Employment and Appointments Committee (Wirral Council) 24th September 2012 Part 1

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Present

Councillors on Employment and Appointments Committee

Cllr Lesley Rennie (Conservative)
Cllr Peter Kearney (Conservative)
Cllr Andrew Hodson (Conservative) deputy for Cllr Jeff Green (Conservative), spokesperson
Cllr Mark Johnston (Liberal Democrat), spokesperson
Cllr Paul Doughty (Labour), Chair
Cllr Phil Davies (Labour)
Cllr George Davies (Labour)
Cllr Ann McLachlan (Labour)

Officers
David Armstrong, Acting Deputy Chief Executive
Tony Williams, Acting Employee Relations Manager
Chris Hyams, Head of HR and Organisational Development
Surjit Tour, Legal adviser
Andrew Mossop, Committee Services Officer

In attendance:

Cllr Adrian Jones (Cabinet Member for Corporate Services)
Two members of public

00:08 to 00:15
The meeting started with the Chair, Labour councillor Paul Doughty welcoming people to tonight’s meeting.

1. Members’ Code of Conduct – Declarations of Interest 00:15

He asked if the councillors had any interests to declare? No declarations of interest were made.

2. Minutes 00:28

The minutes of the meeting held on the 12th July 2012 were agreed.

3. Managing attendance 00:55

Linked reportAppendix 1Appendix 2Appendix 3

The Chair, Labour Cllr Paul Doughty asked Tony Williams, Acting Employee Relations Manager to introduce the report.  Tony Williams said it was a regular report to update the Committee on attendance and referred to figures in the report.

Cllr Harry Smith (Cabinet Member for Streetscene and Transport) and Cllr Chris Meaden (Cabinet Member for Culture, Tourism and Leisure) arrive.

Tony Williams said the report showed that health issues were the highest cause of absence, which they were doing work to address, with an example being given of stress awareness. He also referred to the absence rate at the Department for Adult Social Services. He asked if there were any questions?

Cllr Paul Doughty said the report was for noting, so it was noted.

4. Update on Managing Workforce Change and Redeployment 03:20

Linked report, Appendix 1

The Chair, Labour Cllr Paul Doughty asked Tony Williams, Acting Employee Relations Manager to introduce this report.

Tony Williams said there were now fourteen employees on the register, he said at the last meeting there had been six, but five of these had been resolved. He said three on the register had complex circumstances, with two of these being due to disability, he referred to exempt appendix 12.

The Chair, Labour Cllr Paul Doughty referred to exempt appendix 12. He asked if anyone had any questions?

Cllr Mark Johnston, Liberal Democrat spokesperson asked about the reason behind the increase in employees on the register from the Department of Law, HR and Asset Management?
Tony Williams answered Cllr Johnston’s question by saying it related to a graduate trainees program. Cllr Mark Johnston asked a further question to Tony Williams. Tony Williams replied.

Cllr Lesley Rennie, Conservative asked about a point she had raised at the briefing. She wondered if the senior management restructure would lead to people’s jobs being subject to risk. She asked if in future members of the Committee, Leaders and Deputy Leaders could receive updates more regularly, such as fortnightly?

Chris Hyams answered.

The Chair Cllr Paul Doughty asked the Committee if they were happy to note the contents of the report? The report was noted.

5. Workforce Monitoring 2012/2013 Quarter 1 06:53

6. Restructure of Human Resources and Organisational Development 10:00
7. Monitoring Use of Compromise Contracts 29:25
8. Appeals SubCommittee 30:24
9. Employment and Appointments SubCommittee Minutes 14/6/12, 28/6/12, 4/7/12, 5/7/12 31:33
10. Any Other Urgent Business Approved by the Chair (Part 1) 31:46
11. Exclusion of press and public 31:52
12. Exempt Appendix – Update on Managing Workforce Change and Redeployment
13. Exempt Appendix – Monitoring Use of Compromise Contracts
14. Any Other Urgent Business Approved by the Chair (Part 2)

Cabinet (Special) (Wirral Council) 18th September 2012 5pm Senior Management Restructure

The agenda and reports for this meeting are on Wirral Council’s website.

