Tag: Graham Burgess

Employment and Appointments Committee (Special) Wirral Council 18th September 2012 Part 1

The agenda and reports for this meeting are on Wirral Council’s website. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. … Continue reading “Employment and Appointments Committee (Special) Wirral Council 18th September 2012 Part 1”

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

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The meeting started at 5.30pm.

Employment and Appointments Committee

Cllr Paul Doughty (Labour, Chair)
Cllr Ann McLachlan (Labour)
Cllr Adrian Jones (Labour)
Cllr George Davies (Labour)
Cllr Phil Davies (Labour)
Cllr Jeff Green (Conservative, spokesperson)
Cllr Lesley Rennie (Conservative)
Cllr Mark Johnston (Liberal Democrat, spokesperson)

In attendance
Cllr Tom Harney (Liberal Democrat, Leader)
Three members of the public.

Cllr Paul Doughty (Labour, Chair) opened the meeting.

Cllr Jeff Green (Conservative, spokesperson) said that Cllr Peter Kearney (Conservative) had just qualified as a solicitor. A joke was made.

Cllr Paul Doughty (Labour, Chair) welcomed people and asked for declarations of interest. No declarations of interest were made.

Cllr Paul Doughty (Labour, Chair) asked Chris Hyams, Head of HR & Organisational Development to talk about item 2 (Senior Management Restructure.

Instead of Chris Hyams, Interim Chief Executive Graham Burgess spoke about the Improvement Plan, a “coordinated management approach”, a meeting on Thursday morning to significantly reduce tiers, a future Cabinet report in a “month or two” and a future Council meeting. He said the Strategic Directors would be at Deputy Chief Executive level and changes to the pay policy would have to be agreed by Council, he also talked about the acting appointments, suspensions and how they needed to extend and confirm a number of people in various posts. The Interim Chief Executive referred to Surjit Tour, Peter Timmins, Tom Sault, David Armstrong, Julia Hassall and Chris McCarthy.

Cllr Jeff Green (Conservative, spokesperson) asked a question, which was answered by Chris Hyams. She said they had had further representations and following advice, in September they would be setting up a subcommittee for the recruitment process. She referred to the outcome of the Chief Officers’ suspensions and an amended resolution, a consultation with Chief Officers and how it would be inappropriate to make permanent appointments.

Cllr Paul Doughty (Labour, Chair) asked if everyone had a copy?

At 5.43 pm, Cllr Peter Kearney (Conservative) arrived.

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.

Related articles

Employment and Appointments Committee (Special) Wirral Council 18th September 2012

 

Employment and Appointments Committee
18 September 2012

ITEM 2

ADDITIONAL RESOLUTION 18.9

That the Chief Executive undertakes all requisite employment actions and steps arising from the above recommendations including all necessary and appropriate consultation with Chief Officers (as part of the next stage of this restructure process) in line with the Council’s relevant policies, which shall include placing all affected Council officers ‘at risk’ of redundancy.

 

Wirral Council Launches What Really Matters? Consultation

In what seemed eerily like those party political broadcasts you see on the television occasionally new Council Leader Cllr Phil Davies explained about “unprecedented cuts” to Wirral Council’s funding.

After him up popped new Interim Chief Executive Graham Burgess, again telling Wirral citizens about “What Really Matters” to him.

The questionnaire itself, run by Survey Monkey will no doubt be commented on by Wirral’s residents (and Wirral Council’s staff) over the next month or so and closes on the 19th October 2012.

Shadow Health and Wellbeing Board 4th September 2012 Part 1 Agenda Item 8 – Place Based Leadership Development Activity (Board Behaviours) Professor Laurie McMahon (Loop 2)

Yesterday’s Shadow Health and Wellbeing Board’s agenda and reports can be found on Wirral Council’s website.

The meeting started later than planned.

The Chair, Cllr Phil Davies said apologies had been received from Cllr Jeff Green, David Armstrong, Sheena and another. He also informed those present that unfortunately the Cabinet Member for Public Health, Cllr Anne McArdle couldn’t attend as she was unwell. Cllr Phil Davies also referred to Dr. Jennings and Pete Naylor.

Councillors on the Board were Cllr Phil Davies (Chair) and Cllr Tom Harney. Also on the Board was the new Interim Chief Executive of Wirral Council Graham Burgess, Emma Degg and others from the public sector.

Agenda Item 8 – Place Based Leadership Development Activity (Board Behaviours)

Professor Laurie McMahon of Loop 2 gave a confidential presentation (with Powerpoint slides) to the Board (and public present) on leadership following the telephone interviews.

He explained that Wirral Council had been successful in bidding for funds to improve its leadership and the training he was providing was part of that.

He told those present about the interpersonal rules of engagement and how they need to “stop seeing the Health and Wellbeing Board as an organisation”. The Professor continued by saying they need to recognise it is not a new committee, he mentioned his concern at its purpose not being clarified, especially its relationship to other bodies and suggested they create a map to map out its relationship with other bodies such as the Local Strategic Partnership (and others).

If they didn’t do this he had concerns that it would be swamped or delegated difficult decisions. Lobbying of Board members was also an issue he flagged up as well as the need for a Communications and Engagement Strategy. He asked the Board to imagine all the questions people ask you and said that the Health and Wellbeing Board was about “establishing direction” for Wirral.

There were various formal processes he wanted them to adopt, such as the Council’s Code of Conduct, although he admitted he didn’t know what it looks like. He suggested they use the Nolan principles and adopt the Council’s COI procedure. The professor though that overt lobbying should be discouraged and reported and that they needed to sort out the process of cooptees, although the law required certain people (or organisations) to be on the Board.

The Professor said they had told his that they don’t like voting or delegated decisions, but they were keen on subgroups who would make recommendations back to the Board. Cllr Phil Davies (Chair) asked a question. The Professor referred to the Act and how they hold each other to account. Cllr Phil Davies (Chair) asked if it had executive powers? The Professor answered No, Wirral Council’s Chief Executive Graham Burgess said it did have powers of revision, but these were a “dynamite option”.