To make temporary arrangements to fill the post of Director of Public Health following the resignation of the current post holder.

RESOLVED that under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Schedule 12(A) of the Act (as amended) as indicated below.  The item discloses information in relation to an individual.

The assistant director, people, introduced the report and highlighted the following:

·         The council’s current Director of Public Health (DPH) would be leaving their post by the end of 2020.

·         This panel would be asked to consider options for a replacement in the New Year and at the same time take the opportunity to review what needs of the council in relation to the role, particularly as there had been lessons learnt during the pandemic about how the role should operate within the council.

·         The DPH was a statutory role and the council were required to appoint someone to carry out that function

·         The purpose of the report was to agree the interim arrangements. 

·         It was being proposed that as there was a suitably qualified internal candidate immediately available to act up into the DPH role, that they be appointed on an interim basis.  This would enable the council to commence the search for a permanent DPH.

·         Even though this was an interim arrangement, the process for appointing a DPH is not straightforward as Public Health England (PHE) and the Faculty of Public Health needed assurance of any candidate’s technical competence and that was achieved through an advisory appointments committee (AAC).    This process was being undertaken at the same time as the panel was meeting. Therefore any decision made by employment panel to appoint the individual on an interim basis would be subject to the AAC assessing them as competent.

It was confirmed that there were no other qualified internal candidates within the Council.   The individual’s CV was briefly discussed.   It was noted that should the individual chose to leave during the interim appointment period, then they would be required to give three months’ notice.   The council would then need to look at either sharing a DPH with another council or appointing an external interim. 

The assistant director, people, confirmed that the acting director would be well supported and a mentor would be identified.

It was noted that public health was an important area for the council and there was a need to ensure that there was a good working relationship with health organisations. 

As part of the permanent DPH recruitment process, a benchmarking exercise against councils of a similar size would be undertaken.

RESOLVED that:

Subject to approval from the Advisory Appointments Committee and subject to there being no valid objections received from cabinet members by 9am on Friday 20 November, the individual identified in the report is temporarily appointed for up to 12 months to the role of Director of Public Health.