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Present:
Cabinet (8/10)

Cllr Phil Davies (Labour, Chair, Finance, Leader)
Cllr Adrian Jones (Labour, Corporate Resources)
Cllr Harry Smith (Labour, Streetscene & Transport)
Cllr Pat Hackett (Labour, Regeneration and Planning Strategy)
Cllr Tony Smith (Labour, Children’s Services & Lifelong Learning)
Cllr Chris Meaden (Labour, Culture, Tourism & Leisure)
Cllr George Davies (Labour, Housing & Community Safety, Deputy Leader)
Cllr Ann McLachlan (Labour, Improvement and Governance, Deputy Leader)

Officers
Shirley Hudspeth (Committee Services)
Surjit Tour (Acting Head, Law, HR and Asset Management)
Graham Burgess (Interim Chief Executive)

In attendance
Cllr Paul Doughty (Labour, Chair, Employment and Appointments Committee)
Cllr Jeff Green (Conservative, Spokesperson, Employment and Appointments Committee)
Cllr Lesley Rennie (Conservative, Employment and Appointments Committee)
Cllr Tom Harney (Liberal Democrat, Leader)

The meeting started with Chris Hyams (Head of HR & Organisational Development), Kevin Adderley and Fiona Johnstone leaving the room as they would be affected by the proposals.

Cllr Phil Davies (Labour, Chair) welcomed people to the meeting. He asked councillors if they had any declarations of interest to make? None were given. He moved the meeting onto agenda item 2 (Senior Management Restructure) and indicated to the Interim Chief Executive Graham Burgess to speak about this item.

Graham Burgess referred to the Improvement Board, the Improvement Plan, the support of all three party leaders and proposals to address concerns. He said it was the first stage of a wider management reshaping. Mr. Burgess said the proposals would create three posts, which were key roles.

Cllr Anne McArdle (Labour, Adult Social Care and Health) arrived at 5.06pm.

The Interim Chief Executive continued to talk about “key corporate priorities”, his desire to “break down silos” and “challenge across departments”. He said that 5.4 [of the report] gave more detail and said it was his intention to make a further report. He referred to a Director’s meeting on Thursday and that there would be numbers of posts they would be losing and it was likely to look at and need to ask senior officers to leave.

Cllr Ann McLachlan (Labour, Improvement and Governance) spoke. Cllr Phil Davies (Labour, Finance and Best Value) said he wanted to address the corporate governance issues. He said he would support the recommendations and referred to the Employment and Appointments Committee later. Cllr Davies (Labour, Finance and Best Value)  referred to “radical changes”. He announced there was no “Any Other Business” and the meeting closed at 5.17pm.

Council (16th July 2012) Parts 1 to 7

I’ve finally uploaded the video footage from last Monday’s well attended Council to Youtube. Links to each part are below with part 7 being in HD.

Part 1 00:00 to 04:07
Part 2 04:08 to 06:34
Part 3 06:35 to 50:49
Part 4 50:50 to 53:43
Part 5 53:44 to 130:37
Part 6 130:38 to 136:00
Part 7 136:00 to 169:33

A playlist of all seven parts is below.

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Employment and Appointments Committee (Wirral Council) 7/6/2012 Item 12: Early Retirement Request (Jim Wilkie, Chief Executive)

Committee:
Cllr Paul Doughty (Chair)
Cllr George Davies
Cllr Adrian Jones
Cllr Phil Davies
Cllr Ann McLachlan
Cllr Jeff Green (Conservative Spokesperson)
Cllr Lesley Rennie
Cllr Peter Kearney
Cllr Phil Gilchrist deputy for Cllr Mark Johnston (Lib Dem Spokesperson)

In attendance:
Cllr Tom Harney
Chris Hyams
Bill Norman
Various officers
+public + press

Ian Coleman left the room whilst this item was discussed having declared an interest in it.

