Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

It was resolved to exclude the public and press from the remainder of the meeting by reason of the nature of the business to be discussed which included information exempt from publication by virtue of paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended).

By Minute 16 (3 December 2021), the Panel had agreed a range of interim senior leadership arrangements in response to the then Chief Executive, Chris Naylor, leaving the Council on 15 December 2021.  Those arrangements included the Managing Director (and Deputy Chief Executive) becoming the Interim Chief Executive and the Council’s statutory Head of Paid Service and the Strategic Director, Law and Governance, becoming Interim Deputy Chief Executive.  Subsequent to that meeting, the Interim Chief Executive, Claire Symonds, was successful with an application to become Chief Executive at the London Borough of Redbridge and would leave the Council’s service on 22 May 2022, although her last working day would be 14 April due to outstanding annual leave.

The Panel therefore considered a report on new interim senior leadership arrangements which would take the Council through to the point when a new, permanent Chief Executive would be in post, which was expected to be late 2022. 

The report set out the rationale for the current Interim Deputy Chief Executive, Fiona Taylor, acting up into the role of Interim Chief Executive and Head of Paid Service with effect from 15 April 2022.  In order to become the statutory Head of Paid Service, it would be necessary to reallocate the statutory Monitoring Officer responsibilities that Ms Taylor held in her substantive post of Strategic Director, Law and Governance, as legislation prohibited the same individual from holding both statutory roles.  Therefore, it was proposed that the current Head of Law (and Deputy Monitoring Officer) be appointed as the Council’s interim Monitoring Officer under the new arrangements.

The report also set out a number of other interim proposals, aimed at improving strategic capacity and resilience during the transitional period and bringing functions more into line.  Some of those were linked to the post of Managing Director (Ms Symonds’ substantive post), which would not be filled ahead of the new Chief Executive joining the Council, while others related to Ms Taylor’s substantive post and her role as Interim Chief Exercutive.  Those proposals covered:

·  The transfer of responsibility for the Council’s Investment and Acquisition Strategy and Investment Panel, the Assurance, Counter Fraud and Information Technology (IT) services and acting as the Council’s designated Senior Information Risk Officer, to the Finance Director and the redesignation of that post to Director, Finance and Investment;

·  The transfer of responsibility for the Enforcement, Regulatory and Community Safety services to the Head of Law and the redesignation of that post to Chief Legal Officer and Interim Monitoring Officer;

·  The transfer of responsibility for the Events service, including Mayoral support, to the Head of Communications and Campaigns and the redesignation of that post to Chief Communications, Campaigns and Events Officer;

·  The creation of a JNC-level Director post to be responsible for the Council’s corporate strategy and performance functions and provide direct support to the Interim Chief Executive.

In respect of the latter, it was proposed that the Interim Chief Executive be authorised to progress the recruitment without delay, although it was noted  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.