Issue - meetings

Job Sharing on the Executive

To submit a report by the Director of Function (Council Business)/Monitoring Officer.

Additional documents:

Webcast for Job Sharing on the Executive

Decision:

It was resolved to recommend to the Full Council that constitutional changes are made to:

· Allow for one or more Members to job share as Leader, Deputy Leader and as Portfolio Holders on the Executive.

· Allow the maximum number of Members on the Executive to be amended to reflect the statutory maximum numbers where Executive members share roles, and

· Detail the arrangements in relation to quorum and voting when Executive members are job-sharing –

a) In accordance with the wording in Appendix 1 to the report

b) Any further consequential amendments that are required as a result of this decision.

· Should any changes be made by way of job-share arrangements and/or the number of individuals in receipt of a senior salary change due to job-share arrangements, the Council will inform the Independent Remuneration Panel of Wales (IRPW) and promptly publicise the same.

Minutes:

The report of the Director of Function (Council Business)/Monitoring Officer setting out statutory changes to Executive arrangements as a result of the Local Government and Wales Act 2021 was presented for the Executive’s consideration. The report proposed that the Council’s Constitution be amended to reflect and provide for the statutory changes included in the 2021 Act.

Councillor Robin Williams, Portfolio Member for Finance, Corporate Business and Customer Experience summarised the legislative background saying that the 2021 Act includes a requirement that local authorities must include in their Executive arrangements a provision enabling two or more councillors to share office on the Executive. Section 58 of the Act also details that this provision must include job-sharing in the office of deputy leader and leader. Whilst the Council’s Constitution includes provision for the Leader to share office and for two or more councillors to share office as Executive Members there is no express provision for the Deputy Leader role to be shared. Neither does the Constitution provide for how issues of quorum or voting will be affected where there is an arrangement for an office to be shared nor does it detail how job-sharing arrangements will affect the overall number of members on the Executive. It is proposed that the Constitution be amended to reflect and provide for the statutory changes in the 2021 Act as detailed in section 1.2 of the report and further in Appendix 1 together with any consequential constitutional changes that arise.

The Solicitor (Corporate Governance) confirmed that the changes are statutory and not a matter of local choice and that it is therefore necessary that the Council’s Constitution be amended to reflect the provisions of the Act with regard to job sharing on the Executive. The report sets out and seeks the Executive’s agreement to recommend to Full Council the constitutional changes that need to be made.