The committee voted 6:3 to approve the early retirement request of Jim Wilkie, Chief Executive. He has (unless the item is called in or judicially reviewed) retired as of the 7th June 2012.

The voting was as follows (on whether to grant Early Retirement) was 6:3 and passed. An earlier Conservative amendment was lost 3:6:-

For Early Retirement (6)

Cllr Paul Doughty (Lab)

Cllr Phil Davies (Lab)

Cllr Adrian Jones (Lab)

Cllr George Davies (Lab)

Cllr Ann McLachlan (Lab)

Cllr Phil Gilchrist (Lib Dem) deputising for Cllr Mark Johnston (Lib Dem)

Against Early Retirement (3)

Cllr Jeff Green (Con)

Cllr Lesley Rennie (Con)

Cllr Peter Kearney (Con)

=============================================================================
Conservative amendment (LOST 3 (Conservative (3)): 6 (Labour (5)) + (Lib Dem (1)))

Moved by Cllr Jeff Green (Spokesperson)
Seconded by Cllr Lesley Rennie

This Committee notes:

(1) the contribution and service that Mr. Wilkie has given to the people of Wirral over the last 23 years.

(2) the decision on Mr. Wilkie, advised by the Director of Finance and the Director of Law, to allow two members of staff to leave under compromise agreements, less than 1 working day prior to the publication of the AKA report without bringing any potential disciplinary issues to the attention of this Committee.

(3) the queries raised by myself as Leader of the Conservative Group and subsequently as Leader of the Council in response to the report of Mr. Wilkie: Agenda Item 15: Interim Management Arrangements at the meeting held on 29th September 2011 remain unanswered.

(4) that if his retirement was to go ahead these matters may remain secret and unanswered.

Therefore this Committee believes that until these matters are adequately reported to this Committee and Members have had the opportunity to express a view it is clearly inappropriate to approve the extra cost and request for Early Voluntary Retirement from Mr. Wilkie.
==========================================================================================================
Labour recommendation (CARRIED 6 (Labour (5)) + (Lib Dem (1)) :3 (Conservative (3)))
PROPOSED: Cllr Phil Davies
SECONDED: Cllr Ann McLachlan

That the Employment and Appointments Committee approve the following;

The Early Voluntary retirement of Mr Wilkie on the 7 June 2012 and the release of his pension on the grounds of efficiency of the service.

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Related story by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Echo: Wirral Tories oppose council chief executive’s early retirement

DASS Management Structure (Wirral Council) | (Department of Adult Social Services) | Wirral DASS Management Structure

As there have been some searches made to the blog about the Social Services management structure I thought I would explain the current structure (or at least with the caveat that obviously this changes over time), along with contact details (whether email or phone). For each tier of management, I’ve given it a number followed by a letter. C stands for councillor, E stands for employee. The number represents what tier (starting with 1 at the top), followed by in brackets how many people are at this tier. I’ll also state who they report to/are line managed by.

There are three which aren’t employees in the Social Services department. One is an office-holder, one is an employee and the other is a vacancy (office-holder). Those are Cllr Jeff Green (Conservative) – resigned 21/5/12 Cllr Phil Davies leader@wirral.gov.uk (Cabinet (Chair), Labour) (from 21/5/12), vacancy – resigned 21/5/12 Cllr Anne McArdle (from 21/5/12) (Cabinet Member for Social Care and Public Health, Labour) and Dawn Stanley-Smith. Dawn Stanley-Smith is an employee in the Children and Young People’s Department (CYPD).

