Agenda item

The Board had before it a report by Philip Shipman (HR Manager, NHSG) and Lesley Strachan (Workforce Change Project Lead, ACC) whichset out proposals to recruit a replacement for the outgoing Chief Officer of Aberdeen City Health and Social Care Partnership and sought decisions in relation to the job description for the Chief Officer, the search and selection process and the constitution of the formal appointment panel.

The report recommended:-

That the Board –

(a)          Agree the proposed changes to the Chief Officer Job Description;

(b)          Agree to appoint a recruitment partner to undertake an executive search exercise;

(c)          Agree the proposed assessment centre format;

(d)          Note the indicative timeline for the recruitment and selection process;

(e)          Establish a temporary committee of the IJB, to be called an Appointments Panel, constituting the Chair and Vice Chair of the IJB and Chairs of the Audit and Performance Systems and Clinical and Care Governance Committees, with the Chief Executives of ACC and NHS Grampian as principal advisers to the Panel to interview candidates; and

(f)           Approve the delegation of the appointment of the Chief Officer to the Appointments Panel.

The Chair advised that additional detail had been added to the report which had first been reported to the Board on 27 March 2018 and he was seeking Board agreement on the recruitment process for the post of Chief Officer. He also stressed the importance of having as many Board members participate at the assessment day as possible to ensure Board ownership of the appointment.

Thereafter there were questions and comments on (1) the total cost of commissioning an external consultant to conduct an executive search; (2) the maximum cost of developing and running psychometric tests as part of the assessment process; (3) the composition of the Appointment Panel, in which Councillor Cooke highlighted his preference that the Panel include all eight voting members of the Board; (4) the role of the Stakeholder Panel and what steps would be taken to ensure that its assessment would be taken into account at the appointment stage; and (5) the Chair put forward his view that if the Appointment Panel was evenly divided on making an appointment then he would favour deferring any appointment.

The Board resolved:-

(i)         to agree the proposed changes to the Chief Officer Job Description;

(ii)        to agree to appoint a recruitment partner to undertake an executive search exercise;

(iii)      to agree the proposed assessment centre format;

(iv)      to request that further information on protocols for the appointment process be circulated to members, with particular reference made to the role of the Stakeholder Panel;

(v)        to note the indicative timeline for the recruitment and selection process;

(vi)      to establish a temporary committee of the IJB, to be called an Appointments Panel, constituting the Chair and Vice Chair of the IJB and Chairs of the Audit and Performance Systems and Clinical and Care Governance Committees, with the Chief Executives of ACC and NHS Grampian as principal advisers to the Panel to interview candidates; and

(vii)     to approve the delegation of the appointment of the Chief Officer to the Appointments Panel.