Wirral shakes up leadership structure

Having seen five regeneration directors depart within a three-year period, the council will now combine that role with leading on neighbourhoods amid a redrawing of senior roles.

A meeting of Wirral’s senior officer and appointments staffing sub-committee yesterday was asked to rubber-stamp a report into how leadership should be divided up going forward.

As set out in the report Wirral – now under relatively new leadership on both the officer side with chief executive Matthew Bennett, and under Cllr Paula Basnett as Leader since last May – wants to make a number of changes, “to ensure that the council has sufficient, effective capability at a senior level to deliver the necessary change for the organisation”.

The report follows a stinging review into the council’s performance in regeneration, led by ex-Homes England executive director Mike Palin last autumn.

Committee members were asked to approve the removal of two roles, the director of neighbourhoods and director of regeneration & place, to be rolled into a new position, the executive director of place.

Members were asked to consider the formation and grading of four roles

• Executive director of place
• Executive director of people
• Director of capital programmes and assets
• Director of corporate services

These posts are deemed necessary to push forward the required organisational change, given the challenges within the organisation.

The committee was also asked to approve changes to two existing roles, the director of finance role being tweaked and the director of law and corporate services, which will become director of law and governance, remaining as statutory monitoring officer.

There is also ongoing consultation on creating roles covering director of operations place, director of planning and regeneration, and director of housing & communities. These roles would be at the pay scale below the two, soon to be removed, regeneration and neighbourhoods director posts.

A staff consultation process is now required before these and other changes can be made. The process of filling the roles will be carried out through April and May, according to a timetable included in the committee report, concluding at the start of June. Subject to notice periods, candidates could start in the new roles between June and August.

Ahead of the meeting, Bennett said: “We have clear priorities for the authority to achieve and we need a strong leadership structure to make sure we are driven to deliver.

“Managing our finances, keeping a tight grip on the governance of our projects and moving more quickly to change and adapt need to be top of our agenda.”

The cost of the reorganisation programme is estimated at £296,000, which Wirral said will be covered by the savings created by the rationalisation programme.