Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, County Hall, Newport, Isle of WIght

Contact: Marie Bartlett  Email: democratic.services@iow.gov.uk

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 20 KB

To confirm as a true record the Minutes of the meeting held on 10 July 2020.

Minutes:

RESOLVED

 

THAT the minutes of the meeting held on 10 July 2020 be approved.

2.

Declarations of Interest

To invite Members to declare any interest they might have in the matters on the agenda.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

 

3.

Public Question Time - 15 Minutes Maximum

Questions may be asked without notice but to guarantee a full reply at the meeting, a question must be put including the name and address of the questioner by delivery in writing or by electronic mail to Democratic Services at democratic.services@iow.gov.uk, no later than two clear working days before the start of the meeting. Therefore the deadline for written questions will be Friday, 4 March 2022.

 

Minutes:

There were no public questions submitted

 

4.

Urgent Business

To consider any matters which, in the Chairman’s opinion, are urgent.

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business

 

5.

Appointment of Director of Adult Social Care and Housing Needs pdf icon PDF 395 KB

To approve the recruitment and permanent appointment of a Director of Adult Social Care and Housing Needs.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Approval was sought to begin the appointment process of a permanent full- time position of Director of Adult Social Care and Housing needs. It was explained that it was a statutory requirement to fill this position and that the Council had added ‘Housing Needs’ into the job title as it was felt that social care and housing were closely linked.

 

It was anticipated that the whole recruitment process would likely take until June 2022 before the appointee was appointed and that they would be subject to a notice period if coming from outside the authority.

 

Questions were asked about why it had taken so long to begin the process and that, by habitually appointing interims to senior posts, the council was giving the impression of favouring existing Council employees at the expense of forgoing new talent.

 

It was explained that, appointing an interim for six months lent itself to a more balanced approach which gave continuity and that that the Council shouldn’t be at odds with promotion from within. Nurturing existing talent was seen as a positive approach, particularly as there had been previous problems with recruitment to senior positions in the Council.

 

Questions were asked about whether the Council needed to up the pay scale for this position as it was important that the Council appointed the right person for the job and whether the salary structure offered was too low.

 

It was highlighted that the Council should not attempt to break its own pay structure by offering more money, and that the salary offered was about in accordance with the council’s grading structure however, it would likely attract people stepping up into the role of Director rather than those already in a Director position

 

The differences between male and female rates of pay were questioned and it was concluded that that had been a deterioration in this area across the council.

 

It was concluded that the appointment for this position would be carried out in a transparent and fair way.

 

RESOLVED:

 

THAT the appointment process for the new Director of Adult Social Care and Housing Needs be approved.

 

6.

Member's Question Time pdf icon PDF 84 KB

A question must be submitted in writing or by electronic mail to Democratic Services no later than 12.30 pm on Monday, 7 March 2022.

 

Minutes:

 

Cllr Brodie submitted a written question regarding the recent media coverage surrounding the Committee’s Chairman (MQ 08-22).