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Explanatory 1
These Procedure Rules are intended to comply
with Regulation 3, Schedule 1 Part 1 and Regulation 5 (1) (b), Schedule 3, part
2 of the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (Wales) Regulations 2006 as
amended by the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (Wales) (Amendment)
Regulations 2014 (“the Regulations”). 2 They are applicable in respect of Chief Officers, the Monitoring Officer, Heads of Service, Head of Democratic Services and any other officer to be employed on JNC terms and conditions only. 3 If there is a conflict between these Procedure Rules and the Regulations, the Regulations take precedence. 4 The Regulations are designed to be a statutory minimum and only dictate that the appointment of the Chief Executive is to be approved by Council itself (Regulation 7. a) The Regulations also require that Council itself must determine the level, and any change in the level, of remuneration to be paid to a chief officer (Regulation 7) as defined in paragraph 2.2 below. 5 The Appointments Committee is delegated authority to exercise the functions set out in Paragraph 2 (1) (a) & (b) of Schedule 1 Part 1 of the Regulations – short-list, interview and appoint candidates for the post of Chief Officer. It is also delegated authority to shortlist, interview and appoint Heads of Service who are Deputy Chief Officers within the meaning of Section 2 (8) of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989. 6 The Joint Appointment Sub Committee has the power to make joint JNC / Chief Officer appointments to the Authority. Where such appointments are being considered the substantive rules of the JNC Officer Appointment provisions will apply. a) Any joint appointment shall be made through the Joint Appointments Sub Committee. This Sub Committee shall be politically balanced and shall in respect of its membership comply with the Appointments Procedure set out in Paragraph 5 of the JNC Officer Appointment Procedure Rules, together with the application of these rules generally. b) Further the Committee shall comprise of proportionate representation of all the joint partners to the appointment. c) It is not envisaged that the Joint Appointments Sub Committee shall make any appointment under these rules that should require the sanction of the Council. d) * For clarity should any disciplinary matters be progressed in respect of a joint appointment they shall be progressed via a Joint Disciplinary Sub Committee and any consequential amendment to the Constitution shall be made accordingly. 7 In respect of all other staff, the function of appointment of staff must be discharged by the Chief Executive, or by an Officer nominated by the Chief Executive and Members will not be involved in any of these processes except where such involvement is necessary for any investigation or inquiry into alleged misconduct. (Regulation 5 (1) (b), Schedule 3 Part 2 “Authority with Leader and Cabinet Executive”). 8 In accordance with Section 7 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989, all appointments to paid office within the Authority shall be on merit. However, there may be situations where a person is at risk of redundancy and the Authority will be required to attempt to re-deploy that person. Whilst no officer is entitled to be re-deployed so as to gain a promotion, it will be normal for that person to be given prior consideration or “ring fenced” to that post. 9 In such circumstances, the officer shall be required to undertake such assessment as may be considered necessary to ascertain their suitability for the post and will be interviewed by the Appointments Committee, who will then decide whether it is in a position to make an appointment. If it is not in a position to appoint then the post will be advertised, but the “at risk officer” will be entitled to re-apply for the post and compete with any other candidates. |
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Definitions 1
In these rules the following terms have the
meaning prescribed by the Local Authority (Standing Orders) (Wales) Regulations
2006 as amended by the Amendment Regulations 2014, and “the 1989 Act” means the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 2 “chief officer”, means: a) The Chief Executive, designated under section 4(1) of the 1989 Act; b) The Monitoring Officer; c) A statutory chief officer mentioned in paragraph (a), (c) or (d) of section 2(6) of the 1989 Act, or d) A non-statutory chief officer (within the meaning of section 2(7) of the 1989 Act). (For the avoidance of doubt, this definition so far as Swansea is concerned includes all members of the Corporate Management Team in its current format but excludes Heads of Service. Any reference to an appointment or purported appointment of a Chief Officer includes a reference to the engagement or purported engagement of such an officer under a contract of employment); 3 “chief finance officer” means the officer having responsibility, for the purposes of section 151 of the Local Government Act 1972 (financial administration) for the administration of the local authority’s financial affairs; 4 “deputy chief officer” has the meaning referred to in section 2(8) of the 1989 Act. These are currently referred to as Heads of Service in Swansea. 