Agenda item

Report of the City of York Council Head of Human Resources

Considered –

A report presented by Helen Whiting, Head of Human Resources at the City of York Council regarding a proposed staffing structure for the Combined Authority (CA).

The Annex to the report was exempt.  The committee had resolved at minute number 4 that the public should be excluded during discussion of the Annex.  

Helen Whiting introduced the report and gave an overview of the key points as summarised below:

·       The report presented a staffing structure from November 2023 for the CA, and additional posts required from May 2024 following the election of the Mayor.  This was pending the Order which would have implications for the PFCC’s statutory officer status

·       The report set out the interim appointment of a Director of Transition, who would oversee the CA project in the lead up to vesting day and the appointment of the Mayor

·       It was proposed that the terms and conditions of employment for CA staff would mirror NYC’s current terms and conditions

·       The staff of the LEP would transfer into the CA on its creation and the Chief Executive would be appointed following the election of the Mayor

In response to a question on how the Chief Executive would be appointed it was confirmed that as a statutory post the appointment would be made by a joint committee of the CA and the constituent authorities and would not rest with the Mayor.

This was the final report to be considered at the meeting and following the presentation of the report in open session the committee went into closed session for discussion of the Annex at 3.43 pm.

Helen Whiting then gave an overview of the exempt Annex which provided further information on process and costs and detailed two options for the staffing structure.  

The voting members of the committee discussed the proposals and indicated their unanimous support for the recommendations in the report.

Resolved –

1)    That Option 2 of the recommended staffing proposal as detailed in the confidential annex be approved, subject to any changes required through the drafting of the Order and any legislation

2)    A permanent Chief Executive be appointed after the election of the Mayor in May 2024 as detailed in the confidential annex

3)    The appointments and recruitment of the Director of Resources and the Head of Legal Services from September 2023 as detailed in the confidential annex, noting that any recruitment prior to MCA creation follows NYC’s constitution and no recruitment will commence until all the legal requirements in relation to the establishment of the CA have been confirmed by Government and the two local authorities and confirmation of the status of the PFCC Statutory Officers.

4)    North Yorkshire Resourcing be engaged to carry out the external recruitment exercises, and support the Appointments Sub-Committee as detailed in the confidential annex

5)    the interim appointment of Director of Transition from 1^st August be approved as detailed in the confidential annex

6)    the interim appointment arrangements for the roles of Section 73 Officer and Monitoring Officer as detailed in the confidential annex be approved and noted

7)    that terms and conditions for the MCA, mirror and are adopted on the basis of NYC given that LEP staff are already assigned NYC terms and conditions as detailed in the confidential annex

8)    that HR / employment policies and procedures, including job evaluation, mirror NYC as detailed in the confidential annex