Agenda item

The Monitoring Officer introduced the report, which had 2 appendices, the first of which detailed exit arrangements for chief officers and would be dealt with in Part II of the Agenda. The second appendix detailed the appraisal process for the Chief Executive.

As set out in the report, the Chief Executive needed to be appraised to ensure that their performance was formally reviewed on a regular basis. The purpose of the appraisal was to help maximise the Chef Executive’s job performance, and share the objectives agreed to relevant stakeholders.

Questions from Members mainly concerned the role of the independent panel member who would sit in on the appraisal process, why they were needed, what their exact role and background would be, and where accountability to Slough residents would ultimately lie. The Monitoring Officer and Associate Director HR explained that it could be advantageous to have an external person involved in order to be able to hold the Chief Executive to account by giving a sense of reality and wider perspective to proceedings, and keeping up with current best practice. In answer to the question on accountability, the Monitoring Officer explained that the appraisal panel would be chaired and run by Members, who represented all residents of Slough, which was why it would be important to also have opposition Members sitting on the panel. It was envisaged that the appraisal process would be annual, with regular reviews in between, the frequency of which could be decided by the panel.

Resolved – That the Committee reviewed and approved the new appraisal process for the Chief Executive as set out in Appendix 2.