Swindon Borough Council has today confirmed the appointments to its new senior management structure, which will reduce senior management costs.
This follows a meeting last week of the council’s cross-party appointments sub-committee, which confirmed the new ‘Tier 1’ director roles.
The decision means that the council will reduce the number of directors paid on the previous group director payscale from four to three and leaves it on target to make its projected £1.2m savings across its three top management tiers.
The new senior management board at the council will be made up of five directors in total. They are:
- John Gilbert – board director commissioning
- Bernie Brannan – board director service delivery
- Hitesh Patel – board director transformation & strategic projects
- Matt Gott – board director localities
- Stuart McKellar – board director finance, revenues & benefits and property
Council leader Roderick Bluh, pictured, said: “There was a very strong field of candidates for these vital roles. The interview process was rigorous, and the discussions often centred on the importance of our new way of operating, which is to devolve more decision making down to seven local areas, or localities.
“The interview panel felt that there should be more recognition of this at board level. As a result, we’ve made some changes to the roles that we originally thought would be necessary at Tier 1 level, and created a board director of localities role, which will take on responsibility for ensuring local communities really are at the heart of our decision making process and the way we work.”
Cllr Jim Grant, leader of the Labour Group on Swindon Borough Council, said: “I am confident that these changes to the senior management structure mean that the right leadership team is now in place for the significant challenges the council will face in the future.”
Prior to the appointment process Celia Carrington, deputy chief executive and group director of environment, regeneration and community had informed the panel that, for personal reasons, she would like to reduce her hours and take on a part-time role.
After careful consideration the panel did not believe that this arrangement would be suitable for a board director role. Celia will be staying with the council until at least next April to support the transition to the new structure and way of working.