5 “chief executive” means the officer appointed under section 54 of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021; 6 “member of staff” means a person appointed to or holding a paid office or employment, under a relevant authority; 7 “monitoring officer” means the officer designated under section 5(1) of the 1989 Act (designation and reports of monitoring officer); 8 “head of democratic services” means the officer designated under section 8 of the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2011; 9 “remuneration” has the same meaning as in section 43(3) of the Localism Act 2011 i.e. it means: a) The chief officer’s salary or, in the case of a chief officer engaged by the authority under a contract for services, payments made by the authority to the chief officer for those services, b) Any bonuses payable by the authority to the chief officer, c) Any charges, fees or allowances payable by the authority to the chief officer, d) Any benefits in kind to which the chief officer is entitled as a result of the chief officer’s office or employment, e) Any increase in or enhancement of the chief officer’s pension entitlement where the increase or enhancement is as a result of a resolution of the authority, f) Any amounts payable by the authority to the chief officer on the chief officer ceasing to hold office under or be employed by the authority, other than amounts that may be payable by virtue of any enactment. |
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Declarations 1
The Council will draw up a statement requiring
any candidate for appointment as an Officer to state in writing whether they have
a personal connection with an existing Councillor or Officer of the Council; or
of the partner of such persons. Although
not an exhaustive list, examples of these are; parent, grandparent, partner,
child, stepchild, adopted child, grandchild, brother, sister, uncle, aunt,
nephew or niece. 2 No candidate so related or connected to a Councillor or an Officer will be appointed without the certification of the relevant HR Officer or an Officer nominated by him/her that the Council’s recruitment Procedures have been followed and no conflict of interest has arisen during the recruitment process. |
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Seeking support for appointment 1 Subject to paragraph (4.3), the Council will disqualify any applicant who directly or indirectly seeks the support of any Councillor for any appointment with the Council. 2 No Councillor will seek support for any person for any appointment with the Council. |
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Appointments procedure 1
Part One to Schedule Three, paragraph 4(2) of
the Regulations, provides that: “Where a committee…is discharging on behalf of the…authority the function of the appointment of… [a Chief Officer or Deputy Chief Officer] a) At least one member of the executive must be a member of that Committee; and b) Not more than half of the members of that committee are to members of the executive of the authority” 2 This must be given a literal interpretation and must be taken to mean any meeting of the Appointments Committee to deal with the appointment of a Chief Officer or Head of Service. It must also be taken to relate directly to the composition of the Committee on the day that it meets and not as a whole. |
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General 1
All Members must have undertaken an appropriate
training course. 2
All Members must declare any knowledge of or
relationship with any of the applicants or applicant’s families. 3 Short Listing a) Members of the Appointments Committee MUST be present throughout all of the meetings that take place to shortlist, any candidates. Interviewing and Appointing
Candidate(s) b)
Members of the Appointments Committee must be
present throughout all of the meetings that take place to interview and appoint
(excluding short listing) any candidates, in order to vote on the
appointment. This does not apply to any
selection centres or assessment processes that the candidate may be required to
undertake. Neither does it apply to any
informal meetings organised with the candidates which take place outside of the
formal process. Members shall consider at the commencement of the process whether they
are able to commit to attending all the relevant formal meetings and if they
are unable to do so, should absent themselves at the start of the process’. Interviewing and Appointing Candidate(s) c) Members of the Appointments Committee must be present throughout all of the meetings that take place to interview and appoint any candidates, in order to vote on the appointment. d) Please note this does NOT apply to: i) Any selection centres or assessment processes that the candidate may be required to undertake; ii) Any informal meetings organised with the candidates which take place outside of the formal process. e) Members shall consider at the commencement of the process whether they are able to commit to attending all the relevant formal meetings and if they are unable to do so, should absent themselves at the start of the process. 4
All stages of the appointments process will be
advised by the Chief Executive or a nominated deputy, Human Resources officer
and Legal Officer. In the case of an
appointment of the Chief Executive, an independent consultant will be retained to carry out this function. 5 A Legal Officer must be present throughout all of the appointment process involving elected Members with the exception of informal meetings organised with the candidates which take place in an informal setting. 6 Where the Authority proposes to appoint a Chief Officer or Deputy Chief Officer, and the remuneration which it proposes to pay to the chief officer is £100,000 or more per annum, it must: a) Draw up a statement specifying: i)
