Agenda and minutes

Members are asked to note that under the terms of reference for the Joint Appointments Committee, the Leaders of Bromsgrove District Council and Redditch Borough Council should take it in turns to Chair meetings of the Joint Appointments Committee.

A nomination was received for Councillor S. Harvey to be appointed as the Chair for the meeting. The nomination was proposed by Councillor K. May and seconded by Councillor W. Hartnett.

RESOLVED that Councillor S. Harvey be appointed to Chair the meeting of the Joint Appointments Committee.

Members were advised that an apology for absence had been received from Councillor J. Baker.

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the Joint Appointments Committee meeting held on 8^th January 2025 were submitted for Members’ consideration.

RESOLVED that

the minutes of the Joint Appointments Committee meeting held on 8^th January 2025 be approved as a true and correct record. 

There was no Urgent Business on this occasion.

(Report to follow in a supplementary pack for the meeting).

The Chief Executive presented the report on theArrangements for the Appointment of a Section 151 Officer for the Councils,for Members’ consideration. In doing so, it was explained that the report set out the options for the recruitment to the Section 151 Officer position following the departure of the previous Director of Resources and Section 151 Officer. It was noted that as this was a statutory position the role was currently being undertaken by the Assistant Director for Finance and Customer Services on a temporary basis. This had been agreed through the Urgent Decision process at both Councils in October 2025. Members were informed that the Assistant Director for Finance and Customer Services role was employed by Redditch Borough Council and there had been the need for Redditch Borough Council to agree to make the current post holder available to Bromsgrove District Council under the shared services arrangements, in order to perform such duties as were required by the post at Bromsgrove District Council.

Contained within the report were three options which Members were being asked to consider and subsequently decide the preferred approach going forward. It was suggested that Option A (which included a long recruitment process and establishment of a Joint Appointments Committee along with associated reports to both Councils) would take a significant amount of time and it would be necessary to appoint to the role as quickly as possible due to the upcoming Budget setting process at both Councils.

Option B proposed that authority be delegated solely to the Chief Executive to recruit to the position. Members expressed that this option, although the most expedient, would not allow Members to have involvement in the process and meet any potential candidates prior to an appointment being made.

Option C, which proposed a long-term arrangement with another Local Authority for their Section 151 Officer to be appointed as the Director of Finance and Section 151 Officer for Bromsgrove District and Redditch Borough Councils for the lifetime of the authorities was discussed. It was reported that although this had been a potential option at the time of writing the report, subsequent discussions with another Local Authority had not been positive and this option would not be viable going forward.

During discussions regarding the financial implications of the role, it was noted that this position would only be responsible for the Finance area of the previous role and did not include the Deputy Chief Executive responsibilities. This would enable the appointee to concentrate solely on the finance area during an extremely busy time for the Finance team as the Budget setting period approached. The job description had been assessed by West Midlands Employers, and the salary had been evaluated between £114,282 and £118,694. There would be further costs involved, if the role was appointed through an agency, with a one-off payment required of twenty percent.

Members were keen to understand the length of an appointment for the temporary position. It was reported that initially this would be for six  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6/25