To agree the recruitment process for the director of public health enabling the recruitment and selection process to commence.

The chief executive presented the report which sought approval for the recruitment process for the director of public health.

The chief executive drew attention to the following points:

i.           the appointment of the post of director of public health arose out of the Health and Social Care Act 2012;

ii.          there were complications associated with integrating public health teams into local government environments but significant progress had been made;

iii.         the current shared arrangement with Shropshire Council would come to an end in October 2017;

iv.        this was an important strategic role and resources had to be applied for the maximum benefit for the residents of Herefordshire;

v.         depending on the circumstances, some form of shared arrangement could be considered;

vi.        the outline timetable for managing the recruitment and selection process was similar to that for the director of children’s wellbeing, although the Department of Health’s guidance specified the composition of the appointments committee; and

vii.       the role required both technical expertise and managerial leadership.

In response to questions and comments from the panel, the chief executive advised:

·                it had been the intention to review the current arrangement at this point and it was considered there was a need for focus on local priorities and outcomes;

·                the vice-chairman’s suggestion that, as this was a senior council post, a further member of the employment panel be included on the sub-committee was welcomed;

·                specific reference could be made in the materials to the poor health of children in the county, including dental health;

·                the director for adults and wellbeing would coordinate the sub-committee and the relevant parties;

·                it was acknowledged that the role was critical to the preventative agenda, with wider implications for achieving efficiencies in other services;

·                an amendment to the draft role profile at Appendix 1 was agreed as follows: ‘Hours: As this is a full-time role, however, applications will be welcome from individuals seeking to work a minimum of three days a week’;

·                a further amendment was agreed to include group leaders in the list of ‘key relationships’; and

·                options for shared roles could be explored with individual candidates by the sub-committee.

The director for adults and wellbeing reported that the role profile would be reviewed with the faculty of public health and reformatted to reflect the council’s standard job description layout.

A panel member drew attention to ‘context’ section of the role profile and suggested that the first bullet should include reference to the environment, as follows ‘Understands the link between economic success, the environment and good health and takes a long term approach to strategic improvement in both’.  The merits of this inclusion were debated and other references to the environment and environmental health in the role profile were noted.  A vote was taken on this amendment and it was lost.

Further to the suggestion that another member of the panel be included on the sub-committee, the vice-chairman proposed that this should be the chairman of the panel (or nominee).

RESOLVED:  That

(a)     recruitment for a substantive director of public health be initiated;

(b)     authority to agree the role profile with the faculty of public health be delegated to the director for adults and wellbeing;

(c)     a sub-committee of the employment panel be established to undertake the functions of recruitment and selection of the director of public health for Herefordshire to consist of one elected cabinet member with the following additional members co-opted:

•     the chairman of the employment panel (or nominee)

•     the chief executive (or nominee)

•     the Public Health England (PHE) regional director (or nominee)

•     an external professional assessor agreed by PHE

•     a senior NHS representative agreed by PHE