The duties of the officer concerned, and ii) Any qualifications or qualities to be sought in the person to be appointed; b) Make arrangements for the post to be publicly advertised in such a way as is likely to bring it to the attention of persons who are qualified to apply for it; and c) Make arrangements for a copy of the statement mentioned in (a) to be sent to any person on request. The Authority is not required to
take the step set out in 6(b) i.e. to publicly advertise, if it proposes to
appoint the chief officer for a period of no longer than 12 months. 7 Where a post has been advertised as provided in these Standing Orders, the Authority must: a)
Interview all qualified applicants for the post,
or b)
Select a short list of such qualified applicants
and interview those included on the short list. 8
Where no qualified person has applied or if the
authority intends to re-advertise any appointment, it must make further
arrangements for advertisement in accordance with paragraph 6(b). 9
The steps referred to under paragraphs 6 and 7
may be taken by a Chief Officer of the Authority or a person nominated for that
purpose. In relation to an appointment
of a Chief Executive, the Authority will instruct a professional consultant to
carry out the steps in Paragraph 6. 10
The steps referred to under paragraph 7 shall be
taken by the Appointments Committee. 11 Where the Local Authority proposes to appoint a Director of Social Services, regard be given to the recommended Competences for Appointment as Director of Social Services as laid out in the Statutory Guidance issued under Section 7 of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970. |
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Procedure at the Appointments Committee 1
Short
listing a)
All applications are to be technically assessed
by appropriate officers or any professional consultants engaged for that
purpose. This assessment could include a
preliminary long-listing exercise to highlight further evidence on whether
applicants meet the required criteria of the post. They will then be ranked for
short listing. The relevant Chief
Officer or the nominated representative and/or professional consultant will
prepare short listing report outlining the technical assessments of candidates
applications, their scores and any irregularities in any application. b)
This will be presented to the Appointments
Committee by an officer or professional consultant, who will speak to the
report and answer any questions that Members may have regarding the process. c)
The report itself will be accompanied by the
application forms of those candidates recommended for short listing, but the
application forms of all applicants will be available prior to the meeting
should any Member of the Appointments Committee wish to see them. Any Member of the Appointments Committee will
be able to inspect application forms after the initial sift has been carried
out by the Responsible Officer (person to whom the vacant post reports) and
Human Resources. This should be by
appointment with the Head of Human Resources. d)
The Appointments Committee may then either
accept the report of the Officer or professional consultant without further
debate or inspect those applications not included on the shortlist. e)
In the event that the Appointments Committee
accepts the report, then a vote will be taken as to which candidates are to
proceed to the assessment stage. This
vote will be on a show of hands. f)
Should the report not be accepted, then
applications considered by the Officer or professional consultant to be
technically competent, will be compared against the person specification and
job description and with the assistance of the Officer or professional
consultant, will be marked accordingly. g) Those candidates that receive the highest score shall be short listed for assessment - where the score indicates the appropriate qualification and experience. 2
The
Assessment Procedure and interview by
the Appointments Committee a)
Candidates will make a presentation and be
interviewed by the Appointments Committee as part of a full assessment centre
procedure which may include the contribution of stakeholder panels. Any
stakeholder panels involved in the assessment centre will present their
findings to the Appointments Committee. Candidates
application forms will be available to Members throughout the interview
process. The Chief Executive and/or other Chief Officers and/or professional
consultants will attend and support the Appointments Committee in an advisory
capacity. If a professional consultant
is retained, then they will be expected to declare any knowledge of the
candidate at the outset in order that the relationship can be considered and
whether it is appropriate to continue to use the services of the consultant. 3
Interview
by the Appointments Committee a)
Presentation topics and questions designed to
test the areas of knowledge/weakness of the candidates shall be prepared by the
Officer/professional consultant, together with model answers. The questions may be provided to the candidates
in written format. The Appointments Committee will put the questions to the
candidate. b)
