Council chief executive seeks greater control over senior appointments

Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

A council’s chief executive has said councillors should hold him accountable for the performance of senior staff.

At a meeting of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council on Wednesday, November 4, councillors received a draft report to scrap the appointments committee, which means that councillors have no say in appointing heads of service, chief or deputy chief officer roles.

The proposal would see the approval of human resources policy placed in the hands of the joint assistant director for workforce and the Blaenau Gwent council constitution amended to reflect this.

The move also formalises the arrangements so that Blaenau Gwent is in tune with Torfaen Council on this issue.

Council leader Cllr Steve Thomas (Labour – Tredegar) pointed out that councillors would still be involved in choosing the senior directors and statutory officers at the highest level.

Cllr Thomas said: “Responsibility for other appointments will sit with the appropriate senior officers.

“We need to remember we appoint our directors and give them responsibility for running our services – so part of that should surely be putting together the right management teams in place to deliver what we expect of them.”

He said that if “services are not performing as they should”, then the directors are held to account by councillors.

Cllr Thomas stressed: “The second part is about approving our HR policies. At present, they come before full council for approval. In Torfaen, that responsibility sits with the senior officer in charge of workforce. This proposes the same approach here.

“These are employment matters and I believe they are best managed by officers who have the professional expertise and responsibility for dealing with them.”

Concerns raised

Opposition Independent group leader Cllr Wayne Hodgins raised a number of concerns.

Cllr Hodgins said: “We have always been a member (councillor)-led authority; all policies should come through and be ratified by council as they are for the benefit of residents and the workforce.

“All of a sudden we are straying into the realm of Blaenau Gwent Plc: we’re sounding like a company.”

Chief executive Steve Vickers used a football analogy to better explain the proposal.

Mr Vickers said: “If the team loses on Saturday, by all means hold me to account if I picked the team.

“But it’s very difficult to do that if somebody else picks the team.”

Sovereignty 

The question of council sovereignty was raised again, as local elections next May could bring in a new administration that wants to scrap the federation model.

Cllr Jonathan Millard (non-aligned – Ebbw Vale South) said: “It’s only fair to bring that point up.

“If Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen decide to go their separate ways, we just revert the constitution back to the way it was.

“I kind of see we need to equip them (senior staff) with the right tools to move this council in the right direction.”

Cabinet member for economy and place Cllr John C Morgan (Labour – Georgetown) agreed with Cllr Millard, saying that the changes could be “reversed in the future” if the federation is scrapped.

Councillors went ahead and agreed the changes.