Recruitment at Director level

The request was successful.

John H Hutchinson

Dear Wirral Borough Council,
I shall be grateful if you will direct me to the rules followed by Council for the recruitment of staff at Director level.

Yours faithfully,

John H Hutchinson

InfoMgr, FinDMT, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Afternoon,

Thank you for your recent request for information below.

All appointments for Directors are Member appointments. This means that
Members decide on what process should be used for recruitment. It may be
the Council's internal recruitment processes that are used or it may
include the use of a recruitment agency, if this is deemed to be the most
appropriate method.

Kind Regards

Jane Corrin

Information Manager

Wirral Council

This information supplied to you is copyrighted to Wirral Council and
continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
You are free to use it for your own purposes, including any non commercial
research you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other
reuse, for example commercial publication, would require our specific
permission, may involve licensing and the application of a charge.

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John H Hutchinson

Dear InfoMgr, FinDMT,
thank you for your very quick response.

At what point are Members invited to decide the method of recruitment?

My original request was for a direction to Council's Rules. When may I expect this, please?

Yours sincerely,

John H Hutchinson

InfoMgr, FinDMT, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

1 Attachment

Good Morning,

Thank you for your recent request for information below.

There is a fair selection and recruitment policy that the Council operates
and this is detailed below, in Blue Text.

With regard to recruitment of Directors, the Executive recruitment process
at Wirral Council consists of two interview panels. One panel consisting
of Elected Members and one being an Officer Panel, which would normally
consist of the Chief Executive, a Chief Officer from the relevant
Department, a Senior Official from one of our LSP's (e.g. Deputy Chief
Fire Officer from Merseyside Fire & Rescue and Chief Officers from the
local PCT and NHS boards) and at least one other internal senior officer.

Where service users are included, a further panel consisting of the
interested parties would also be used.

Elected Members get to choose the dates of the interviews and the question
sets used at interview together with suitable presentation topics. At each
stage of the process; long listing, short listing and final panel
interview, Members are given a briefing document on each candidate prior
to attending a joint meeting with the Officer Panel and GatenbySanderson
(GS). GS were chosen as the external recruitment agency following an
open, competitive tender process conducted in 2008. The contract is for
three years (ends May 2011) and is not solely exclusive to them (we may
choose to use other agencies as we see fit).

These meetings would then agree the candidate sift for each process based
on the information provided by the Officer Panel and GS. The final stage
of the process is the final panel interview with Members who make the
ultimate decision to appoint.

I hope you find this information of use.

Kind Regards

Jane Corrin

Information Manager

Wirral Council

This information supplied to you is copyrighted to Wirral Council and
continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988. You are free to use it for your own purposes, including any non
Commercial research you are doing and for the purposes of news
reporting. Any other reuse, for example commercial publication, would
require our specific permission, may involve licensing and the application
of a charge.

Recruitment & Selection Policy

Wirral's recruitment and selection policy reflects the visions and values
of the council as a whole, particularly the commitment to equal access for
all.

The policy aims to:

[1]bullet promote a planned, objective approach to staff recruitment.
[2]bullet facilitate the recruitment of high calibre staff who will
enhance the services provided by the Authority.
[3]bullet ensure that recruitment practice is applied consistently
throughout the Authority.

The policy particularly highlights the review of vacancies as they occur.
The Authority recognises that this process is the foundation for achieving
strategic objectives both within departments and the organisation as a
whole.

It has been recognised that vacancies create the opportunity to assess
whether structures are working effectively, and whether business goals can
be achieved.

By reviewing vacancies, it is hoped that the recruitment process can play
a fundamental role in improving the effectiveness of the Authority.

Objective

The objective of this policy is to facilitate the recruitment of high
calibre staff into posts by fair and consistent means.

Principles

This policy is based on the following principles:

[4]bullet Achieving best practice.
[5]bullet Mainstreaming equalities into every aspect of the process.
[6]bullet Transparent and consistent practice across the Authority.

Scope

This policy applies to all staff recruitment and selection processes.

Good Management

This policy aims to promote a planned, objective approach to staff
recruitment.

The policy is designed to help staff involved in the recruitment process
to appoint the most suitable applicant for the job, and remove any
unnecessary barriers that have previously deterred certain groups.

The policy is written to help job applicants to receive fair and
professional conduct during the recruitment process. Job applicants are
also our customers. The experience of applying for a job whether
successful or not, leaves a lasting impression of a service or of the
Authority as a whole.

Agreement

All former officer and former manual vacancies graded SCP21 and below (or
equivalent), will be advertised internally on the Human Resources
Bulletin. All posts above SCP21 (or equivalent) will be advertised
externally.

Permanent council employees, female employees who have left the Authority
for maternity reasons within the last five years (providing no permanent
full-time paid employment has intervened), YT placements with at least six
months service in the Council and temporary staff with at least 1 years
service are eligible to apply for posts advertised internally. In addition
temporary staff with six months service may apply for any posts up to and
including Scale 2 or equivalent.

If no appointment is made from the internal applicants, a request should
be made to Human Resources to make the necessary arrangements to advertise
the vacancy publicly.

NB in certain circumstances eg re-structuring, savings exercises, etc this
policy may be changed by Human Resources in agreement with the relevant
trade unions.

The re-employment of Retired & Redundant persons

It was agreed at Employment & Appointments Committee on 29 June 2006 that
employees who retire, under the terms of the Authority's Early Voluntary
Retirement (EVR) scheme or who leave with a voluntary severance (VS)
package, will not be re-appointed to any position with the Authority or
engaged on an agency or consultancy basis.

However, in exceptional circumstances, with the prior agreement of the
Head of Human Resources, an appointment can be made to a "specialist"
post, where the only suitable candidate is a former employee who retired
under the terms of the EVR scheme or who left with a VS package.
Engagements on an agency or consultancy basis can also be made in such
exceptional circumstances, subject to the prior agreement of the Head of
Human Resources.

If a person is appointed, and is in receipt of a Local Government Pension
Scheme pension, the pension may be subject to reduction or suspension
during the period of re-employment. Further details can be found in the
retirement guide contained in the pre-retirement pack (see '[7]Advice to
Retiring Employees'). Please note: anyone in receipt of a pension who is
considering taking up re-employment must inform both the Authority and the
Pension Provider.

Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006

The Authority is required to consider applicants for employment who are
between the ages of 65 and 68 unless the applicant would attain the age of
68 with a period of 6 months from the date of their application.

This policy must be used at each stage of the recruitment process - it cannot
be ignored

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John H Hutchinson

Dear InfoMgr, FinDMT,

thank you for your full and excellent but belated reply.

Yours sincerely,

John H Hutchinson