Decision Maker: Executive, Council
Decision status: Recommmend Forward to Council
Is Key decision?: No
Is subject to call in?: Yes
To review resourcing in regard to the
Executive Support function for both councils in respect of a
potential growth bid.
Decision:
1. Approved the creation of 1.5 full time equivalent new Personal Assistant posts to support the recent growth of three new Joint Assistant Directors, subject to budget approval by Council;
2. Subject to approval of the creation of two further new Joint Assistant Directors, approved the creation of 1 full time equivalent further Personal Assistant post to support those posts, subject to budget approval by Council;
3. Subject to consultation with affected staff and Unions, designate all existing and new posts within the Executive Support Team as Joint Posts from 1 April 2025;
4. Approved honorarium payments from 2021 (or the start of employment, whichever is the later) to existing Officers in the Executive Support Team in accordance with paragraph 11.3 of this report, at a cost of £51,000 to Guildford Borough Council;
5. Recommended to Council that the Executive Support function be a joint function with Waverley Borough Council and that the Council agrees to delegate the exercise of this function to Waverley Borough Council on behalf of Guildford Borough Council;
6. Recommended to Council that the Strategic Director of Legal and Democratic Services be given delegated authority, in consultation with the Joint Chairs of the Joint Governance Committee, to include the shared Executive Support service in any Inter-Authority Agreement.
Reason(s):
1. To ensure that the Leaders of both Councils, the Corporate Leadership Board and the Joint Leadership Team are adequately supported by sufficient resources within the Executive Support Team, to enable them to operate in an efficient and cost-effective way.
2. To ensure that Executive Support Team officers, who provide a service to both Councils by supporting and working closely with Joint Officers, are formally recognised as having Joint Posts.
3. To ensure that such Joint Posts are dealt with in a consistent manner and in accordance with existing HR policies for such posts and the inter authority agreement between the two Councils for the sharing of staff.
4. Recognising that when officers in the Executive Support Team commenced their roles, they were not treated in accordance with the current HR policy for Joint Posts as it did not exist at the relevant time, and remedying this lack of consistency, parity and fairness by way of payment of honorariums will put such officers into the position they would have been in had the policy been in place at the time.
5. To seek Council’s formal approval of the creation of a joint service and to agree the provision of the function to Guildford Borough Council by Waverley Borough Council.
Other options considered and rejected by the Committee:
· Option 1 – Do nothing.
· Option 2 – Establish two separate Executive Support Teams
Details of any conflict of interest declared by the Leader or lead councillors and any dispensation granted:
None.
Report author: Susan Sale
Publication date: 24/01/2025
Date of decision: 23/01/2025
Decided at meeting: 23/01/2025 - Executive
Effective from: 25/01/2025
Accompanying Documents: