Staffing Matters & Urgency Committee Report of the Head of Human Resources

14 March 2021

Update on progress to implement the new Corporate Leadership Group (CLG)

Summary

1. The committee has requested a regular update on the progress of implementation of the new structure for CLG, as agreed by this committee in December 2020.

2. This paper provides an update as at date of publication of the report.  A further verbal update will be provided at committee.

Background

3. In Februarys update the committee were provided assurance that the full consultation process had been completed, along with the assimilation process.

4. The timeline provided to committee in December 2020 has been followed with no changes to date.  This is provided for reference in Annex A along with the whole structure.

Activity since the last meeting

5. Staff were informed of the outcome of assimilation and had a period during which they could appeal.  No appeals were received.

6. Staff who were not assimilated were asked to express interest in the vacant posts within the new structure.  This is an important step to that the council follows to mitigate any compulsory redundancies. 

7. The posts that were vacant were:

· Director Environment, Transport and Planning

· Director Economy, Regeneration and Housing

· Director Customer & Communities

· Director Safeguarding People

· Director Commissioning & Prevention

· Assistant Director Policy & Strategy

8. Five staff expressed interest in posts and were invited to a selection process.

9. The selection process for all posts comprised of a Leadership panel, a stakeholder panel and the final Member appointment panel.

10. The stakeholder panel involved a selection of the councils key partners.

11. The selection process took place week commencing 1 March 2021.

12. At the time of this report being published final results were not known.

Next Steps

13. Where staff have been successful they will be offered the post at the starting salary of £90,033. Posts will commence on 1 April 2021.

14. For staff who were unsuccessful there are now further processes to go through.  This includes consideration of redeployment opportunities across the council and the formal HR process for redundancy.  

15. The vacant posts within the CLG structure will be advertised externally.

Consultation

16. There has been no formal consultation during the period from the last report in February.  The Trade Unions are aware of the process and are being updated throughout.

Council Plan

17. Restructuring will contribute to delivering the Council Plan and its priorities, enabling the Council to remain proactive and fit for purpose for the future.

Implications

Financial

18. There are no specific financial implications associated with this report as it is an updated.  The financial implication of the CLG restructure can be found in Decembers report.

Human Resources (HR)

19. There are a number of HR implications and any restructure will be carried out in accordance with the Council’s HR change management procedures.

20. As the changes affect chief officers, members are responsible for the appointments of Chief Officers.  However the council has a duty to mitigate redundancy and therefore we will consider suitable alternative employment within the structure proposed and across the council.

21. It is recommended therefore where staff assimilate at stage 1 and stage 2 where there is no competition staff will be confirmed in post. 

Equalities

22. At this stage of the process there are no known equalities implications,  however, the Council needs to have due regard to the public sector equality duty, which will be kept under review via the completion of an equality impact assessment

Legal

23. All Chief Officer posts are politically restricted pursuant to the Local Government and Housing Act 1989.

24. The Council must ensure that its employment policies and procedures are followed so as to avoid any future legal challenge.  The council is required to demonstrate they have mitigated compulsory redundancy in any restructure and CYC do this through their assimilation process.  In addition, as these are Chief Officer roles then a Members appointment panel considers suitability.  In accordance with the Constitution, a member appointment panel will include at least one Member of the Executive.

Crime and Disorder, Information Technology and Property

25. There are no identified implications.

Risk Management

26. This is a key area of the Council and integrated into the members, along with active public involvement.  There will be public interest and we have to ensure the confidentiality of staff involved in the restructure is maintained even to the pressure of outside parties.  

Recommendations

27. It is recommended that Staffing Matters and Urgency Committee:

· Note the progress made to date.

Reason: To ensure the council has an appropriate Chief Officer structure to deliver the councils priorities.

Author: Trudy Forster Head of HR	Chief Officer Responsible for the report: Ian Floyd Chief Operating Officer
Report Approved	X	Date	05/03/2021
Specialist Implications Officer(s): Debbie Mitchell, Chief Finance Officer Janie Berry, Director of Governance
Wards Affected:  List wards or tick box to indicate all					All	X
For further information please contact the author of the report

Annexes

Annex A – Structure and Timeline

Abbreviations

CFO – Chief Finance Officer

CLG – Corporate Leadership Group

CMT – Corporate Management Team

COO - Chief Operating Officer

CYC- City of York Council

FTE - Full time equivalent

HR - Human Resources

LGA – Local Government Association

OD – Organisational Development

SMU – Staffing Matters and Urgency Committee