Graham Goodwin responds to the Audit Commission’s report of local authority CX appointments

21st September 2008

Graham Goodwin compares the findings of a recent Audit Commission report looking at the appointment of Chief Executives within local authorities, to our own latest Chief Executive appointments.

The finding in the recent Audit Commission report, Tough at the Top? regarding the increased prevalence of local authorities recruiting existing Chief Executives from each other, rather than appointing internally, makes interesting reading. However, the recent experience of GatenbySanderson in recruiting Chief Executives to seven local authorities so far in 2008 is somewhat different. Of the seven councils, all of which were ‘top tier' authorities, only two appointed serving Chief Executives.  Of the remainder, two appointed internal candidates and three appointed Directors from other local authorities. 

Whilst I see the need for Members to be open minded about where good talent lies, I believe our experience suggests that there is excellent talent within local authorities. However, a good chief executive moving between authorities cannot be seen as a bad thing.  The improvement agenda has encouraged people to move and, if this means that best practice is spread across local authorities, driven by the person in charge, then that has to be a positive outcome.

Nonetheless, I do agree with the report that in general fewer internal candidates are putting themselves forward for Chief Executive jobs. One very good reason why not, which the report fails to mention, is that increasingly the role is more about managing strategic partnerships and political relationships and less about service delivery, where there is more direct control. While some prefer the new emphasis, others will choose to stay in a directorate role, thereby diminishing the available pool. Salary alone is not going to persuade them to apply for a position.

Of course, I'm sure local authorities would much prefer to "grow their own", by recruiting the very best talent and nurturing it through the management levels until they are ready to step into the most senior position. However, when the money gets tight, development budgets are very often the first to go. It's a vicious circle.

Talent can always be found within an organisation but uncovering it is the key. Looking beyond the obvious and making a financial and cultural commitment to longer term development will unearth future leaders. Once in place, newly appointed Chief Executives then need support and mentoring to perform confidently from day one.

 Part of our role, as recruitment consultants, is to identify and test abilities, objectively, so that Members and other decision makers are confident to appoint.  As our statistics above show, 71% of our final panels this year were confident to appoint non serving Chief Executives.