Agenda and minutes

To confirm as a true record the Minutes of the meeting held on 28 June 2022.

RESOLVED:

THAT the minutes of the meeting held on 28 June be approved.

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

There were no declarations of interest received.

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, 5 August 2022.

No public questions were received.

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

There was no urgent business for discussion.

To approve the recruitment and permanent appointment of Chief Executive and Head of Paid service.

Concern was raised at the amount of time taken to recruit to senior posts generally within the council. This would be a matter for further consideration outside of the meeting.

Assurances were sought that this process would be conducted robustly and that all applications would be notified to the Committee at the earliest opportunity, As such a dedicated resource was being assigned to oversee the process. It was confirmed that the recruitment process was being reviewed and an update was to be given to the committee shortly. The Committee believed the council should do everything necessary to advertise as widely as possible in order to attract a good number of quality candidates.

A discussion took place as to the length of time for which the post should be advertised and whether the usual four-week period should be extended to six weeks,

It was suggested that the post be advertised throughout the whole of September with a closing date at the end of the month, and it was believed to be important that any given deadline should not be extended beyond that stated in the advert.

The possibility of using a micro-site which was already being used in Children’s Services was mentioned, however there would be a cost implication for this of £11,700 which would have to be weighed up against any perceived benefit. Further details would be circulated to the Committee following the meeting for them to discuss informally, as it was believed that more information would be useful.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee authorise proceeding to start the recruitment process for the appointment of a permanent Chief Executive and Head of Paid Service, in accordance with the job description and person specification appended to the report.

A question must be submitted in writing or by electronic mail to Democratic Services no later than 4.00 Pm on Monday, 8 August 2022.

There were no Members’ questions received.