Supplementary questions to elicit further
information relating to the set questions or to address specific issues
pertinent to that candidate’s application may be put. These will be drafted by the appropriate
person prior to the interview if possible. c)
The findings of any stakeholder panel exercises
will be reported back to the Appointments Committee once all candidates have
been assessed and interviewed. The Chief Executive, their nominated
representative and/or any professional advisor will outline their opinion on
the performance of each candidate all feedback has been received. Members of the Committee are required to
evidence their provisional scoring of the candidates in writing during the
interview process. For clarity the
allocation of scores shall not be undertaken until after the advice of the
professional advisor/Chief Executive has been given. d) Members of the Appointments Committee will then allocate a final score for each candidate on their performance on a score of one to ten, one being poor and ten being excellent. This however is one of two considerations that Members must take into account when deciding whether they have a candidate that they can appoint or recommend to Council for appointment. The Members must also take into account the report of the Officer and/or the professional consultant and weigh up all of the information when coming to a decision. For the avoidance of doubt this will occur prior to members finalising their scores for each candidate. |
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Appointments When all of the above process
has been completed: 1
Appointments
of Chief Officers (except Chief Executive) and Heads of Service a)
In the case of Chief Officers and Heads of
Service, the Appointments Committee may then take a vote as to whether they are
in a position to make an appointment or whether the post ought to be
re-advertised. b)
If the post is to be re-advertised, then the
provisions of paragraph 6.6 apply. c)
If the vote to make an appointment is carried,
then the Committee will proceed to appoint if there is one suitable
candidate. If there are two suitable
candidates, the Committee Members will vote for their chosen candidates and the
candidate with the most votes will be appointed. d)
If there are more than two candidates, the
following process is to be followed: i) A vote will be taken; ii) If there is a clear majority in favour of one candidate, that person shall be appointed; iii)
If there is not a clear majority, the name of
the person having the least number of votes will be struck off the list and a
fresh vote shall be taken until an overall majority of votes is given in favour
of one person. e)
The Appointments Committee will then make an
appointment. 2
Appointments
of the Chief Executive a)
In the case of the Chief Executive, the
Appointments Committee may then take a vote as to whether they are in a
position to recommend candidates for interview by Council, or whether the post
ought to be re-advertised. b)
If the post is to be re-advertised, then the
provisions of paragraph 6.6 apply. c)
If the vote to make a recommendation is carried,
then the Committee will proceed to recommend those candidates to Council. d)
The Appointments Committee is delegated the
responsibility to carry out this process and no recommendation shall be
invalidated purely by reason of the fact that there is only one suitable
candidate. (The Regulations only
stipulate that the appointment is confirmed by Council and therefore, there is
not a statutory requirement for the Chief Executive and other Chief Officers to
be interviewed and assessed by Council). e)
The professional consultant will report to
Council on their assessment of the candidates to be interviewed by
Council. Candidate’s application forms
will be available in the Chamber for perusal by Members. f)
Candidates will then make a presentation to and
be interviewed by Council. Questions
will be put to the candidate by the Presiding Member and a list of themes that
are expected to feature in the answers will be provided to Members. g)
Council will then carry out a ballot to
determine whether it is in a position to make an appointment having heard the
interview and considered the report from the Officers. This ballot will be in writing and will
consist of one vote only which is either yes or no. Members can obviously abstain if they wish. h)
If the result of the ballot is that Council
cannot make an appointment, then the provisions of paragraph 6.6 apply. i)
If Council is in a position to make an
appointment, Members will vote for their preferred candidate. This will consist of one vote for the
candidate of the Members choice. Members
can abstain from this vote if they wish. j)
If there are two suitable candidates, Members
will vote for their chosen candidates and the candidate with the most votes
will be appointed. k)
If there are more than two candidates, the
following process is to be followed: i) A vote will be taken; ii) If there is a clear majority in favour of one candidate, that person shall be appointed; iii) If there is not a clear majority, the name of the person having the least number of votes will be struck off the list and a fresh vote shall be taken until an overall majority of votes is given in favour of one person and that person may then be appointed. Note: An overall majority exists when the person with most votes has more
votes than the sum of the votes cast for the remaining persons. |