Officer Employment Procedure Rules

1. Recruitment and appointment

(a) Declarations

i) The Council will draw up a statement requiring any candidate for appointment as an officer to state in writing whether they are the parent, grandparent, partner, child, stepchild, adopted child, grandchild, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew or niece of an existing Councillor or officer of the Council; or of the partner of such persons.

ii) No candidate so related to a Councillor or an officer will be appointed without the authority of the relevant chief officer or an officer nominated by him/her.

(b) Seeking support for appointment.

i) Subject to paragraph (iii), the Council will disqualify any applicant who directly or indirectly seeks the support of any Councillor for any appointment with the Council. The content of this paragraph will be included in any recruitment information.

ii) Subject to paragraph (iii), no Councillor will seek support for any person for any appointment with the Council.

iii) Nothing in paragraphs (i) and (ii) above will preclude a Councillor from giving a written reference for a candidate for submission with an application for appointment.

2. Recruitment of head of paid service and chief officers

Where the Council proposes to appoint a chief officer and it is not proposed that the appointment be made exclusively from among their existing officers, the Council will:

(a) draw up a statement specifying:

i) the duties of the officer concerned; and

ii) any qualifications or qualities to be sought in the person to be appointed;

(b) make arrangements for the post to be advertised in such a way as is likely to bring it to the attention of persons who are qualified to apply for it; and

(c) make arrangements for a copy of the statement mentioned in paragraph (1) to be sent to any person on request.

3. Appointments, Disciplinary Action and Dismissals

(a) The procedures to be adopted by the Council in relation to the appointment, disciplinary action and dismissal of employees are set out in the mandatory standing orders attached to these Procedure Rules.

(b) The effect of the standing order is as follows:

(i) All appointments, disciplinary action and dismissals of staff below Deputy Chief Officer level must be conducted at officer level without any participation by Members. The only permitted involvement of Members will be in an Appeals Panel. The definition of Deputy Chief Officer is broadly the same as Heads of Service.

(ii) For Deputy Chief Officers and above, Members can be involved in appointments, disciplinary action and dismissals. This can be through a Staffing Committee, which must include at least one Member of the Cabinet but, where the decision relates to the appointment or dismissal of the Head of Paid Service (Council Manager), the final decision must be taken by full Council.

(iii) For the appointment or dismissal of Deputy Chief Officers and above, the Cabinet is given a right of objection. The person or body taking the decision must tell the Cabinet who they propose to appoint or dismiss, together with supporting information, and the Leader can then object to the proposed decision on behalf of the Cabinet. The Regulations are far from clear on the point, but the decision-taker must then take any such objection into account in coming to a final decision, but the Cabinet does not have a veto.

(iv) In respect of the Head of Paid Service (Council Manager), Chief Finance Officer (Head of Finance) and Assistant Council Manager/Monitoring Officer, if the Council wishes to investigate any allegations of serious misconduct or incompetence, which might lead to dismissal, the Council has to appoint an Independent Person, agreed with the officer concerned or nominated by the Secretary of State in default of agreement, and that Independent Person must then be involved in the disciplinary process, effectively as a co-opted member of the Disciplinary Committee. At the end of any disciplinary hearing, the Independent Person must report on what he/she considers is the appropriate sanction to be applied (dismissal, verbal or written warning, demotion, etc.) and the Council can then only apply such sanction as has been approved by the Independent Person. Note that this procedure does not apply in the case of proposed redundancy or ill-health dismissals.

(v) The Council voluntarily extends the protection afforded by Regulation to the Monitoring Officer, as referred to in (iv) above, to the Deputy Monitoring Officer and to any person to whom the Monitoring Officer delegates, or appoints to, local investigatory and Monitoring Officer responsibilities in respect of proceedings for serious misconduct or incompetence, which might lead to dismissal, arising out of the conduct of these responsibilities.

Standing Orders Relating To Staff

1. In this Part -

"the 1989 Act" means the Local Government and Housing Act 1989;

"the 2000 Act" means the Local Government Act 2000;

"disciplinary action" has the same meaning as in the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) Regulations 2001;

"executive" and "executive leader" have the same meaning as in Part II of the 2000 Act;

"member of staff" means a person appointed to or holding a paid office or employment under the authority; and

"proper officer" means an officer appointed by the authority for the purposes of the provisions in this Part.

2. Subject to paragraphs 3 and 7, the function of appointment and dismissal of, and taking disciplinary action against, a member of staff of the authority must be discharged, on behalf of the authority, by the officer designated under section 4(1) of the 1989 Act (designation and reports of head of paid service) as the head of the authority's paid service or by an officer nominated by him.

