This article summarises the agenda and reports pack for the Ashfield District Council Chief Officers' Employment Committee meeting scheduled for Monday, 22nd September 2025. The meeting was scheduled to include a discussion of arrangements for appointing an Assistant Director, Assets. Some employment matters were expected to be discussed in a session that would exclude the press and public.

Appointment of Assistant Director, Assets

The committee was scheduled to discuss the arrangements for appointing an Assistant Director, Assets. The report pack included a recommendation that the committee authorise Theresa Hodgkinson, the Chief Executive, to begin an external recruitment process for a permanent Assistant Director, Assets.

The report pack noted that the Assistant Director, Assets post was currently vacant, with interim arrangements in place. It stated that a Property Services Review in August 2025 identified this vacancy as a key factor in the council's property management challenges, including under-resourcing, governance weaknesses, and financial leakage.

The report pack included a recommendation to grant delegated authority to the Chief Executive, in consultation with Councillor Jason Zadrozny, Leader of the Council, and Charles Edwards, the Executive Director for Operations, to finalise any updates needed to the Job Description and Person Specification for the role. The updated job description included:

oversight of the Commercial Development Team, strategic reporting to the Senior Leadership Team (SLT), and responsibility for managing commercial portfolios to address identified risks.

The report pack also recommended authorising an exception to Contract Procedure Rules 17.6.1, due to urgency, to seek to engage a Recruitment Agency without carrying out a tender exercise, and to delegate authority to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader of the Council, to appoint the successful Recruitment Agency.

It was proposed that formal external recruitment would commence as soon as a Recruitment Agency had been appointed. The following indicative timeline was included in the report pack:

• Approval by Chief Officers' Employment Committee 22nd September 2025
• Appointment of Recruitment Agency W/C 29th September 2025
• Advertisement in the relevant publication(s) and search period W/C 29th September 2025
• Closing date for applications end of October
• Longlisting November
• Longlisting interviews and testing November
• Final interviews (COEC) November

Exclusion of Press and Public

The committee was expected to exclude the press and public from part of the meeting, as it was scheduled to discuss employment matters that involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1 and 2 of part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972¹.