Agenda item

Purpose: It is crucial that the Council has sufficient capacity at senior level to continue the operations of the organisation and can fulfil statutory responsibilities and respond to challenges that face the Council. The changes to our services, expectations of our customers & partners, and the workings of the Council have all changed significantly in recent years. The increasing level of demand and complexity of need, pace of change, accessibility and availability of current and potential services, and latest inspection frameworks place new and increasing demands from children and families on the Council.

The senior management structure of the Council has been subject to a variety of reviews over recent years. This report’s purpose is to set out the proposed senior management structure across the Council, and focussing on children’s services, with greater resilience in Children’s Services (People Directorate) to respond to the challenges facing Social Care, SEND (Special Educational Needs & Disabilities) and Education. As part of the SMR 2019 report, a decision on the Heads of Service posts in Education and Children’s Services was to be made in the future, as the original report had a single joint Service Director for Children and Young People.

The proposed structure will bring Children’s services in line with the wider council senior directorate structures, and appendix B(i) has the latest Council senior management structure appended.

The Council considered a report (Agenda Item 4). The report explained that it was crucial for the Council to have sufficient capacity at senior level to continue the operations of the organisation, fulfil statutory responsibilities and respond to challenges that faced the Council. The changes to our services, expectations of our customers and partners, and the workings of the Council had all changed significantly in recent years. The increasing level of demand and complexity of need, pace of change, accessibility and availability of current and potential services, and latest inspection frameworks placed new and increasing demands from children and families on the Council.

The senior management structure of the Council had been subject to a variety of reviews over recent years. This report set out the proposed senior management structure across the Council, focussing on the need for greater resilience in Children’s Services (People Directorate) to respond to the challenges facing Social Care, SEND (Special Educational Needs & Disabilities) and Education. As part of the SMR 2019 report, a decision on the Head of Service posts in Education and Children’s Services was to be made in the future, as the original report had a single joint Service Director for Children and Young People.

The proposed structure would bring Children’s Services in line with the wider Council senior directorate structures. The latest Council senior management structure was appended to the report.

MOTION: Proposed by Councillor Heather Codling and seconded by Councillor Martha Vickers:

That Council:

“Approve the creation of two Service Director (SD) posts in the Children’s (People) Directorate; a Service Director Children’s Social Care and a Service Director Education and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

Subject to the above recommendation, approve the latest senior management structure shown at Appendix B(ii).

Note the deletion of the existing Head of Children and Family Services and Head of Education posts.”

Councillor Codling introduced the report. In October 2022, an independent review was conducted into the structure and delivery of education services in West Berkshire. A recommendation from that review was the creation of two Service Director posts, one for Children’s Social Care and the other for Education and SEND. These would replace the interim Heads of Service.

The financial and operational challenges being faced in these areas clearly demonstrated the need for greater strategic capacity to assist the Executive Director. The Service Directors would manage the increasingly complex demands and challenges being faced by the Directorate. These were high cost services with many areas of strategic responsibility and were subject to inspection regimes.

Approval to create these posts would bring the Council’s senior management structure for these services in line with comparative local authorities. The posts would be advertised internally and externally simultaneously. They would be widely advertised via a number of different mechanisms.

The Service Directors and Executive Director would be undertaking a full strategic review of the structure of Children’s Services which would include a zero based budgeting exercise. This would ensure services were fit for purpose and able to meet the needs of children and families.

Councillor Carolyne Culver voiced concerns of creating an overly vertical management structure, concerns she had also expressed at a prior debate on the Resources Directorate. Financial pressures were being felt and these high level posts attracted a high salary. It would have been useful for the report to provide some detail on the next level down of senior management. Scrutiny input would therefore be useful when the Senior Management Review was considered

Councillor Culver concluding by stating that she respected and valued the Council’s senior officers, she did however urge caution at the senior management structure, with an operational as well as strategic focus needing to continue.

Councillor Ross Mackinnon noted that this initiative had begun with the Conservative Administration. He was therefore pleased to see this coming through.

Councillor Martha Vickers fully reinforced the proposals before Council. Caring for and protecting young people, and supporting their carers were rightly among the most important functions held by the Council. It was therefore appropriate to have these posts in place to manage such serious areas of work.

Councillor Codling reiterated that a role for the Service Directors, with the Executive Director, was to review existing structures. She was very pleased to propose this additional leadership for the Directorate.

The Motion was put to the meeting and duly RESOLVED.