3. Paragraph 2 shall not apply to the appointment or dismissal of, or disciplinary action against -

(a) the officer designated as the head of the authority's paid service;

(b) a statutory chief officer within the meaning of section 2(6) of the 1989 Act (politically restricted posts);

(c) a non-statutory chief officer within the meaning of section 2(7) of the 1989 Act;

(d) a deputy chief officer within the meaning of section 2(8) of the 1989 Act; or

(e) a person appointed in pursuance of section 9 of the 1989 Act (assistants for political groups).

4. (1) Where a committee, sub-committee or officer is discharging, on behalf of the authority, the function of the appointment or dismissal of an officer designated as the head of the authority's paid service, the authority must approve that appointment before an offer of appointment is made to him or, as the case may be, must approve that dismissal before notice of dismissal is given to him.

(2) Where a committee or a sub-committee of the authority is discharging, on behalf of the authority, the function of the appointment or dismissal of any officer referred to in sub-paragraph (a), (b), (c) or (d) of paragraph 3, at least one member of the executive must be a member of that committee or sub-committee.

5. (1) In this paragraph, "appointor" means, in relation to the appointment of a person as an officer of the authority, the authority or, where a committee, sub-committee or officer is discharging the function of appointment on behalf of the authority, that committee, sub-committee or officer, as the case may be.

(2) An offer of an appointment as an officer referred to in sub-paragraph (a), (b), (c) or (d) of paragraph 3 must not be made by the appointor until -

(a) the appointor has notified the proper officer of the name of the person to whom the appointor wishes to make the offer and any other particulars which the appointor considers are relevant to the appointment;

(b) the proper officer has notified every member of the executive of the authority of -

(i) the name of the person to whom the appointor wishes to make the offer;

(ii) any other particulars relevant to the appointment which the appointor has notified to the proper officer; and

(iii) the period within which any objection to the making of the offer is to be made by the executive leader on behalf of the executive to the proper officer; and

(c) either -

(i) the executive leader has, within the period specified in the notice under sub-paragraph (b)(iii), notified the appointor that neither he nor any other member of the executive has any objection to the making of the offer;

(ii) the proper officer has notified the appointor that no objection was received by him within that period from the executive leader; or

(iii) the appointor is satisfied that any objection received from the executive leader within that period is not material or is not well-founded.

6. (1) In this paragraph, "dismissor" means, in relation to the dismissal of an officer of the authority, the authority or, where a committee, sub-committee or another officer is discharging the function of dismissal on behalf of the authority, that committee, sub-committee or other officer, as the case may be.

(2) Notice of the dismissal of an officer referred to in sub-paragraph (a), (b), (c) or (d) of paragraph 3 must not be given by the dismissor until -

(a) the dismissor has notified the proper officer of the name of the person who the dismissor wishes to dismiss and any other particulars which the dismissor considers are relevant to the dismissal;

(b) the proper officer has notified every member of the executive of the authority of -

(i) the name of the person who the dismissor wishes to dismiss;

(ii) any other particulars relevant to the dismissal which the dismissor has notified to the proper officer; and

(iii) the period within which any objection to the dismissal is to be made by the executive leader on behalf of the executive to the proper officer; and

(c) either -

(i) the executive leader has, within the period specified in the notice under sub-paragraph (b)(iii), notified the dismissor that neither he nor any other member of the executive has any objection to the dismissal;

(ii) the proper officer has notified the dismissor that no objection was received by him within that period from the executive leader; or

(iii) the dismissor is satisfied that any objection received from the executive leader within that period is not material or is not well-founded.

7. Nothing in paragraph 2 shall prevent a person from serving as a member of any committee or sub-committee established by the authority to consider an appeal by -

(a) another person against any decision relating to the appointment of that other person as a member of staff of the authority; or

(b) a member of staff of the authority against any decision relating to the dismissal of, or taking disciplinary action against, that member of staff.

PART II

PROVISIONS TO BE INCORPORATED IN STANDING

ORDERS IN RESPECT OF DISCIPLINARY ACTION

 

1. In paragraph 2, "chief finance officer", "council manager", "disciplinary action", "head of the authority's paid service" and "monitoring officer", have the same meaning as in regulation 2 of the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) Regulations 2001 and "designated independent person" has the same meaning as in regulation 7 of those Regulations.

2. No disciplinary action in respect of the head of the authority's paid service (unless he is also a council manager of the authority), its monitoring officer or its chief finance officer, except action described in paragraph 3, may be taken by the authority, or by a committee, a sub-committee, a joint committee on which the authority is represented or any other person acting on behalf of the authority, other than in accordance with a recommendation in a report made by a designated independent person under regulation 7 of the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) Regulations 2001 (investigation of alleged misconduct).

3. The action mentioned in paragraph 2 is suspension of the officer for the purpose of investigating the alleged misconduct occasioning the action; and any such suspension must be on full pay and terminate no later than the expiry of two months beginning on the day on which the suspension takes effect.