HEREFORDSHIRE Council is ready to pay some £60,000 to recruit a new set of permanent senior managers on salaries into six figures.

The recruitment drive expected to be signed off by the council’s employment panel next week would replace existing interim roles.

Among the roles on offer is that of director for adults and well-being on a salary of £120,000.

The current director is expected to leave the council later this year.

Adult and wellbeing has a 2014/15 savings target of £5.5 million of which 44 per cent has been delivered.

An overspend against budget of £974,000 by the year’s end is forecast, compared to a forecast overspend of £962,000 previously reported to cabinet.

Other roles to be recruited include  director of public health, director of resources (including the function of  chief financial officer) and assistant director – adults and well-being.

An estimated cost for the recruitment campaign is put at £60,000 - or £10,000-£15,000 per post - justified as a need to use “specialist agencies” to source “good quality candidates.”

The employment panel will be told that this sum can be found through existing budgets.

A role profile for the director for adults and wellbeing has been subject to a job evaluation process and the salary applied said to be “consistent with existing director level roles”.

The director salary level is a spot salary at £120,000 as detailed in the council’s pay policy statement.

Salaries over £100,000 need the approval of the full council.

Other salary packages will also be confirmed by job evaluation for verbal reporting to the employment panel.

If approved, recruitment to the roles will start next month with appointment confirmed between June-September.

Over the course of the year the council will review posts filled by agency staff and recruitment to those posts where they are key long-term roles.

Behind the scenes, the council has considered continuing with interim arrangements, an option over-ruled by an acknowledged need for stability in organisational leadership.

The redesigning of roles and responsibilities to combine chief officer roles has also been considered but not pursued as significant reduction in the senior team has already taken place, limiting the scope for further function combination.

Overtures to neighbouring councils about shared chief officer roles have not progressed, with no workable models emerging.

CASE STUDY – THE ROLE OF DIRECTOR OF RESOURCES

Following the 2013 departure of the council’s corporate services director (deputy chief executive) and

chief officer (finance and commercial services) the decision was taken to recruit to the chief financial officer

role with a specific finance focus to prioritise addressing the council’s budget challenges.

The council comes to next week’s employment panel claiming the its financial position and control has improved.

In April last year, the post-holder took additional responsibility for ICT services and in December property and estates services.

This took out two senior posts - assistant director organisational development and directorate change manager.

Now, it is considered that these changes should be made permanent as  director of resources, although the principal focus of the role will remain finance.

Streamlining the governance arrangements with Hoople is also pitched as having the potential for further efficiencies to be made by appointing to this new post.

It is on this basis that the employment panel will be asked to support recruitment to the role on a salary consistent with the council’s current grading structure and subject to job evaluation.

Based on a previous job evaluation, the spot salary is £90,000.

But the panel will be warned that the role may attract an enhanced spot rate salary in line with the outcome of the job evaluation process.