarded two increments on top of the Council’s directors scale with the potential for a further two thereafter (this being in line with the Chief Executives performance related incremental pay scale.
The cost is contained within the Local Government Reform budget.
5 Equality Implications
5.1 There are no equality implications with the proposals
6 Recommendations
Members are asked to:
· Agree that the existing senior management team will operate in the same way as the agreed arrangements for the new Chief Executive in that directors will undertake duties relating to both the existing and new council.
· Confirm the realignment of the Council’s directors’ pay scale to ensure the appropriate relativity with the new pay scale for the Chief Executive.
· Assign a full deputising for the Chief Executive to the Director of Finance and Resources on an interim basis for the shadow period/until the new organisation structure is agreed and awarding the post holder two increments above the directors scale for this role with the potential for a further two thereafter (this being in line with the Chief Executives performance related incremental pay scale).
· Designate the existing post of Head of HR as Director of Organisation Development to reflect Local Government Staff Commission advice on HR and Finance leads in the new councils, with the substantive post holder continuing with the additional previously agreed role of managing the functions currently within the Chief Executives department) on an interim basis during the shadow period/until the organisation new organisation structure is agreed.
· Note that all director posts (i.e Finance and Resources; OD; Property and Projects, Parks and Leisure; Development; and Health and Environmental Services) are subject to change following the review of the organisation structure. Further, all existing temporary arrangements within the senior management team may alter, cease or be made permanent as a result of the review
· Note that Members will receive proposals over the next few months in relation to the Director of Parks and Leisure post and the organisation structural implications of the transferring Planning and Regeneration functions.”
The Committee adopted the recommendations and agreed that party briefings be provided to any party who so wished prior to the meeting of the Shadow Council.
Supporting documents: