Purpose

In order to increase its project delivery
capacity, the Cabinet approved funding to support a new Project
Delivery Unit for two years (26 July 2024). The proposed team will
sit within the Economic Growth, Sport and Culture Directorate. Its
primary goal is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of
project delivery, ensuring that projects are completed on time and
within budget. The Unit will likely focus on a range of projects,
potentially including infrastructure, community development, and
other council initiatives.
Cabinet approved the allocation of £1m of funding, in
addition to £90,000, made available by the Government as
capacity funding to support the Levelling Up Partnership Project,
and a sum of £86,000 made available by the Government as
capacity funding to support the Levelling Up Capital Project
bringing the total initial funding to £1.176m for the Project
Delivery Unit.
Cabinet also noted that the Chief Executive will undertake the
activities required to recruit the necessary capacity within the
Project Delivery Unit, as Head of Paid Service (being non-executive
functions)
The proposed staffing structure will be agreed by the Head of Paid
Service. With the fixed-term nature of the posts that recruitment
may require secondments, fixed term recruitment, and interim,
depending on the market for specific skills.
Public Practice is a not-for-profit specialist recruitment that
helps local authorities struggling to find the right skills in
their teams and help build environment professionals to transition
into the public sector. They undertake two recruitment drives a
year, and we have already successfully filled one temporary project
manager post (a qualified and experienced architect) in the spring
drive, and we now have the opportunity to appoint another 12-month
placement in the autumn recruitment drive, with a deadline of 9th
August, which would enable us to have a new post starting in
October.
We are drafting a restructure report for the project delivery unit,
but it will not be complete and signed off in time for the 9th of
August deadline. However, we know that short term capital delivery
project managers will be a key part of the new team, and this
public practice recruitment round provides a perfect opportunity.
We have been paired with an experienced architect with project
management and community engagement experience
To this end the Workforce Panel approved the appointment of Grade
10 Project Manager on Friday 2nd August to be recruited through
Public Practice. The funding for the salary, pension and oncosts,
and the travel cost for learning visits, will be paid for from the
£1.176m allocated in the Cabinet report of the 26 July 2024
for the Project Delivery Unit. The funding for the £6,000
placement fee can also be funded from this budget.

Content

To allocate funding from the Project Delivery
Unit budget approved by Cabinet (26th July 2024) for the
appointment of a Grade 10 Project Manager post for 12 months. This
post is being recruited via Public Practice a specialist
not-for-profit recruitment specialist.
This follows the decision to enter into a Service Level Agreement
(SLA) to the value of £6,000, to commission Public Practice
to initiate a recruitment process for a practitioner to undertake a
placement with Tendring District Council. (17th July 2024) and the
approval of the recruitment of the post by the Workforce panel (2nd
August 2024)