Agenda item

Joint Appointments Committee Update

Minutes:

At this stage in the meeting the Chairman returned to the meeting room and in doing so expressed her thanks to the Vice-Chairman.

 

Members received a report on the creation of a Joint Appointments Committee.

 

Councillor K. May presented the report and proposed the recommendations in the report. Councillor S. Baxter seconded the recommendations.

 

During the Full Council meeting held on 17th July 2024 Members had approved the creation of a Joint Appointments Committee (“JAC”). This Committee would operate as a joint committee with Redditch Borough Council pursuant to sections 101 and 102 of the Local Government Act 1972 and carry out the functions of appointing the Chief Executive / Head of Paid Service as well as the Deputy Chief Executive / Section 151 Officer. The JAC would also carry out other employment related functions relating to Joint Statutory Officers.

 

Following on from that meeting, Officers had continued to work on the establishment of the JAC and had considered in more detail how the Committee could be set up to cover the full range of employment issues that were relevant to jointly employed statutory officers.

 

With responsibilities passing to the JAC, the existing functions in relation to appointment and dismissal of Joint Statutory Officers, namely the Appointment Committee, the Appeals Panel and the Statutory Officers Disciplinary Panel; would cease to exist. With a Shared Management Team, this was seen as a fair arrangement; the creation of a JAC.

 

Members were also being asked that delegated powers be given to the Monitoring Officer to finalise the wording of the full Committee reference terms for the JAC.

         

The disciplinary and dismissal functions which currently sat with the Statutory Officers Disciplinary Panel would be carried out by a standing sub-committee of the JAC. So, there would be added areas of responsibilities for a standing sub-committee of the JAC; and this would include Members from both Councils operating as a panel taken from the main Committee membership.

 

In response to a query in respect of the possible requirement to have interim Council meetings at both RBC and BDC with the final decision on a new Chief Executive; it was clarified that there would be a full appointments procedure to go through, therefore interim Council meetings at both RBC and BDC would not be required.

 

RESOLVED that  

 

1.          the Joint Appointments Committee (JAC) to have a standing sub-committee to deal with disciplinary matters on its behalf, which would replace the current Statutory Officers Disciplinary Panel;

2.          responsibility for the functions carried out by the Appeals Panel and the Statutory Officers Disciplinary Committee be transferred to the JAC and its sub-committee(s); 

 

3.          the Committee Terms of Reference (Part 5 of the constitution) be updated to reflect the creation of the JAC and the transfer to it of the functions currently carried out by the Appeals Panel, and the Statutory Officers Disciplinary Panel as set out at Appendix A; and

 

4.          the Monitoring Officer be authorised to update the Constitution, including any consequential amendments required as a result of the above.

 

 

 

 

 

Supporting documents: