Agenda and minutes

Mr Paul Carter, Leader of the Council, Ms Katherine Kerswell, Group Managing Director,  Ms Amanda Beer, Director of Personnel and Development and Mr Jeff Hawkins, Project Manager, Transformation have been invited to attend the meeting to answer Members’ questions on this item.

(1) The Chairman explained that an extraordinary meeting of the Committee had been arranged to give Members the opportunity to scrutinise the Cabinet’s decision to endorse the Group Managing Director’s proposals in advance of the formal consultation that was due to commence on 18 October 2010. The consultation was due to finish on 3 December 2010, and the proposals would then be brought before the County Council in December.

(2) Before Ms Kerswell gave a presentation to the Committee, the Leader informed Members that the Conservative Group had made minor amendments to the draft structure proposals since they were presented to Cabinet on 11 October. During the presentation, Ms Kerswell explained the proposed structure of the council, including the five new directorates – Education, Learning and Skills; Families, Health and Social Care (FHSC); Customer and Communities; Enterprise; and Business Strategy and Support.

(3) Some key features of the new structure were outlined, including Customer and Communities which as the ‘Directorate of the front line’ housed the gateway model, including libraries, registrars and web and telephone access; and Business Strategy and Support which consisted of business support to the whole council (Human Resources (HR), Information Technology (IT), Finance and Law services) and Business Strategy, which brought together business intelligence, performance management and business strategy to work in a client / corporate fashion with each of the Corporate Directors and Cabinet Members.

(4) The Committee was informed that the new structure was intended not only to facilitate the required savings but also to build capacity where it would be required and where opportunities to transform services existed.  It reflected the policy direction of the new Government (for example the relationship between education and social services reflected the renewed focus on education), the impact of the impending Comprehensive Spending Review and the ambitions of Bold Steps for Kent.

(5) Ms Kerswell explained the membership of the Corporate Management Team (CMT), which would consist of the five new Corporate Directors as well as the Section 151 Officer and the Corporate Director of Human Resources. The title Group Managing Director would also become Managing Director under the proposals. Members’ attention was drawn to the specific section on Corporate Directors in the appendix report which offered a full explanation of their role. Later in the meeting, Mr King also referred to this section of the report and suggested that the new role of CMT was key, and that in the past Managing Directors had ring-fenced their own budgets because they were not thinking in terms of the whole organisation. Mr King suggested that it would be useful to have a further schematic showing the overarching role of CMT.

(6) Ms Kerswell went on to inform Members of the changes featured in the alternative proposals, which were circulated at the meeting. These changes included: Within FHCS, the Transition Director post would be a Head of Service, rather than at Director level and the job title and functions of the Director of Supporting People had been changed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 71.