Agenda item

Purpose

To seek approval to implement a revised structure as part of the Council’s need to reshape itself to meet future challenges, in the context of reducing budgets.

An additional recommendation as Paragraph 2 (p)  was circulated, relating to Decision (16).

Reason for Decision

Decision

The Council’s Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS), included elsewhere on this agenda, sets out the financial forecast for 2019-2022.  The forecast identifies a cumulative significant gap of £3.2 million.

The MTFS notes the requirement to develop an autonomous structure and flexible scheme of delegation to support a one team approach.  It recommends the organisational structure and services be redesigned to encourage greater self-reliance by those who work on the frontline and agility to support the business partnering

model and challenges that lie ahead. 

As part of its wider strategy, the Council has established or is engaged in a range of partnerships.  Any new structure must assign clear roles for partnership leads and enable cross unit joined up working both within the Council and with partners.

That Full Council be recommended the following, including an additional recommendation as Paragraph 2 (p) set out below in Decision (16);

(1)  Approve the proposed operating model as detailed in this report and Appendix 1 that delivers total savings of £102,000 over 3 years (payback period of a maximum of 3 years)  and delegates to the Chief Operating Officer (COO) any resulting adjustments to job roles and/or post designations which are required;

(2)   Transfer responsibility for the Property function to the Head of Finance and the Environmental Health and Licensing function to the Head of Streetscene;

(3)  Note the additional responsibilities assumed by officers following the deletion of the Director of Resources post in December 2016 which delivered annual savings of £85,905;

(4)  Approve the deletion of the vacant post of Head of Governance, Law, Property and Regulation(HGLP&R) from the Council’s senior management establishment together with the posts sets out in paragraph 7 on the dates indicated or on expiry of any relevant redundancy notice;

(5)  Approve the creation of the posts of Head of Policy and Engagement and Head of Legal and Democratic Services (Band 3); (Appendix 2);

(6)  Give authority to the Head of People and Development to issue a redundancy notice to the relevant postholder where no suitable alternative employment is identified; subject to consideration of any further representations made within the consultation period;

(7)  Note the proposed succession planning set out in paragraph 9 of the report;

(8)  ) Revise the Band 2 and 3 salaries of the Chief Officer Pay Policy as set out in paragraph 25 of this report;

(9)  Approve changes to be made to Part 3 Council Functions arising from the Organisation Review relating to those previously discharged by the Head of GLP&R (transferred to the Chief Operating Officer on 22 November 2017), in particular relating to licensing and their redistribution to the Head of Legal and Democratic Services, and the Head of Streetscene –as follows;

(a)  All the HGLP&R Licensing delegations are to be transferred to the Head of Streetscene, except that Paragraphs 5-7 are to be transferred to the Head of Legal and Democratic Services and Paragraph 8 will also apply to the Head of Legal and Democratic Services; and

(b)   All the HGLP&R Development Control delegations are to be transferred to the Head of Legal and Democratic Services, as will those Council delegations previously discharged by the HGLP&R.;

(10)Approve that the Chief Operating Officer shall undertake the Council functions delegated to the Head of Legal Democratic Services until that post is filled;

(11)Approve that the Council’s Senior Solicitor shall also be entitled to exercise the Licensing Council functions  delegations referred to in paragraphs 5-8 (formerly with the HGLP&R) even if the Head of Legal and Democratic Services is not absent until that post is filled;

(12) Approve the retention payment outlined in paragraph 30 of this report;

(13)Give delegated authority to the making of consequential amendments to the Constitution (Council functions) and associated policies and procedures to the Monitoring Officer;

(14)Note that the Leader will be making the relevant amendments as set out in Appendix 4 to the HGLP&R’s Executive Functions delegations (transferred to the Chief Operating Officer on 20th November 2017) to reflect their transfer to the Head of Legal and Democratic Services, the Head of Streetscene, and the Head of Finance;

(15)Appoint the Council’s Internal Audit Manager as the Council’s Data Protection Officer for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulations;and

(16)That subject to approval by Full Council of recommendations (1) to (15) above, the Executive assigns the delegations it has previously granted to:

(i)            The Head of Governance, Law,  Property & Regulation as follows;

(a)  Delegations relating to property matters to be assigned to the Head of Finance; and

(b)  Any remaining delegations to be assigned to the Head of Legal and Democratic Services when that post is filled, and until then to the Chief Operating Officer; and

(ii)          The Head of Community Engagement to the Head of Policy and Engagement when that post is filled.