Council advertises for three six-figure executive directors

Brighton and Hove City Council is advertising for three senior executives and offering six-figure salaries.

Chief executive Geoff Raw said that he wanted the very best people for the key roles as he puts together a slimmed down top team.

Two of the vacancies have arisen because of retirement and one because Mr Raw was promoted to the top job last autumn.

The council’s senior leadership will now consist of seven officials instead of eight as part of the spending cuts affecting the local authority. Former assistant chief executive Paula Murray has moved to Croydon Council.

The three jobs are

• Executive director – economy, environment and culture
• Executive director – health and adult social care
• Executive director – neighbourhoods, communities and housing

The first two posts will £116,000 a year and the other job is worth £106,000. This compares with the £125,000 a year offered to the four “super directors” who joined six years ago. Mr Raw was one them.

The adverts, in the MJ (Municipal Journal) and the Guardian, are headlined: “We’re bursting with pride in our city.”

They say: “We’re setting our sights high for Brighton and Hove – building our reputation as a world destination and celebrating the sense of community pride that defines us.

“This means harnessing and enabling the considerable capabilities and passion in our city and within our council to design and deliver new ways of working and new models of service delivery.

“These senior roles within our council’s leadership team will suit ambitious, corporate-minded and collaborative individuals who can ensure service excellence today and look forward to how services need to evolve for tomorrow.

“You’ll also need to show that you can influence, advocate and negotiate on behalf of Brighton and Hove and work with our elected members, our partners and our community to realise our city’s immense potential.

“For each role, you’ll need to assure us that you bring distinct professional expertise in key services.

“In particular, candidates for the health and adult social care role should ideally bring the skillsets of both a director of adult social care and of public health (though strong candidates with experience of only one of these statutory roles are encouraged to apply).”

The health and adult social care post is effectively a merger of the role of Denise D’Souza, the executive director of adult services who is due to retire next month, and Tom Scanlon, who retired earlier this year as director of public health.

Mr Raw said: “We want the best, most talented people we can attract from across the country to support Brighton and Hove through the period ahead.

“I hope we will get some applications from internal candidates and people who live locally who we don’t necessarily know about.”

He pointed to the recent appointment of David Kuenssberg as finance chief. Mr Kuenssberg was working in the civil service in London while living in Hove.

Mr Raw said that each directorate was bigger in its own right than most businesses in the area – with the economy, environment and culture postholder, for example, being responsible for a £290 million budget. The other two jobs each involved budget in excess of £100 million.

The deadline for applicants is Monday 25 July, with shortlists due to be finalised next month and interviews held in September.

He said that he hoped that those appointed would be in post by the end of the year.

• Former chief executive Penny Thompson – a social worker by background – now chairs the Birmingham Safeguarding Children Board.