Agenda and draft minutes

To consider the minutes of the previous meeting of the Staffing Committee held on 10 June 2024 and approve them as a true and correct record of the proceedings and to be signed by the Chair.

Resolved:-

That the minutes of the meeting held on 10 June 2024 be approved as a true and correct record of the proceedings.

To receive declarations of interest from Members in respect of items listed on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

To consider whether the press and public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of any part of the agenda.

The Chair advised that there were no items of business on the agenda that would require the exclusion of the press and public from the meeting.

To consider the report from the Strategic Director for Children and Young People’s Services.

Consideration was given to the report which detailed the proposed amendment to the Assistant Director for Early Help and Business Support post in Children and Young People’s Services. The role would be amended to an Assistant Director Family Help role with a resultant change in salary level.

At present, there was an Assistant Director for Early Help and Business Support based within the Children and Young People’s Services’ Directorate. The proposal was to amend that role to take on additional responsibilities in relation to new expectations around Early Help, including a change of job title and required social work qualification. The proposed changes had arisen further to a review of new statutory expectations outlined in Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 and the Government policy document, Stable Homes Built on Love and enabled the fulfilment of Council plans set out in the Early Help Strategy: Family Help in Rotherham 2024-2029.

The proposal was to reshape the Social Care and Early Help directorates, to enable a more seamless experience for children and families across the border into statutory child in need intervention, when this was required, to ensure children’s needs were met effectively. There was also the intention to enhance the delivery of services at a community level to include statutory partners, the faith, community and voluntary sector and communities themselves. The new role would oversee all of these changes.

As part of the change, the Assistant Director of Social Care Job Profile would also need to be slightly amended, to reflect the balance of responsibilities and ensure sufficient focus on the provider fostering and residential portfolio. Those changes were minor, and HR had already established that it would not necessitate any salary change.

The salary for the Assistant Director, Family Help was proposed as £108,258. This aligned with the responsibility and salary of the Assistant Director, Children’s Social Care. The estimated staffing cost for the new Assistant Director post for Family Help was £108,258 (£139,038 inclusive of on-costs). This represented an increase of £13,252 compared to the current budgeted staffing cost for the AD Early Help post. However, this would be managed within the overall staffing budget and no further funding was required.

The Committee noted the importance of the post and discussed whether there would be any issues with recruitment.

Resolved:

That Staffing Committee approve the creation of an amended Assistant Director post in Children and Young People’s Service and the associated salary level, subject to agreement by Council, and to refer the process to the Senior Appointments Panel to make the appointment.

To determine any item which the Chair is of the opinion should be considered as a matter of urgency.

The Chair reported that there were no urgent items of business requiring the Committee’s consideration.