Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor T Bains.  Councillor Illingworth attended as a substitute.

Members to declare any interest as appropriate in respect of items to be considered at this meeting.

Councillor Orson declared an interest in any matters relating to the Leicestershire County Council due to his roles as County Councillor.

The Chief Executive confirmed that none of the Officers present at the meeting were effected by the changes proposed in the report and therefore had no prejudicial interest in relation to the outcome of the recommendations.

No further declarations of interest were received in relation to items on the agenda.

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The Chairman confirmed that the meeting would remain in public session unless members indicated that they wished to debate the detail contained within the exempt appendix.

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The Chief Executive to submit a report setting out proposals for a new Corporate structure and the process for recruitment to the Director for Housing and Communities role; should the new structure be approved.

The Chief Executive, Mr de Coverly, introduced the report and provided a summary of the process to date.  He confirmed that the role of the Employment Committee was to approve the employment implications in relation to the structure, human resources and recruitment proposals, following the approval of the strategic direction by Cabinet on 30 October 2019 and provided a summary of the key proposals and benefits as detailed in the report.  Subject to Committee approval of the recommendations in the report, the changes would be initiated immediately and the recruitment of the new Director for Housing and Communities would commence the week commencing 11 November 2019.

Members received an updated version of Exempt Appendix B confirming the approach to the recruitment process for the Director for Housing and Communities.  Further details and dates would be confirmed to members in due course.

Councillor Orson, Leader of the Council, proposed the recommendations in the report and Councillor Higgins, Deputy Leader, seconded the recommendations.

During debate the following points were noted:

• During debate of the Housing Improvement Plan at Council on 4^th November 2019, Members has expressed a desire to move forward quickly and this report and the recommendations within it were one of the initial steps which needed to be taken towards the implementation of the Housing Improvement Plan;
• This report and the Housing Improvement Plan together recommended a total of approx. 15 new posts, all recruitment to these posts would be carried out in accordance with Human Resources processes and employment law and guidance in relation to any “at risk” employees;
• Members were keen to ensure that valuable and good quality employees were not lost if there was the opportunity to bridge any gaps in knowledge and/or experience to ensure retention within any of the new posts.  The HR and Communications Manager confirmed that through the process of job matching, any appropriate identified training opportunities would be explored;
• The Chief Executive confirmed that as detailed in the 30^th October 2019 Cabinet Report, the proposals would be cost neutral;
• Members were supportive of the proposals for the recruitment process for the new Director for Housing and Communities which would commence immediately subject to Committee approval.

RESOLVED

1)    To APPROVE the revised corporate structure, set out in the report and at Appendix A, replacing the existing structure with effect from the timescales set out in paragraph 7.3 of the report.

2)    To CONFIRM the re-designation, deletion and creation of posts set out at paragraph 5.11.

3)    To NOTE that the Chief Executive has delegated authority to effect any associated HR matters.

4)    To NOTE its role in overseeing Chief Officer recruitment and specifically the newly created Director for Housing and Communities.

5)    To NOTE and APPROVE the proposed approach to undertaking the recruitment process as per (revised) exempt Appendix B of the report.