Decision details

Decision:

1.        To approve the creation of a permanent new role of Joint Assistant Director of People effective from 1 April 2025, subject to budget approval by full Council.

2.        To delegate authority to the Strategic Director for Democracy, Law and People to make any changes to the role, following the outcome of consultation with staff and the Union.

3.        To agree that the post of Joint Assistant Director of People will be a shared post with Waverley Borough Council which will be governed by the existing principles of the Inter-Authority Agreement.

Reasons:

1.     In December 2024, the Head of Paid Service made a change to the Senior Officer structure by moving the responsibility of the Council’s HR & OD function from Strategy & Corporate Services to the Legal & Democratic Services Directorate. The Directorate will become known as the Democracy, Law & People Directorate from 6 January 2025 and the Strategic Director will be known as the Strategic Director for Democracy, Law & People. There will be a gap in the HR & OD structure between Guildford’s Lead Human Resources Specialist and the Strategic Director and this is unmanageable; the support service is critical to service delivery of all functions across the Council and greater capacity in the team is required. Further, specialist knowledge is required at a more senior level; there is a need for an HR professional at Assistant Director level, to be a member of the Joint Leadership Team (JLT).

2.     To respond to the concerns raised by Statutory Officers in relation to the robustness of governance arrangements for both Waverley Borough Council and Guildford Borough Council which has resulted in the need for an improvement plan, and continuous improvement thereafter to ensure good governance, and compliance with the Council’s statutory duties relating to best value.

3.     To undertake a comprehensive review of the service delivery, systems, processes and procedures in the HR & OD function and to develop and implement a service improvement plan.

4.     To deliver the capacity and capability needed to embed success in ongoing collaboration efforts and enhance the pace of future collaboration, transition to shared services and realisation of cashable and non-cashable savings.

5.     To lead the restructure of the HR & OD service which will reduce dependency on expensive interim staff, drive alignment of the systems, policies and procedures of the two functions and implement succession planning and career development opportunities and provide resilience for the two functions.

Other options considered and rejected by the Executive:

Options 1 (Do nothing) and 2 (Create a post for each council).

Details of any conflict of interest declared by the Leader or lead councillors and any dispensation granted:

None.