Agenda item

Report of the Town Clerk.

The Committee considered a report of the Town Clerk setting out a proposed role specification to be used when advertising of vacancies on the Board to prospective Board Members.

In respect of the wording used in the role specification, the following points were made:

·      In paragraph 2, the reference to classical music would need to be amended to incorporate contemporary music.

·      In paragraph 3, the phrasing of the move away from City Corporation subsidy was discussed; with it felt that referring instead to a diminishing figure or rebalancing of the financial model might be better.

·      In the final paragraph, it was noted that the mention of applications from Members was incorrect and should be deleted.

The Committee considered whether it would be appropriate to undertake a skills audit of the Board, to inform any recruitment. However, it was felt that such an exercise would not be apposite at this time, particularly with the upcoming changes to the Board’s composition following the Court meeting in April and appointments made to the Board by other Committees in May. The accuracy of such exercises was also felt to not always be ideal. It was considered that the preferred course would be for the Nominations Committee to reassess the composition of the Board following its May meeting and identify those areas where it felt that strengthening could be beneficial, using this to inform recruitment of externals Members to complement the existing skills of those serving Common Councilmen. It was also considered that working with those departing external Members to identify their successors would also be fruitful to ensure that the skills they had brought were adequately replaced.

In respect of the specific skills or areas of expertise being sought, the suggestion was made that an additional bullet point could be added, relative to the urban realm and property issues bearing in mind the ongoing cultural hub work. However, it was felt that significant expertise within Guildhall existed and that a specific appointment might be unnecessary at this time. It was also observed that “Digital” encompassed a range of creative and content aspects  which might be worth clarifying; marketing was also proposed as an additional item, although there was significant overlap with the commercial/retail and unreached audiences items. As a general point, it was also agreed that the wording around desirable areas of expertise should be inclusive and not too prescriptive, as the Board would not want to miss out on well-rounded candidates who, while lacking specific expertise, possessed skills in several areas.

RESOLVED: That the draft role specification be amended in line with Members’ comments and submitted to the Board for consideration.