The Director of HR, OD and Transformation introduced the report and stated that Councillor Hebb had been in contact prior to the meeting offering feedback that the Chief Executive’s objectives should be linked to the strategic vision and priorities of the Council in future documents. The Director highlighted that all internal and external feedback regarding the Chief Executive’s performance was included in the agenda.

Councillor Hebb felt that performance had been good and noted that Thurrock was a challenging council in terms of its politics and although he did not believe in giving scores such as ‘exceeding performance’, he could not but agree to such a score for Objective 1. Councillor Hebb felt the chief Executive had built a good team around her and this set the Council in good stead for future challenges.

Councillor Gledhill highlighted the setting of a four year medium term financial strategy as a great achievement for the Chief Executive. He felt the Council was engaging better through social media and projects, such as the Open Reach Projects, were being progressed over shorter time frames which was a very positive outcome. For the future he felt the Council needed to deal more robustly with the press to help inform them of all aspects and facts relating to the work of the council and any news stories that may come from the Council’s work.

The Committee noted the internal and external feedback and recognised that there were examples where the Chief Executive involved herself in the grass roots of the organisation, notably on decisions relating to the categorisation of mental health in return to work forms.

A brief discussion was had on the nature of the feedback and the committee was assured they received all comments and these were not edited before they came to committee. Likewise, the areas of work from which feedback was sought was not cherry picked to show the Chief Executive’s performance in a good light but, in fact, was impartial and represented the key areas of her work regardless of the quality of performance.

Councillor Jones registered his thanks to the Chief Executive for her good work and felt going forward he would like to see the continuation of the Comprehensive Spending Review meetings. The expansion of Thurrock Regeneration Limited and an aspirational investment programme.

Councillor Gerrish requested the addition of some issues within the objectives for the 2018-19 year. He felt place shaping was an important aspect to highlight and that the Council should drive improvements for communities even when those improvements might be outside the remit or powers of the council itself. The Chief Executive recognised this community leadership role and agreed for this to be confirmed in the objectives.

Councillor Gerrish also felt good labour relations and a commitment to no strike action was also a worthy addition for next year. Other Members expressed their concern that the power to stop strikes were not entirely within the powers of the Chief Executive. The Council did have Investors in People awards as well as a staff survey due next year. It was therefore felt that good labour relations could be highlighted in the objectives through these initiatives. The Chief Executive highlighted that the Corporate Workforce Group already empowered junior staff to shape their work environment with the Chief Executive’s full backing.

Councillor Hebb in response to the labour relations issue felt it would be good to add wording into the objectives to demonstrate workforce buy-in during change and transformation.

The Committee agreed the appraisal and plan as presented.

The Chief Executive closed the debate by stating that there had been a lot of progress in the Council and that it was a team effort and the good performance of the council had attracted staff to work here. The Chief Executive confirmed she worked for all forty nine councillors and that there was more to do in Thurrock. The focus for the future was to start investing in the borough and making a positive impact on residents’ lives.

RESOLVED: That:

1.         The Year End Appraisal review of the Chief Executive is noted and the final wording and ratings are confirmed.

2.         The Committee agrees the 2018-19 Objectives with those additions discussed above being incorporated appropriately.