Agenda item

            The Committee was reminded that, at its meeting on 4th September, it had agreed that a report be submitted on the proposed recruitment process for the post of Director of Property and Projects following work on the job description and grading and clarification on the Review of Public Administration Vacancy Control Procedure.  The Committee had been advised subsequently, at its meeting on 9th October, that the Vacancy Control Procedure had come into effect on 1st October in respect of Chief Executives, Directors, Heads of Service, Personal Assistants and Members’ Services posts.  This meant that the Council must consider trawling any vacancies it had for such posts to the appropriate “at risk” pool to mitigate against possible redundancies within the Sector.

            The “at risk” pools contained in the procedure were as follows:

·         within the individual Council;

·         within the amalgamated Council cluster;

·         within all 26 Councils; and

·         across all the sectors in the Review of Public Administration – Affected Group.

            Each vacancy had to be looked at individually in the circumstances of the case but the practical implications of implementing the Scheme in Belfast City Council differed to the other Local Authorities since the Council did not have the same degree of risk as amalgamated Council clusters.  Also, the final definition of “at risk” was still the subject of ongoing discussion with the Local Government Joint Reform Forum.  Consequently, it had been agreed that advice should be sought from the Local Government Staff Commission in relation to the filling of Director posts within the Council.

            The Commission’s view was that in its broadest definition Belfast City Council was listed as one of the Review of Public Administration Affected Bodies and, as such, posts could be considered to be potentially at risk.  A vacancy therefore for a Director’s post could be trawled within the Council, this being the first step in the process.  Alternatively, should the Council consider the risk to its employees to be sufficiently minimal to move to the next pool, then it was the Commission’s view that the post should be trawled to the 26 Local Authorities.  The Commission had advised that it considered each option to be acceptable in terms of implementing the agreed Vacancy Control Procedure and in terms of equality considerations it represented a “proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim”, that is, making every possible effort to avoid redundancies as accepted and endorsed by the Northern Ireland Executive.  It was pointed out that should no suitable candidate be appointed from the agreed trawl option then consideration must then be given to moving to the next pool before advertising externally.

            After discussion, the Committee agreed that the:

(i)   vacancy be trawled within the Council on 26th October for two weeks, with a closing date of 6th November;

(ii)  applicants be short-listed on 11th November;

(iii)short-listed candidates be invited to attend an assessment centre on 13th November;

(iv)panel interviews be held on 16th November;

(v)  selection panel comprise the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman (or their nominees) and another Member of the Committee, together with the Chief Executive and another Chief Officer; and

(vi)Chief Executive, in the interests of making an early appointment, be authorised, in consultation with the selection panel, to offer the post to the recommended candidate with the outcome being reported to the Committee for notation only.

            The Committee noted that the entire panel was required to be representative of gender and community background and that an observer from the Local Government Staff Commission and a professional assessor would be in attendance for the recruitment process but would have no voting rights.