Agenda and minutes

To appoint a Chair from the elected members of the Committee.

Minutes of a Meeting of the Appointments Committee held on Tuesday 6 June 2023 in the Sedgemoor Meeting room, Bridgwater House, Bridgwater at 5:30pm.

Present:, Cllr A Dingwall, Cllr V Keitch, Cllr L Leyshon, Cllr S Osbourne, Cllr B Revans.

Duncan Sharkey (Chief Executive, SC), (HR, SC), Neil Milne (Democratic Services, SC), Honor Clarke (Legal Services, SC),  Sari Brice (SCC HR),

Attending virtually: Cllr Mandy Chilcott and Cllr Sarah Wakefield.

Apologies for absence: no apologies received.

1. Appointment of Chair

Cllr B Revans, Leader of the Council having been proposed (Cllr L Leyshon ) and seconded (Cllr A Hendry) was unanimously elected as the Chair for the meeting.

To receive any apologies.

Members to declare any interests. The statutory register of interests can be inspected upon request to the Democratic Services Team.

The Members present confirmed that although they all knew the person that had made the application, they had no declarations to make having read the guidance notes regarding conflicts of interests provided by the Monitoring Officer. The Officers present also declared that although some of them knew the person that had made the application, there were no conflicts of interest.

The Chair will allow members of the public to ask any questions or make a statement about the matters on the agenda for the meeting.

There were no public questions.

The committee are requested to consider and agree a resolution under Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 that the press and public be excluded during the remainder of the meeting on the basis that if they were present during the business to be transacted there would be a likelihood of disclosure to them of exempt information of the following description:

· Information relating to any individual

· Information which is likely to reveal the identity of any individual

The Committee unanimously agreed, having been proposed (Cllr L Leyshon) and seconded (Cllr V Keitch), that under Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 the press and public be excluded during the remainder of the meeting on the basis that if they were present during the business to be transacted there would be a likelihood of disclosure to them of exempt information of the following description:

· Information relating to any individual

· Information which is likely to reveal the identity of any individual.

To consider the recommendations of the Appointments Panel.

The Chair advised that as an Appointments Panel, they had followed a robust process, which provided full opportunity to test, through questioning, the shortlisted candidates for the role of Service Director for Performance and Strategy.

The Committee reflected that they had been impressed by the candidates passion and enthusiasm for the role. It was noted that the Members of the Committee had the benefit of receiving feedback from both the staff panel and the stakeholder panel following their sessions with each of the candidates.

The Members had then reviewed again the questions they had prepared for their interviews with the candidates to ensure they had covered all the areas they wished to discuss.

Members reflected on their interviews with each candidate and that they had covered a variety of different topics areas and sought to gauge responses to questions that tested the candidates knowledge and how they might develop their strategic vision to respond to challenges and ensure that Somerset flourished.

The Committee noted that during the interviews all candidates had been given an opportunity to demonstrate their experience, knowledge, skills and personal attributes required to fulfil the role.

The Committee were of a unanimous view that the candidate was able to demonstrate the required experience and skills for the particular role.

The Committee unanimously agreed, having been proposed (Cllr S Osbourne) and seconded (Cllr L Leyshon), to appoint Mrs Cretney asService Director for Performance and Strategy.

The Chair thanked his Committee colleagues, stakeholders, staff and both HR and Democratic Services Teams, who had supported their recruitment process today.

To authorise the Chair of the meeting to agree the accuracy and sign the minutes as a correct record following circulation to the members of the Committee.

The Committee unanimously agreed, having been proposed (Cllr A Dingwall) and seconded (Cllr S Osbourne), to authorise the Chair of the meeting to sign and authorise the minutes as being a true record of the meeting.

There being no other items the Chair thanked all those present, both in-person and remote, for attending and closed the meeting at 5.45pm.