—————————————————————————————————————————

Cabinet Member for Adult Ed- added 21/5/12 Social Care & Inclusion, C1 (3): Cllr Jeff Green, Conservative, leader@wirral.gov.uk – resigned 21/5/12 Cllr Anne McArdle (from 21/5/12) (Cabinet Member for Public Health),

Cabinet Member for Public Health, C1 (3): Vacancy to 21/5/12, Cllr Anne McArdle (from 21/5/12) Labour, N/A, Public

Cabinet Member for Finance/Best Value, C1 (3): Cllr Jeff Green – resigned 21/5/12 Cllr Phil Davies leader@wirral.gov.uk (Cabinet (Chair)) (from 21/5/12), Public

—————-

Director of Adult Social Services, E1 (1): Graham Hodkinson, 0151 666 3650, Cllr Jeff Green resigned 21/5/12 Cllr Phil Davies & Cllr Anne McArdle

—————-

Graham Hodkinson has four people he line manages, these are:-

Stephen Rowley (Head of Branch, Finance and Performance), E2 (4), 666 3662, Graham Hodkinson
Chris Begya (Head of Branch, Personal Support), E2 (4), 666 3624, Graham Hodkinson
Caroline McKenna (Head of Branch, Safeguarding), E2 (4), 666 3938, Graham Hodkinson
Rick O’Brien – seconded to DoH from August 2012 (Head of Branch, Personal Assessment and Planning), E2 (4), 666 476?, Graham Hodkinson

I’ll then split it into who reports to who starting with those who report to the Finance and Performance Head of Branch.

——————————–

Those who report to the Head of Branch, Finance and Performance (SR).

Sandra Thomas, Principal Manager (Finance and Performance), E3 (12), 666 4776, Stephen Rowley

????, Planning and Performance, E3 (12), ?????, Stephen Rowley

Mal Price, Principal Manager (Market Management and Development), E3 (12), 666 4785, Stephen Rowley

—————————-

Those who report to Head of Branch, Personal Support (CB)

Paula Pritchard, E3 (12), Principal Manager (Support Provision), 666 4932, Chris Begya

Kenny Robinson, E3 (12), Principal Manager (Specialist Services), 666 ?, Chris Begya

Nick Broadhead, E3 (12), Principal Manager Early (Advice and Support), 666 3630, Chris Begya

—–

Those who report to Head of Branch, Safeguarding (CM)

Amanda Kelly, E3 (12), Service Manager (Safeguarding Adults), 666 3614, Caroline McKenna

Dawn Stanley-Smith, E3 (12), Manager Complaints, Note: CYPD position, Caroline McKenna & CYPD?

—————–

Those who report to Head of Branch, Personal Assessment and Planning (RO)

Pete Gosling, E3 (12), Principal Manager (Wallasey), 666 4967, Rick O’Brien – seconded to DoH from August 2012

Peter Tomlin, E3 (12), Principal Manager (Birkenhead), 666 4967, Rick O’Brien – seconded to DoH from August 2012

Jayne Marshall, E3 (12), Principal Manager (West Wirral), 666 4967, Rick O’Brien – seconded to DoH from August 2012

Anne Bailey, E3 (12), Principal Manager (Independence), 666 4967, Rick O’Brien – seconded to DoH from August 2012

———————————–

After the third tier of managers (E3), there is a fourth tier (E4).

After the fourth tier of managers (E4), there is a fifth tier (E5).

After the fifth tier of managers (E5), there is a sixth tier (E6).

At many tiers you get people without line management responsibility too, such as social workers, apprentices, administration staff such as secretaries, vacant posts, support workers etc.

Then there are people who work for Social Services, but are seconded elsewhere. Often when somebody is seconded, a second post is created to do the work they would be doing if not seconded. Also sometimes the post is created and is a vacancy as there isn’t the money in the budget to pay twice for basically the same post.

There are also agency staff too who are line managed by Social Services but not part of it.

However to show all the employees of Social Services department (as well as those line managed by it), would take 10 A4 pages and is a little beyond the scope of a short blog post. It’s a large department with a large Budget. Does anyone know the Budget for Adult Social Services for Wirral Council for 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 or where I can find it out?

Ed 18/3/2012 Thank you a reader for sending me the information to answer this question, the answer is as follows:-

Department of Adult Social Services 2010/2011 Budget £64,745,000

Department of Adult Social Services 2011/2012 Budget £65,520,900

The staffing element of Social Services budget is 2011/12 is £21.6 million and for 2012/13 is £21.7 million.

However Adult Social Services is currently predicted to overspend its Budget in 2011/12 by £3.715 million!