Content

Decision
 
RESOLVED that Cabinet agreed
the recruitment of a Corporate Policy Officer on a 2 year fixed
term contract with the funding for the post @ circa £52,620
to be allocated from the contingency budget within the 2026/27
Revenue Budget.
 
Reasons for
decision
 
There was a need to provide additional capacity
at the corporate centre to provide policy support and the other
Policy Officer roles within the Policy and Partnerships Department
are service specific and there was no capacity to support this
additional requirement.
 
Following the internal promotion of Policy
Manager (Performance) to head the new project management (GRIP)
unit, the performance element of that role will be incorporated
into the new unit. However, the core policy element of that role
would not be covered by any existing resource. This meant key
policy campaigns including VAWG, Crossbow Crime etc adopted in
motions and agreed at council would not have officer
support.
 
As distinct from operational issue around Local
Government Reorganisation (LGR) and devolution, the council
required capacity to address emerging policy
considerations.
 
Alternative Options
Considered
 
Cabinet could have chosen not to agree to
support this role however this would have meant that the Corporate
Centre would not have the additional support as set out in the
report.