The Top Management Review Panel was scheduled to meet on Wednesday 24 September 2025 to review the performance of the Corporate Leadership Team for the appraisal year 2024/25. The meeting's agenda included a review of high-performance indicators and appraisal documentation for senior officers.

Performance Appraisal of the Corporate Leadership Team

The panel was scheduled to consider the performance of several members of the Corporate Leadership Team for the appraisal year 2024/25. This included the Director of Children's Services, the Director of Place, the Director for Adult Social Care & Health, and the Chief Executive. The Director of Finance & Corporate Services, who started in March 2024, would not have their performance for the full 2024/25 period reviewed.

The appraisal process, based on the Council's revised Performance, Wellbeing and Development Scheme, involves assessing progress against key objectives, behaviours and attitudes, and compliance with procedural and legislative requirements. Each of these elements is rated on a scale, with a rating of 3 or 4 potentially leading to an incremental pay award for those not at the top of their grade. The report pack indicated that the appraisal documentation for the Corporate Leadership Team was contained within an exempt appendix, meaning it was not available for public scrutiny.

The report pack also outlined the proposed Directorate and Corporate objectives for 2025/26 for each member of the Corporate Leadership Team.

High Performance Indicators

The meeting was also scheduled to review Appendix 1 - High Performance Indicators which details the definitions and levels of performance expected. These indicators are linked to the Council's values and outline the behaviours required from managers. The values include Innovation, Leadership, Partnership, Listening and Responding, Open and Accessible, and Impact. For example, under the value of Innovation, managers are expected to:

routinely look for innovative and cost-effective ways to improve performance and customer service

and to:

take calculated risks based on available evidence and my professional judgement to learn and try new things .

The document also details how performance is assessed against these behaviours, with a scale from 1 to 4.

Declarations of Interests and Dispensations

The agenda included a section on Declarations of Interests and Dispensations, providing guidance to members on declaring any relevant interests they might have in the items to be discussed. This guidance outlines the definitions of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and Other Significant Interests, as prescribed by The Relevant Authorities (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests) Regulations 2012¹. It details the actions members must take if they have an interest, including declaring it and potentially leaving the room during discussion and voting.