Tag: Labour

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 … Continue reading “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.
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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

Delivery of nomination papers – Independent candidate Bidston & St. James ward

Well today, myself and my election agent delivered my nomination papers to the Town Hall for the election of a councillor for the Bidston & St. James ward, with polling day held on 3rd May 2012. They were checked and found to be OK and my agent should get official notification through the post.

I’ll find out who the other candidates are at the end of the nomination period (I am assuming this election will be contested as it would be highly unlikely for it not to be), but I’m expecting there will be at least Labour candidate, a Conservative candidate and a Lib Dem candidate.

So thank you to the ten people who proposed, nominated and assented to my nomination. Oh and thanks to my election agent Leonora Brace too, who also proposed my nomination (which I accepted).

Certainly it was easier filling out the nomination papers this year as I didn’t have to get a Designated Nominating Officer’s signature or decide on emblem/description and local people seemed to be somewhat disillusioned with one (or more) of the mainstream political parties.

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!

Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee 20th October 2011 PACSPE Call-in

Tonight’s meeting was as the Cabinet decision of the 22nd September 2011 on the PACSPE contract had been called-in by Cllr Jeff Green, Cllr Tom Harney, Cllr Dave Mitchell, Cllr Lesley Rennie and Cllr David Elderton.
At the end of a 3 1/2 hour meeting the voting went as follows.

Labour Amendment to Conservative motion

This amendment upheld the original decision.

Votes For         : 5 (Labour councillors)
Votes Against : 5 (Conservatives councillor plus one Liberal Democrat councillor)

Abstention       : 0
Casting vote of Conservative Chair: AGAINST

Votes For        : 5 (Labour councillors)

Votes Against: 6 (Conservatives councillor plus one Liberal Democrat councillor) + Chair’s casting vote
Abstention     :  0

AMENDMENT FAILS

Conservative Motion

Votes for          : 5 (Conservative councillors plus one Liberal Democrat councillor)

Votes against: 5 (Labour councillors)

Abstentions   : 0

Casting vote of Chair: For

Votes for:          6 (Conservative councillors plus one Liberal Democrat councillor) + Chair’s casting vote

Votes against: 5 (Labour councillors)

Abstentions:  0

MOTION PASSES (Proposed Cllr John Hale, seconded Cllr Don McCubbin)

Text of Motion:

This committee notes that:

    • The Cabinet appeared to ignore, and did not even mention, the findings of the Office of Government Commerce Gateway Reviews that the Parks & Countryside Services Procurement Exercise (PACSPE) had been subjected to.
    • No attempt was made to publically question officers from the Finance Department, the Legal Department and the Procurement Unit who were members of the PACSPE Project Board as to whether the “risk” identified by District Audit, and made such play of in the Cabinet resolution could or had been satisfactorily mitigated.
    • No discussion was had by Cabinet Members of the risks of not awarding the contract.
    • No mention or discussion took place regarding stakeholder management or the views of key stakeholders about the benefits of clear quality improvements that were built into the procurement exercise. In fact, other than the view of the Council’s Trade Unions, the results of the consultation and the views of the park users and user groups were not even mentioned in a single Cabinet meeting.
    • No reference was made to the new post of Community Engagement Manager to work with Friends, stakeholders, user groups, and local Area Forums or the new key performance indicators developed through PACSPE to reflect the change to a more customer and community focused service.
    • Insufficient account seemed to have been taken of the reduction from costs of £8.1 million per year to £7.4 million per year already achieved by the PACSPE process with the potential to reduce costs by a further circa £500,000. Indeed, it is hard to understand how the Leader of of the Council characterised a £1.2 million per annum potential saving arising from PACSPE to be sufficiently marginal to be ignored.
    • No effort appeared to be made by Cabinet Members to discuss or evaluate the additional costs to Council Tax Payers of purchasing what has been accepted as worn out equipment requiring immediate replacement (circa £2.5 million) or the TUPE costs of bringing current contractor staff into the Council workforce and pension scheme, per annum or over the 10 year period.
    • No mention was made of the training and development programme for staff and volunteers or the three to six new apprentices to be created as part of PACSPE.
    • No explanation was given at Cabinet regarding the opposition to a 10 year contract that would reduce annual costs by circa £1.2 million and improve the quality of our parks and countryside, other than the expressed need contained in the resolution to reduce spending by £85 million over three years.
    • Therefore we believe that the decision to refuse to award the PACSPE contract would see the ever decreasing quality of a service starved of investment by this administration which is already characterised by going for the quick fix instead of making the difficult but necessary strategic decisions in the interests of Wirral residents.

The Committee recommends to the Cabinet

*Editor’s note will have to check rest of resolution due to noise preventing taking it down*

My guess is that the rest of it is “reconsider the decision”.

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In the interests of openness, John Brace lives opposite Bidston Hill which is covered by the PACSPE contract.

Standards Committee 29/9/2011 Part 14 Urgent Business – Correspondence Received by the Chair

Continued from Standards Committee 29/9/2011 Part 13

Cllr Chris Blakeley said it “needs more than five minutes to understand the ramifications” and asked when the next meeting was.
The answer given by Mrs. Shirley Hudspeth was the 30th November [2011].

Cllr Les Rowlands said there were no time issues.
Cllr Chris Blakeley said this needed to be conveyed to Mr. Morton.
Cllr Dave Mitchell said it was not fair on councillors.

Surjit Tour said the process was explained in the middle of August. However the letter had been delivered on the eve of the committee. The process had been communicated to individuals in the middle of August. There had been delay, Standards for England had decided in the middle of August (17th August).

Cllr Chris Blakeley said he was happy to consider it if he had the time to read it and digest it and give him justice.

The Chair Brian Cummings asked if everyone wanted a copy?

Surjit Tour said they should consider whether to make it exempt or not.

RESOLVED:  That Mr Morton’s correspondence be considered at the next meeting of the Committee scheduled for 30 November 2011 and he be informed of this decision.

The meeting finished.