Agenda and minutes

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

Cllr B Revans having been proposed (Cllr L Leyshon) and seconded (Cllr F Purbrick) was elected as the Chair for the meeting.

To receive any apologies.

No apologies received.

To receive and note any declarations of interests in respect of any matters included on the agenda for consideration at this meeting.

(The other registrable interests of Councillors of Somerset Council, arising from membership of City, Town or Parish Councils and other Local Authorities will automatically be recorded in the minutes: City, Town & Parish Twin Hatters - Somerset Councillors 2023 )

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 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 was 1 public question, submitted by Mr David Orr. Mr Orr read his statement to the Committee and Cllr B Revans provided a verbal response and advised Mr Orr he would receive a written response.  The public question and response are attached below:

Statement by David Orr to the Appointments Committee 5th February 2025

With embarrassing timing, Somerset Council is seeking to appoint the current Interim Head of HR as the permanent Head of HR on a salary of £132K (£14K over the standard salary band). The incumbent Head of HR is an agency hire in post since October 2023. There will be no competition, no advertising of the post, no interviews and the meeting to discuss ratifying this unusual appointment will be held in a confidential session! Will that closed and non-competitive process damage the reputation of this new Council? Will the more cynical members of the public and your staff see this as “one rule for those at the top and another rule for the workers”? Today is presumably just a formality to ratify this generously remunerated post. It will occur shortly after 555 staff are approved for redundancies (many compulsory). It also occurs just as the Leader Bill Revans is hoping to get the government to approve a very high council tax rise over 5% (could be 15% or even higher) without the need for a referendum. Has the Incumbent Head of HR delivered for Somerset Council? The government appointed auditors Grant Thornton last week raised a Red flag about the vital 'transformation' work for which she is one of the key leaders: "The Council is delivering the workforce reduction programme before the development of the detailed transformation programme business case and before key enabler projects, relating to ICT, data and process improvement, have been implemented" “The implementation of the staff reduction programme before the transformation programme has been developed presents a risk that reductions in staff will impact on the Council’s capacity to deliver services” The key enabling projects' work won't be ready until this June at the earliest (if not delayed yet again) but, in the meantime, the 555 staff will have left. How will that work? Will we see another 'transformation' failure as in Somerset West and Taunton Council in 2019 with Ignite, leading to significant recovery costs after lengthy service disruptions? The “proof of the pudding” to see if the incumbent post holder has actually delivered on what are now only aspirations and promises, won’t be known until this June.

I ask that the current Interim Head of HR hire is extended for 6 months, so that their actual delivery performance can be assessed by elected Councillors. Following that, there should be a proper, open and competitive recruitment process.

Written response to Mr Orr:

Thank you for your statement to the Appointments Committee and for taking the time to coming to raise your concerns directly online at the meeting of 5 February 2025.  The points you have raised have been given full  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

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 Leyshon) and seconded (Cllr F Purbrick), 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  supporting papers, review the feedback from interviews and recommendations from the Panel.

The Chair advised that as an Appointments Panel (interview panel), they had followed a robust process, which provided full opportunity to test, through questioning, the shortlisted candidate for the role of Service Director HR&OD. Following a proposal by Cllr L Leyshon, seconded by Cllr F Purbrick, the committee unanimously agreed, to appoint Dawn Bettridge for the role of Service Director HR&OD.

The Chair thanked the committee members, the Executive Director for Strategy, Transformation and Resource and advisors from 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 L Leyshon) and seconded (Cllr F Purbrick), 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.