Agenda item

To note the review of the efficacy of the interim Deputy Chief Executive role and seek the Committee’s endorsement of the Chief Executive’s further proposals for reshaping Surrey County Council’s  senior leadership team.

Declarations of interest:

None

Witnesses:

Ken Akers, Strategic HR Relationship Manager

Key points raised during the discussion:

1.    The Strategic HR Relationship Manager introduced the report, informing members that the Chief Executive continued to take the necessary steps to reshape the Corporate Leadership Team of Surrey County Council (SCC) and ensure that the organisation has an effective and efficient senior management structure.

2.    Discussion took place among the Committee regarding the report’s final recommendation. It was highlighted that this was primarily related to succession planning by ensuring that SCC identified and trained staff who demonstrated the potential to be future chief officers. The importance of having a strong pool of internal candidates for senior management positions was stressed. Members were told that eight managers throughout the organisation had been identified as having the potential to be future strategic directors or heads of service and that the Chief Executive was mentoring these individuals to ensure that they were given the right opportunities to help them fulfil this potential. Three of those managers identified had been removed from their substantive roles and installed as roving heads of service reporting directly into the Chief Executive as part of their future development.

3.    The Committee highlighted the challenges which existed around succession planning in the modern job market due to an increased tendency for people to move between employers than was the norm previously. Consequently, the Committee discussed the possibility that some of those identified as potential future senior managers might take the skills and experiences learned at SCC to other organisations. It was stressed that while there was the possibility that some of the eight officers might leave SCC, there was a need to ensure that those who demonstrated the ability to be future senior managers of SCC were given the opportunities and training to help them realise this potential.

4.    Members agreed that having development schemes of this kind sent a positive message to staff by demonstrating the opportunities that SCC provided its employees. The Committee was informed that there were plans to extend this scheme further in order to identify and foster talent throughout the organisation.

5.    With reference to the first recommendation, the Chairman of the People, Performance and Development Committee (PPDC) provided Members with an overview of the reasons why the Committee was being asked to approve the creation of a Deputy Chief Executive (DCX) post. Not only was it important to ensure that there was an officer who possessed skills and experience necessary to temporarily step into the role of Chief Executive should this be required but it is also a way of developing a long term successor to the current Chief Executive.

6.    The Committee was concerned with the wide remit of the DCX role and questioned whether the scope of the position was appropriate for just one person especially given that it encompassed the statutory responsibilities of the Strategic Director of Children, Schools and Families. The same view was also expressed in relation to the Strategic Director of Adult Social Care and Public Health that had also been recently created and which Members suggested could be too broad a position for one person. It was further indicated that there appeared to be an element of some senior roles being tailored around individuals which it was felt was not conducive to a sustainable management structure on account of the challenges associated with finding those with the right set of skills and experience to effectively manage the wide-ranging remit of these roles.

7.    The main priority of the DCX role, the Committee was informed, was to discharge their responsibilities as the Strategic Director of Children, Schools and Families to ensure that the Directorate operated effectively. The Chief Executive’s view was that the person to lead the Children, Schools and Families Directorate didn’t necessarily need to be an expert in this area and that it was more important to appoint someone with the capacity to lead and manage it effectively. It was highlighted that the improvements made in Children’s Services since the publication of the Ofsted report suggested that the Chief Executive’s had been correct in his view on the most effective management arrangements for the Directorate. Indeed this had been recognised by Ofsted who had stipulated that they were happy with the progress made in delivering improvements in Children’s Services. 

8.    With respect to the Orbis Joint Partnership, it was highlighted that the DCX would retain strategic oversight of Orbis but that the day to day management and maintenance of the partnership would be delegated to their direct reports.

9.    The Committee discussed the importance of having a strong team around the DCX to support them in overseeing the breadth of responsibilities that the role encompassed. Members agreed that the Chief Executive would be asked to attend PPDC twice yearly to update the Committee on the success of the management arrangements for the Children, Schools and Families Directorate to ensure it is being led effectively.

Actions/further information to be provided:

The Chief Executive to be asked to attend the People, Performance and Development Committee every six months to update Members on the success of the management arrangements for the Children, Schools and Families Directorate (Action Ref: A28/15).

RESOLVED:

To;

      i.        Endorse the proposal to create a new permanent post of Deputy Chief Executive and Strategic Director of Children’s Services.

     ii.        Convene a meeting of the People, Performance & Development Committee on a date to be agreed which will interview Julie Fisher for the role of Deputy Chief Executive to include the statutory Director of Children’s Services.

    iii.        Note the reduction in posts, cost savings and redistribution of responsibilities which have streamlined senior management arrangements.

   iv.        Note that the outcomes of the Local Test of Assurance will be reported to this Committee.

    v.        Approve the conversion of three senior roles into “roving” Heads of Service roles, in order to (a) reduce the employment law risk due to the temporary nature of the current contractual arrangements for three senior officers, as set out in the report and (b) strengthen the senior leadership succession and retention strategy for the Council.